Great pianists have an aura about them like no other musician.
Working their magic on the 88 keys in front of them in repertoire ranging from brilliantly crafted Bach and mercurial Mozart to the flamboyant fireworks of Liszt and Rachmaninov, the best pianists inspire admiration and adulation in equal measure. Here is our handpicked selection of the 20 greatest pianists of all time.
We asked 100 of today’s finest pianists to have their say – three votes each. Here is the list that resulted.
Best pianist: the greatest piano masters in classical music history
21. Emmanuel Ax (b. 1959), Polish-American
Born in 1959 in Lviv, Ukraine, and raised in the United States, Emmanuel Ax is known for his performances of both the classical and romantic piano repertoire, with a particular affinity for composers such as Beethoven, Chopin, and Brahms.
Ax has earned acclaim for his collaborations with some of the world's best orchestras and conductors, and his recordings have garnered numerous awards. Known for his lyrical interpretations, Ax’s artistry also extends to chamber music, where he is highly respected for his sensitive and dynamic partnerships with other musicians (such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma, with whom he's pictured here).
20. Radu Lupu (1945-2022), Romanian
Romanian pianist Radu Lupu rose to fame after winning the Van Cliburn (1966) and Leeds (1969) competitions, yet he defied the flashy stereotype of the international piano star. Unpretentious and deeply introspective, he preferred a chair to a piano stool and focused on Viennese classics over virtuoso showpieces.
Renowned for his velvety tone and poetic phrasing, Lupu was a profound interpreter of Schubert, Brahms, Beethoven and Mozart, evoking a golden-age musical sensibility.
19. Hélène Grimaud (b. 1969), French
French pianist Hélène Grimaud is renowned for her virtuosic technique and emotive performances. She gained early recognition for her interpretations of Beethoven, Brahms, and Rachmaninov. Known for her intense musicality, she has performed with major orchestras around the world and recorded extensively, earning critical acclaim for her depth and sensitivity.
Beyond her musical career, Grimaud is also an avid animal rights advocate, particularly for wolves. Her artistry, coupled with her unique perspective, has made her one of today’s most admired pianists.
18. Daniil Trifonov (b. 1991), Russian
Widely regarded as one of the most extraordinary talents of his generation, Trifonov won numerous prestigious competitions early in his career. He has a diverse repertoire, ranging from the classical staples of Chopin, Rachmaninov, and Beethoven to his own compositions.
Trifonov's remarkable artistry is characterized by a unique blend of precision, passion, and introspection. His innovative recordings and concert appearances continue to earn him critical acclaim and a devoted following.
17. Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948), Polish
Friedman was among the finest ‘golden age’ interpreters of Chopin, and of many other composers too – his innate feel for Chopin’s Polish rhythms and quasi-operatic melodies was second to none.
Like Alfred Cortot (more later), Friedman had the astonishing ability to transform the sound of the piano into something resembling the human voice. With an expressive and colouristic range that matched his imaginative abilities, an ever-meaningful control of rubato and an emotional directness that goes straight to the heart of both the music and the listener, every account that Friedman has left on disc is a treasure in its own right.
16. Yuja Wang (b. 1987), Chinese
Electrifying virtuosity, fearless interpretations, charismatic stage presence: these are the Yuja Wang hallmarks. Born in Beijing in 1987, Yuja studied at the Curtis Institute of Music before launching a stellar international career.
Wang’s performances are marked by technical brilliance, expressive depth, and a bold, often spontaneous approach to repertoire ranging from the classical to the contemporary. Her dazzling speed, precision, and stylish flair have captivated audiences worldwide, solidifying her reputation as a true powerhouse in the world of classical music.
Best pianist: the top 15
15. András Schiff (b. 1953), Hungarian-British
András Schiff is celebrated for his profound interpretations of classical and romantic piano repertoire. His approach is characterized by a deep intellectual engagement with the music, a sensitivity to historical context, and a distinctive musical voice that blends technical precision with emotional depth.
Schiff is also noted for his performances of solo recitals and collaborations with esteemed orchestras. Beyond the concert stage, he is a respected teacher, sharing his insights at prestigious institutions like the International Piano Foundation.
14. Alfred Brendel (1931-2025), Austrian
The late Alfred Brendel was celebrated for his profound interpretations of classical composers, particularly Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert. His performances are known for their intellectual depth, clarity, and precision, coupled with a deep understanding of the music’s emotional and structural complexity.
Renowned as both a concert pianist and recording artist, Brendel also contributed significantly to music scholarship, writing insightful books and lectures. After retiring from the concert stage in 2008, he remained a respected figure in the classical music world.
