Famous Pianist

There have been many pianists in the 500 years since the piano was invented. However, the majority of them were mediocre, some were good and a very few were absolutely stunning. Many of those who made it to this list began their musical training at a very young age which allowed them to perfect their talent early on. This article will take a look at a handful of the most amazing pianists ever.

1. Sergei Rachmaninoff. Known for having the largest hands of all the most famous pianists, Rachmaninoff was able to span up to 14 notes at a time and he made use of this ability in his compositions, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, 8 Preludes, and others.
2. Josef Hoffman. This young prodigy began performing piano concerts at the tender age of six and at 12, he was the first recorded musician, working with Thomas Edison to create the first musical recordings.
3. Ludwig Van Beethoven. This young German composer and pianist was famous for his talent on the piano and the fact that he continued to both play and compose after losing his hearing at the age of 26.
4. Vladimir Horowitz. Perhaps one of the best known pianists of the 20th century, Horowitz studied under Felix Blumenfeld and Sergei Tarnowsky. He is well known for his ability to play strong pieces creatively rather than simply banging away on the keys.
5. Fredric Chopin. Chopin is often one of the first composers that young piano students play. He was also a child prodigy, often compared to Mozart. Steeped in the world of music from a young age, he was already playing and trying to compose at the age of six.
6. Wolfgang Mozart. One of the most famous child prodigies, Mozart was playing piano at age three and by five, he had begun to compose songs which were written down by his devoted father. He went on to give concerts from a very young age.
7. Franz Liszt. A virtuoso pianist, this Hungarian began his career at a fairly young age, though little information is available during this period of his life. It is known that not only was he an excellent pianist, he could also play several other instruments, including the cello.
8. Walter Wilhelm Gieseking. Gieseking was unique in that he supposedly never practiced on a piano. Instead, he would sit for hours in complete silence, playing the songs in his mind. Mostly self-taught, the pianist would then perform the piece flawlessly.
9. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. A more recent pianist, Michelangeli honed his talent to perfection, producing recordings that were nearly perfect even when unedited. He was notorious for randomly canceling concerts and for his intense focus on the tiny details of the music, often forgetting the big picture.
10. Alfred Cortot. Well known for his amazing recordings and variations of the likes of Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, and many other famous composers. He also added his own variations and twists to the most common of compositions, turning them into something unique and special.

Any list of the greatest pianists is going to be somewhat subjective. Each person has their own preference and there are plenty of great pianists who simply didn't fit onto this list of the top ten. However, you can be sure that the ones who did make it here are truly great pianists and definitely worth listening to when you have the chance. Many of them dedicated their lives to their music and some died while still playing and recording it.

In my opinion, the most popular and well-known pianist is Ludwig Van Beethoven and Wolfgang Mozart. Here are some information of these two pianist.


Ludwig Van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was baptised on December 17th 1770 at Bonn. His family originated from Brabant, in Belgium. His father was musician at the Court of Bonn, with a definite weakness for drink. His mother was always described as a gentle, retiring woman, with a warm heart. Beethoven referred to her as his "best friend". The Beethoven family consisted of seven children, but only the three boys survived, of whom Beethoven was the eldest.
The story of Beethoven.
http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Bio/BiographyLudwig.html

Contribution of Beethoven to music.

All of his music was influential and important to the history of music. It is hard to name one thing or the most important as there are many individual contributions from Beethoven.

1. Counterpoint - After Bach, fugal writing took a back seat to the melody and accompaniment style we see in Mozart and Haydn. Yes, Mozart and Haydn did compose a few fugues, but nothing significant. However, Beethoven's admiration of Bach late in life signified one the last of his compositional styles. He started to study Bach's fugues and began incorporating fugues in his music. The last movement of Op.110, and in Op.111. He incorporated fugues in his last string quartets. He was able to turn fugues into program music which is a key component of Romantic music. Following the German tradition, composers like Brahms and Wagner incorporated fugues in their music due to what Beethoven did. As well, Liszt saw how virtuosic a fugue could be after learning what Beethoven did. He took the virtuosic fugue to another level as apparent in the Totentanz.

