OpenTube

The Pros Picked The Greatest Pianists. You All Disagreed.

tonebase Piano

54,781 views

The pros picked their Top 10 greatest pianists of all time... then we asked YOU. 🎹

🎹 Start learning piano with a FREE 14-day trial of tonebase Premium: 🎹 Try Tonebase Premium: https://learn.tonebase.co/piano?utm_s...

🌟 Watch this NEXT! • Debussy hit rock bottom. Her recording cha...
🌟 Watch the original video: Famous pianists ranked the greatest of all...

Hosted, written, and edited by Robert Fleitz – @RobertFleitz / https://www.instagram.com/rfleitz/?hl=en
Featuring insights from tonebase’s interview with Norman Krieger

Facebook – Facebook: tonebasepiano
Instagram – Instagram: tonebasepiano
Questions? Leave us a comment below or contact us: team@tonebase.co

A few weeks ago, we shared a list of the Top 10 greatest pianists of all time, as voted by a panel of world-class concert pianists surveyed by the Times of London. This time, it's your turn. Over 200 distinct pianists were named in the comments, from Vladimir Horowitz to Alice Coltrane, and the results were, to put it lightly, controversial.

In this video, Robert counts down YOUR Top 20 greatest pianists of all time: who made the jump from the pros' list, who got dethroned, which rising star nearly missed the cut, and why Glenn Gould's ranking might be the most surprising twist of all. Plus: misspellings, the most unanimous picks, and a deep dive into how a professional pianist's idea of "the best" differs from a listener's.

Did your favorite make the list? Let us know in the comments.

0:00 YouTube vs the Pros
1:04 #20 – The Prodigy
1:24 #19 – Comeback Pick
1:34 #18 – The Rebellious Icon
1:47 #17 – The Versatile Virtuoso
2:30 #16 – Every Pianist's Pianist
2:45 #15 – The Soulful Thinker
3:07 #14 – Legend or Mistake?
3:26 #13 – The Living Powerhouse
4:13 #12 – We'd be nothing without him
5:06 #11 – A Pianist for Many Seasons
5:38 #10 – The Chopin Master
6:15 #9 - Subtle Genius not forgotten
7:08 #8 – The Essential Outsider (a short diversion about Glenn Gould)
9:10 #7 – French Trailblazer
9:37 #6 – The Long-time Legend
10:20 Bonus: Funny Facts From Your Votes!
11:13 The Top 5
12:48 What this list really means
14:00 yet another top 21
14:31 who got kicked off the list?
15:00 – Final Thoughts

#Piano #ClassicalMusic #Pianist #yunchanlim

Марта Аргерих 玛尔塔·阿格里奇 마르타 아르헤리치 Юнчхан Лим 林昀燦 임윤찬 Гленн Гульд 格伦·古尔德 글렌 굴드

---

tonebase gives you instant access to knowledge from the world's greatest classical musicians, performers, and educators. Learn more by visiting https://tonebase.co/piano

Facebook - Facebook: tonebasepiano
Instagram - Instagram: tonebasepiano

Questions? Contact us: team@tonebase.co

20 Comments

@tonebasePiano Creator 4 weeks ago (edited) Pinned

Update: apologies for the wrong dates of Alfred Brendel! Those are Hofmann’s dates - I missed the error when I was editing the graphic. Brendel of course passed in 2025. 😊

Were you surprised by the results of the survey? Which of these pianists is your favorite? Let us know!

@animusolus 4 weeks ago

If we’re talking about younger pianists (under 50), why not Trifonov (recording of the Art of the Fugue is insane)? Omitting Pletnev, however, is a felony.

@ainsimpsonpiano2125 4 weeks ago

I’m reading “Richter: Pianist” by Karl Rasmussen. You couldn’t have asked for a better way to raise a musician. His father was an accomplished pianist & faculty member (no doubt, like Prokofiev, he heard A TON of music while in the womb); his mother’s family was all about music; they lived in the woods, surrounded by natural wonders; he learned 2 languages from youth; he had no formal training (his artistry & passion thus developed naturally); he had a loving family; they would often stage ad hoc performances of plays or novels at their home; and he hated school lol.