13. Krystian Zimerman (b. 1956), Polish
Few artists appear so relaxed and at one with the keyboard as Krystian Zimerman. In even the most note-splattered pages of Chopin, Brahms and Liszt, he retains absolute technical composure and clarity. Although Zimerman's hands are not unusually large, he is blessed with long fingers and a relatively generous span, which helps facilitate his seemingly effortless fluency.
Classic filmed recordings of the Beethoven and Brahms concertos (with Leonard Bernstein), and a peerless solo recital of Chopin and Schubert, reveal a piano technique in perfect symbiosis – the fingers miraculously even, the shape of the hands poised at all times, and a sleight-of-hand ability to make the transcendental appear simple.
12. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-95), Italian
The playing of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli featured an unforgettable sonority that combined awe-inspiring pianistic mastery, a textural sheen that was practically iridescent, and a warmly resilient tone that seemed to defy the acoustical laws of decay built into the sound of the piano.
An indication of his approach and preoccupations can be gauged from his refusal to make a studio recording of Ravel’s suite Gaspard de la Nuit on the grounds that the piano had not yet been invented that could do this work justice.
11. Emil Gilels (1916-1985), Russian
Contemporary with Sviatoslav Richter (see below), whom he preceded in the West, Emil Gilels was a very different kind of pianist, though they shared much of the same repertoire. Gilels was not a temperamental performer, though his performances have energy and life.
His Beethoven would be definitive if that term meant anything in relation to such music. But so would his Scarlatti, his Tchaikovsky and certainly his recordings of 20th-century Russian music. More reliable than Richter in turning up for concerts, he gave a huge number, both in the East and West, and his rigorous schedule killed him.
Best pianist: the top ten
10. Martha Argerich (b. 1941), Argentinian
Volatile, explosive, quixotic, astounding and mesmerising – these are some of the adjectives commonly used by critics to describe the music-making of Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich. Undoubtedly one of the most charismatic interpreters of our time, Argerich achieved international recognition at an early age after moving to Europe and winning first prize at the Busoni and Geneva piano competitions in the late 1950s.
A pupil of the provocatively subversive Austrian Friedrich Gulda, whom she still regards as the greatest pianistic influence on her life, she subsequently overwhelmed both jury and audience with her spectacular playing at the 1965 Chopin competition in Warsaw. After undertaking a punishing schedule of recitals during this period, Argerich rejected the notion of pursuing a career as a solo pianist.
According to her former partner, the American pianist Stephen Kovacevich, she simply loathed the idea of being alone on stage and from that time onwards she has focused her attention on playing concertos and chamber music. Her repertory is astonishingly versatile, extending from Bach to Shostakovich and demonstrating a particular commitment to Schumann.
9. Artur Schnabel (1882-1951), Austrian
In his heyday, Austrian-born Artur Schnabel was revered as the leading exponent of the Beethoven piano sonatas; he was the first to record them all and his interpretations set the benchmark. Sixty years after his death, Schnabel is still revered by fellow pianists and connoisseurs of the piano.
A virtuoso in the mould of, say, Vladimir Horowitz, he certainly was not. If you are looking for pianistic fireworks and breathtaking accuracy, Schnabel is not your man. His playing may be described as honest and unvarnished and, occasionally, careless, as some recordings have more than their fair share of smudged, wrong or missed notes.
Composer Arnold Schoenberg once commented, ‘… his concerts were communions. And when the audience dispersed, it was with a feeling of having been cleansed.’ Listening to any Schubert played by Schnabel, it’s easy to understand what Schoenberg meant.
His repertoire was limited to those composers with whom he felt most empathy, namely Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms and, like Otto Klemperer’s finest performances of the Beethoven symphonies, there is in Schnabel’s interpretations not only granite strength but also a simplicity which puts music first and ego last.
Essential recording: Schubert: Impromptus D899 & 935 EMI 586 8332
8. Dinu Lipatti (1917-50), Romanian
Dinu Lipatti’s soundworld, articulated by an infinitesimal range of dynamics, colours and textures, would alone have guaranteed him a place among the piano immortals. The exquisite, fine-graded subtleties of his Bach B flat Partita, for example, are so numerous that one can only sit slack-jawed at the speed and detail of his superhuman reflexes.
Yet what really sets his playing apart is that every inflection appears to arise naturally from the inner soul of the music. It is this tantalising fusion of supreme technical sophistication and disarming naturalness which lies at the heart of his captivating artistry. For Lipatti, music was something to be lived through and breathed like creative oxygen.
One felt the same intuitive sense of contact with every composer he chose to play, whether it was the world-weariness that lies behind Mozart’s most frivolous gestures, or the emotional complexity of Chopin's waltzes.