2. Sonata Allegro Form - A major and very significant contribution is expanding the Sonata from 3 movements to 4 movements. This was done in Sonatas for all instruments. With Mozart and Haydn, the classical sonata had 3 movements - fast slow fast. A derivative of the trio sonata tempo scheme from the baroque era. Beethoven decided add an additional movement and the slow 2nd movement. Usually a scherzo and trio or minuet and trio, the third movement is very dance like and borrows from the Baroque era. This is significant because Romantic composers elevated the sonata by swapping the 2nd and 3rd movements in the Romantic sonata. The 2nd movement in a romantic sonata is a scherzo and trio, while the slow movement is now the 3rd. Of course there are exceptions but this was the general take.

3. Program music - The most significant difference between Romantic and Classical music is the movement of program music. Up until Beethoven, very little music was programmatic and was called absolute. Beethoven, beginning with the Eroica Symphony and Pastoral Symphony started composing music with programmatic titles and themes. This greatly influenced Berlioz who eventually composed Symphonie Fantastisque. His later piano sonatas were thought to be influenced by literature. Validity of this is often argued.

4. Development of Orchestra - Beethoven had a significant role in expanding the size of an orchestra. The classical orchestra was quite small, about 40 members. Beethoven's Symphonies and orchestral works asked for up to 70 members. Because of this the sheer size of sound created when playing was dramatic and exciting. He went back to the Baroque era and early renaissance by adding choirs to his Orchestral works i.e. Symphony #9 and Choral Fantasy for piano, choir and orchestra. He was very innovative with orchestral works and wrote the triple concerto for piano trio and orchestra. The choir aspect of symphonies influenced Mendelssohn's Elijah, the Brahms Requiem and Alto Rhapsody, and Mahler's Symphonies.These are just a few ideas. One could write tons on just the piano trios, or the piano sonatas, or the violin sonatas, or the operas, or the string quartets. There is no single contribution that changed the landscape. Simply put, Beethoven changed every genre with his output.

Ludwig van Beethoven with his music.





Wolfgang Mozart

On January 27th, 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born to Leopold. Mozart, the young boy showed talent from the beginning of his life. Wolfgang had a sister, Maria Anna (nickname: Nannerl), who was also musically talented.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart never attended a proper school, which was customary for children of that time. Instead, he was taught by his father who was a respectable man in Salzburg. Leopold held many professions such as concertmaster for the court orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg; violinist, composer and author.
By the age of six, Mozart had become an accomplished performer on the clavier, violin, and organ. The child was also highly skilled in sight-reading and improvisation. Five sets of piano pieces (including the famed twelve variations on the tune "Twinkle Twinkle" which actually started out with a French name) were composed by Mozart when he was six years old and are still frequently played.
When Wolfgang was six, and his sister was ten years of age, they were taken by their father to Munich and Vienna to play a series of concerts. In 1763, Leopold Mozart took a leave from his position at Salzburg court to take his family on an extended tour of Western Europe. Wolfgang and his sister performed in the major musical centers, including Stuttgart, Mannheim, Mainz, Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris, London, and Amsterdam. The family did not return to Salzburg until 1766. During these touring years, Wolfgang began to compose longer pieces with more structure and skill in them, completing his first symphony at the age of nine, and publishing his first sonatas in the same year.
In 1769, Wolfgang and his father left the rest of the family to tour Italy for more than a year. Spending sufficient time in Rome, Milan, Florence, Naples, and Bologna, Wolfgang got to experience to full essence the taste of another culture. During these years, Wolfgang completed an opera; Ro di Ponto, which was celebrated in Italy.

Contribution of Mozart to music.

Mozart is one of the greatest musicians who ever lived. He wrote music faster than any other musician in history. To play all of Mozart's music in a row would take 202 hours!

Mozart was masterful at the keyboard, but most of all his compositions were innovative. He broke the rules wherever he saw fit. Listen to his Symphony No 40, its supposed to open as a Minuet but the melody is so synchopated it hardly sounds like a minuet let alone being danceable by kings and queens. He added a Coda to it which was unheard of in the Symphony (Minuet) form. He was a total maverick. He absorbed all the styles and forms of his time, and used them in his compositions at a very high level. In particular he took the piano concerto to new heights. Along with Haydn and Beethoven, he wrote symphonies, concertos and chamber works that have been viewed as exemplary ever since-"Classical". He is considered one of the greatest of all opera composers for his subtle characterization, psychological insights and theatrical flair. He contributed perfect music. It's as easy as ABC to say and it's excruciatingly painful to accept because it makes everybody else look like pipsqueaks (including Ravel, Debussy, Beethoven, Salieri, Bach's sons, Chopin, Liszt, etc...basically everybody except for Bach).