In Monsaingeon’s book, Richter mentions that his whole outlook on life is artistic. He said that it was only through art that he could truly understand life & make sense of all its mysteries.

What a package. He is truly the unicorn of all western music.

@fletchercalderbank8498 4 weeks ago

Maybe just my personal bias but I would have loved to see Cziffra somewhere on the list!

@axlatpiano9058 4 weeks ago

Where is my boy Volodos?

@hafezhafiz 4 weeks ago

Again, no Busoni. Maybe if he had a Youtube channel.......

@jennylee5222 4 weeks ago

where is Kissin? Ashkenazy? Pollini?

@MelloYellow2Rubato 4 weeks ago

Horowitz’ performance of träumerei always makes me pause and respectfully immerse myself in it fully. Isn’t it just one of the most beautiful and poignant performances ever

@francissquire9910 4 weeks ago

I'm very glad to see Liszt here, not just because his influence on all of us pianists today was so profound, but because although we never literally heard him play we have so many accounts of his playing. We can hear recordings of many of his pupils and they are fabulous, but none of them would have claimed to come close to their master.
I think Rubinstein, (as my piano teacher said back in 1982, "not the one who died recently; the better one" )would be in the top ten all time greats. Joseph Hoffman, his pupil, was a very great player who deserved his place on this list, never considered himself to be nearly as great as Anton Rubinstein.

@antoniomaccagnan 4 weeks ago

If you ask a list from 100,000 pianists or piano buffs, I wouldn't be surprised if you get 100,000 different lists. It's simply too subjective, and there are too many great pianists. Both are good things, and we are fortunate to have both the freedom to opinate and the luxury to listen to them.

@PianoPerson-i5s 4 weeks ago

Not a single word about Clara Haskil 🥀
Years after her death, and her legacy is no less underrated than it was when she was young.

@KIBICKE94 4 weeks ago

That Rachmaninoff prelude op.3 by Hoffmann is one of the most amazing piano playing recorded. He is just one with the piano, hands totally relaxed, just unbelievable.
Remember Anderszewski talking about Hoffmann being a heavy drinker by the time of the recording. And that's even more mind-boggling.

@excelsior_classic 4 weeks ago

It’s a shame to see no Cherkassky or Cziffra here. I believe we need to evaluate pianists based on two critical criteria: their contribution to interpretative history (reshaping how composers are understood) and their expansion of the instrument’s technical and sonic possibilities.

Cherkassky’s ability to defy recording-era norms with his unparalleled singing tone is a prime example of the latter, while Cziffra’s restoration of the Romantic works are historically monumental. When judged by these rigorous standards rather than just popularity, these legends are indispensable to any top-tier list.

True greatness lies in how a pianist shifts the boundaries of the art form, a feat these two masters achieved unequivocally.

@MofosOfMetal 4 weeks ago (edited)

CZIFFRA has always been my #1. I’m disappointed that he didn’t make it into either list but I’m not surprised. He has always been polarising and it’s an eternal bane of Cziffra fans that many dismiss him as a “mere virtuoso”. Sure - he could play fast and loud, but he actually hated being called a virtuoso! He always, ALWAYS used his technical facility in service of turbo charging the music with more fire, passion and expressive nuance.
Yes - nuance! Shades of colour, shifts in tempo and volatile expressive rubato not only in slow music - but fast music. The way he could play a piece like Liszt’s Transcendental Etude #10 is absolutely unmatched. It’s both one of the slowest AND fastest interpretations out there - the pulse of the music is all over the place but in the most tasteful and impassioned of ways. His soft and delicate touch in slow music was incredible too - as was his incredibly colourful and idiomatic playing of French Baroque works by the likes of Rameau and Couperin.
He stirs something in me that no other pianist does, it’s not mere surface display, it’s as deep as it gets. He deserves to be hailed as one of the greatest pianists of all time but I have come to terms with the fact that he will never be on these lists - because he isn’t for everyone, and too many people misunderstand him.
But for those us who DO get what he was all about - we revere him as one of the giants.
You will never be the top of any list Cziffra, but you will always be #1 in my heart. ❤