In 1947, at the very height of his career, Lipatti was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease and died three years later at 33. ‘Lipatti had the qualities of a saint,’ wrote his record producer Walter Legge. ‘His goodness and generosity evoked faith, hope and charity in all those around him.’
7. Stephen Hough (b. 1961), British
Stephen Hough is a British pianist, composer, and writer, widely regarded as one of the most distinctive and intellectually curious musicians of his generation. Born in 1961, he studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and later at the Juilliard School. Renowned for his virtuosity, sensitivity, and adventurous programming, Hough has recorded extensively, earning multiple Grammy nominations and international awards.
Beyond his achievements as a pianist, Hough is a gifted composer, writer, and painter. His compositions include chamber music, choral works, and solo piano pieces, often blending traditional and modern elements.
He is also a prolific writer, contributing essays on music, art, and culture to publications like The Guardian and The Times. His books, including Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More, showcase his erudition and keen observations on music and life.
6. Alfred Cortot (1877-1962), Swiss/French
If you want your piano-playing to be merely note-perfect, then practise all day. But to make music a matter of life and death, to feel from the inside the drama, passion and eloquence with which notes and poetry unite into an art form, try spending your formative years as répétiteur at the Wagner festivals at Bayreuth, and conduct the Paris premiere of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung. Not that that job, which he held from 1898 to 1901, nor that opera, given in 1902, wholly explain the genius of Alfred Cortot. Nobody has played like him since; probably no one did before, either.
But Cortot’s reputation has been sullied by two unfortunate issues. First, his tally of wrong notes is uncomfortably high for those reared in our phonographically disinfected age. Secondly, during World War II he held a position as High Commissioner of the Fine Arts in the Vichy government. Aside from the wrong notes, Cortot's technique was prodigious, especially in the vital quality of fine, beautiful tone production. When you listen to him, whether in Chopin or Schubert, Beethoven or Fauré, you hear not just a piece of music, but a private opera of the soul.
Best pianist: the top five
5. Mitsuko Uchida (b. 1948, Japanese-British)
Mitsuko Uchida is a renowned Japanese-British pianist, celebrated for her profound interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann. Born in 1948 in Japan, she moved to Vienna as a child, where she studied at the Vienna Academy of Music. Uchida is known for her clarity, sensitivity, and deep musical insight, particularly in her Mozart piano concertos and Schubert sonatas.
A Grammy-winning artist, Uchida has worked with top orchestras worldwide and serves as co-artistic director of the Marlboro Music Festival. Revered for her intellectual approach and expressive depth, Uchida remains one of the greatest living interpreters of classical piano music.
4. Sviatoslav Richter (1915-97), Russian
Regarded by many as the greatest pianist of the second half of the 20th century, Richter’s ancestry was German, but he only performed in the West for the first time in 1960. He already had a prodigious reputation, thanks to LPs, and the expectations of him were phenomenal. A highly sensitive artist, Richter loathed the limelight (literally – in his later years he performed on a darkened stage), and much preferred playing in a barn in France – his favourite venue, once the geese were evacuated – to any large concert hall.
He was a friend of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, both of whom wrote works for him, and Britten, with whom he played duets. He tells us that for one period of his concert career he was inseparable from a pink plastic lobster which he would leave in the wings where he could see it when he went onstage.
It is hard to characterise Richter's playing, since he immersed himself so deeply in the music that it sometimes seems we’re hearing the composer directly. That’s the case with Bach, Handel, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt and the Russian composers; he is more idiosyncratic in Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. He loathed most of his own performances. At the end of the great documentary (on DVD) Richter: The Enigma, made in 1995, he says ‘I don’t like myself. That’s it.’
Richter and the pink plastic lobster
3. Vladimir Horowitz (1903-89), Russian
When Vladimir Horowitz emerged from Kiev to begin his international career in the 1920s he struck many as a direct link to the 19th-century Russian school exemplified by Anton Rubinstein, known for his free approach to rhythm, dynamics, and phrasing.
For the next three decades, until his 12-year retirement from live concerts (1953-65), Horowitz practically defined pianistic virtuosity, but not in the wild-haired, swooning manner of a Paderewski; this lion of the keyboard was lithe, modern in dress, and quiet in his demeanour. His thundering octaves in Tchaikovsky’s First and Rachmaninov’s Third concertos, or the Liszt B minor Sonata won him huge fortunes and the attention of the musical world.