@andre.vaz.pereira 4 weeks ago

Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Poulenc, Godowsky, Bartok, Lipatti, Baremboim, De la Rocha, Maria João Pires, Nelson Freire, Guiomar Novaes, Volodos, Yefim Bronfmann, Kissin, Pletnev, Pollini, Earl Wild, Murray Perahia, Roger Muraro, Pierre-Laurant Aimard, Berezowsky, Jorge Bolet, Alexander Toradze, Van Cliburn, Vladimir Viardo, Perlemuter, Leon Fleisher, Géza Anda, Fischer, Backhaus, Idil Biret, Ciccolini, Samsons François, Friedman, Gulda, Leslie Howard, Kempff, Zoltan Kocsis, Kapustin, Neuhaus, André Previn, Bernstein, A. Schiff, Alexander Uninsky, Vianna da Motta, Lilya Ziberstein... So many...

@paulocarv4403 4 weeks ago

There will never ever be a list that pleases everyone. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

@sealdbslqjtm5753 4 weeks ago

Even if Yunchan is ranked higher, I wouldn't be surprised at all.

@healing4837 4 weeks ago (edited)

2026 Gramophone
[ The GREAT PIANISTS ]
The finest performers
their repertoire,and recording

It is a simple list, not a ranking
Cover model is Yunchan Lim

1 Maria Joao Pires
2 Richard Goode
3 Krystian Zimerman
4 Mitsuko Uchida
5 Murray Perahia
6 Alfred Brendel
7 Martha Argerich
8 Yuja Wang
9 Yunchan Lim
10 Marc Andre Hamelin
11 The Russian piano school
12 Arcadi Volodos
13 Alfred Cortot
14 Shura Cherkassky
15 Vladimir Sofronitsky
16 Glenn Gould
17 Michelangeli
18 Wilhelm Kempff
19 Radu Lupu

@princewillabraham8994 4 weeks ago (edited)

Art Tatum should be top three whatever you do. He was playing the complex elements classical pianists studied laboriously and practiced with high difficulty in jazz all from his mind. Till today his 2 second chops and licks are still getting borrowed by modern pianists of today, no single human can perfectly sound like Art Tatum for at least 1 minute stretch except for very few of them I know like Chris Jordan here on YouTube. His sense of timing and melody in between, squeezing tons of notes in a bar in a way that still happens to make sense and his unpredictability in timing and sporadic changes of different techniques with the walking tenths, 11th and 12th along with dissonant and counter melodic chords, one of his fingers play something independent of the other fingers in his RH alone make it difficult to imitate him. He had good tonal colours sounding like a piano and a lead guitar at the same time and could create the illusion of an orchestra as if it was played by two to four players. There's also an interview in the 1950s Steve Allen made with Art Tatum where he mentioned to Art Tatum that Rachmaninoff was Art Tatum's top fan and named him as one of the greats you can listen to that interview here 👇🏾
https://youtu.be/X-KypIeDWgA?si=Gzv3UMwBUDrFsmpg

Rachmaninoff and Vladimir Horowitz used to go to the Two deuces club to listen to Art play the piano, some of Art's techniques are incorporated in Rach's compositions so this list is wild without Art Tatum there..

@PianoPsych 4 weeks ago

I meant to include DeLarrocha in my top 10 comment from the previous video. Sokolov doesn't make studio recordings so all his recordings are live performances. Check out his recording of the Brahms Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 5.