Gradually, though, Horowitz tired of ‘the octaves race’, and began searching for repertoire that would provide him and his audiences with more intellectual stimulation. For his much-anticipated return to the stage at Carnegie Hall in 1965, he opened with Bach (albeit arranged by Busoni) and Schumann’s C major Fantasy, saving Chopin for the second half. Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart and Clementi were now constants on his programmes, as well as Scriabin and Rachmaninov.
2. Artur Rubinstein (1887-1982), Polish
If there was an award for the pianist who came closest to the artistic ideal in the widest repertoire, it would almost certainly go to Rubinstein. Whether playing Fauré or Brahms, Albéniz or Beethoven, Ravel or Schubert, the results were sublime. Yet he is most celebrated for his Chopin. That composer's aristocratic poise and elegance found a perfect match in Rubinstein’s own interpretative genius.
His golden tone, exquisite sense of timing and sensitivity to phrase and structure were tailor-made for Chopin's nocturnes, waltzes and mazurkas. Yet remarkably he sustained that same level of musical intuitiveness and profound eloquence throughout the more heated virtuosity of the concertos, scherzos, ballades, preludes, sonatas and polonaises.
There was seemingly nothing that Rubinstein could not play at the highest levels of distinction. This ranged from concertos and solo recitals to forming two ‘million dollar’ piano trios, first with Jascha Heifetz and Emanuel Feuermann and then with Henryk Szeryng and Pierre Fournier, with whom he made outstanding recordings of Brahms, Schubert and Schumann.
Incredibly, as witness sublime video recordings of concertos by Grieg, Saint-Saëns, Chopin, Beethoven and Brahms, he was still playing like an angel in his eighties. Rubinstein was one of the most widely recorded of pianists. That said, his love affair with the gramophone got off to a shaky start. He refused to record for the early acoustic process as he felt it made the piano ‘sound like a banjo’.
Having a photographic memory proved a special boon, particularly when he came to give his first performance of Franck’s tricky Symphonic Variations, which he learned on the train journey to the venue, working out the fingerings on his knee-caps!
Best pianist: the greatest of them all
1. Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943), Russian
What would we know of Rachmaninov’s playing if his recordings did not exist? Much could be deduced from the music he wrote. There is the vast range of virtuoso technical resource, with implied power and stamina to match. The melancholic lyrical gift would be self-evident. So would the incisive rhythmic instinct. And, to judge from the later works at least, the tight-reined clarity with which Rachmaninov the pianist would unerringly shape one musical paragraph after another.
The recordings confirm all this. And they also tell us both more and less. Without them it would be impossible to know quite how phenomenal Rachmaninov's rhythmic gift was.
Why was Rachmaninov such a great pianist?
At once ultra-precise and springily propulsive, Rachmaninov's playing style was not unlike that of his contemporary and compatriot, Prokofiev. However, it unleashed a momentum that was less motor-driven, more like a tidal surge. This was surely the quality that enabled everything else to be so special. That way that a phrase spontaneously tugs against, or yields to the underlying pulse, so that every musical option seems possible.
The tonal quality, too, is spellbinding. The opening bars of the G flat major Prelude (which you will hear on the set below) are among the simplest Rachmaninov wrote. Yet you know at once you’re in the presence of something extraordinary.
What was the young Rachmaninov like?
What the recordings can’t tell us is how the younger Rachmaninov played. Before he left revolutionary Russia in 1918, he seems mainly to have performed his own piano music. There was also plenty of composing and conducting. Afterwards, life in Europe and America meant a full-time piano career, and with it the need to build a repertory.
Bach, Beethoven (notably the Appassionata Sonata), Borodin, Chopin, Debussy, Grieg, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann (Carnaval was another favourite) and Tchaikovsky all came to feature in Rachmaninov programmes besides his own works. He would practise for up to 15 hours a day and toured extensively.
What did Stravinsky say about Rachmaninov?
All of this seems to have been his way of dealing with the personal tragedy of his uprooting from Russia. So, evidently, was the famous public reserve, reflected in his contained, expressionless manner at the keyboard. Stravinsky once referred to his compatriot and fellow-exile as ‘a six-and-a-half-foot-tall scowl’.
But had it always been like that? We shouldn’t forget the unmistakable roguish streak that emerges in the Mendelssohn and Mussorgsky transcriptions. And did Rachmaninov play rather more expansively in his earlier days, as a work like the Second Piano Concerto suggests?
Meanwhile the recorded legacy presents its own evidence. After hearing one of Liszt's more devastating performances (of Beethoven's ‘Emperor’ Concerto), Wagner remarked that pianism of this order ‘annihilates everything else’. Rachmaninov's playing has the capacity to leave you with the same impression.
We named Rachmaninov one of the greatest and most famous composers of all time.
Pics: Getty Images