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Best Piano Recordings

Pluto

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View attachment 47010
New recording. FLAC sounds fantastic. Kit Downes is . . . . well, just listen.
I have heard this record. The mics are, quite simply, too close. This thread is supposed to be about recordings of the piano – an instrument which evolved to be heard at a considerable distance. Here, we hear very close piano mics softened off, a little, with the use of some artificial reverb. Likewise the drums, which sound as though the listener's head is a couple of foot in front of the kit!

We often criticize modern recordings for being "over-mastered" using techniques such as limiting to create a forceful (and loud) recording. Here, a similarly visceral result has been obtained, I think, by over use of very close mic techniques. A shame, because I feel the music would benefit from more "breathing space".
 

Pluto

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Why is the piano so difficult to record?
Now there's a monster question! The modern concert grand is an instrument that has evolved over hundreds of years to work well in the concert auditorium where the closest listener will be 30, 50, or more feet away from the instrument. The lid is designed to reflect much of the instrument's mid and high frequency sound towards the audience. In fact, much of the intended audience will not have an unobstructed line to the piano mechanism but will be largely reliant upon the reflected sound from the lid. The sound we traditionally expect to hear from a concert grand is, therefore, far removed from what will be heard if you stick your head (or microphones) into the "box" forming the acoustic basis of the piano. The traditional piano sound we hear in the concert hall is actually quite "woolly" when you stop to consider.

The musical role of the piano has changed considerably in the last hundred years or so. Its use as part of the rhythm section in a so-called big band or as a featured instrument in the jazz world is entirely incompatible with the "design goal" of listening to the piano at sufficient a distance for the mechanism to be inaudible while retaining the subtleties of the attack and decay required by post 20th century music. So we move the mics closer. If the record producer feels that he needs separation of the piano from the other stuff in the band (which is sometimes a real problem in a world of artificially amplified electric instruments) it becomes all too easy for the sound of the piano to become compromised in favour of what the mics do not pick up rather than what they do. And as soon as you move the mics so close that the direct sound from the strings and mechanism overrides the reflected sound from lid (as will always happen if the lid is shut), you get a piano sound that is considerably removed from how Mozart's pianoforte was supposed to work with its audience.
 

Severian

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I tend to find that I'm not picky about piano when listening to speakers, but incredibly picky when listening through headphones. A lot of headphones simply don't do piano well, and a lot of piano recordings simply don't sound good on most headphones.

I too am a fan of many ECM piano recordings, in large part because they sound good on headphones.
 

murraycamp

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I have heard this record. The mics are, quite simply, too close. This thread is supposed to be about recordings of the piano – an instrument which evolved to be heard at a considerable distance. Here, we hear very close piano mics softened off, a little, with the use of some artificial reverb. Likewise the drums, which sound as though the listener's head is a couple of foot in front of the kit!

We often criticize modern recordings for being "over-mastered" using techniques such as limiting to create a forceful (and loud) recording. Here, a similarly visceral result has been obtained, I think, by over use of very close mic techniques. A shame, because I feel the music would benefit from more "breathing space".


Interesting. I have to disagree. I believe with that type of material the recording was very good IMHO. I think more "breathing space" would denigrate the percussive and direct nature of the material. I any event, to each his own and thank you for your comment.
 
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MRC01

MRC01

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... Now there's a monster question! The modern concert grand is an instrument that has evolved over hundreds of years to work well in the concert auditorium where the closest listener will be 30, 50, or more feet away from the instrument. ...
Listening from 30 to 50 feet away is common, but it is not the only "real" way to listen to a piano. Listener experiences can vary quite a bit. I hear live pianos every day. It's my wife or daughter practicing in my house, musical partners playing in rehearsal, or recitals where I'm in the audience. So I am right next to it, or just a few feet away, or in the first few rows of audience. It sounds different in each situation, each of which I consider to be a "real" piano sound. A recording that sounds like any of these is OK by me since they are all "real". But those recordings are rare. More often, the recording doesn't sound like a real piano at all. The timbre gets veiled or muffled, the bottom or top octave is missing, the image is diffuse, or whatever. When recording piano, it seems there are more ways to get it wrong than to get it right.
 

snapsc

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MRC01

I absolutely agree that distance can be an issue as to how we hear an instrument...how it is recorded...and how it sounds on our home systems...and as you said" More often, the recording doesn't sound like a real piano at all. The timbre gets veiled or muffled, the bottom or top octave is missing, the image is diffuse, or whatever. When recording piano, it seems there are more ways to get it wrong than to get it right".
 

Frank Dernie

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I have some Decca Radu Lupu recordings but not the first one on the OP list. I can hear tape overload on the loud bits of the Moments Musicaux I am listening to at the moment.
One Schubert recording I am particularly fond of is the Andras Schiff Piano Sonatas box, though it may be because I find his interpretation of D958, D959 and D960, my absolute favourite piano pieces along with the C major Fantasy, exquisite which may bias my view.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Schubert-P...+sonatas+schiff&qid=1579801201&s=music&sr=1-7
and
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00004RKK3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 

Blur

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I enjoy River Flows In You from First Love by Yurima.
It's the instrumental version from 2001 on the Piano Collection.
 

Matias

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MRC01

MRC01

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I have some Decca Radu Lupu recordings but not the first one on the OP list. I can hear tape overload on the loud bits of the Moments Musicaux I am listening to at the moment. ...
I have that multi-CD set of Lupu's Schubert. It spans a wide range of years and the recordings vary considerably in quality from bad to good. The performances are consistently great, but none of the recordings are what I would consider reference quality, which is why I didn't mention them in my OP. Of course that doesn't stop me from listening to them anyway.

One Schubert recording I am particularly fond of is the Andras Schiff Piano Sonatas box, though it may be because I find his interpretation of D958, D959 and D960, my absolute favourite piano pieces along with the C major Fantasy, exquisite which may bias my view. ...
I'm not a big fan of Schiff's Schubert interpretations, though I like some of his other performances. But I do have one Schubert recording of this that I do like, and it's an excellent recording. However, it's a period piano which sounds like quite a different instrument. This gives quite a different feel to the impromptus, closer to what they sounded like when they were first written. Some might say closer to Schubert's original artistic intent, but Schubert never got a chance to listen to them on a modern piano, so who really knows which he would prefer?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Franz-Schubert-Impromptus-Andras-Schiff/dp/B07NRFGFJD
 

Daverz

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I admit I'm not much of a pianophile and not too picky, so the best is probably going to be the last co
Hentai Scarlatti may not exactly convey what I had in mind. Just to clarify, I was not referring to a kind of japanase music porn. I have mispelled the interpreter who is Pierre Hantai. Thanks Daverz for pointing this to my attention!

Hentai, Hantaï, it's still pretty sexy Scarlatti, played on beautiful sounding harpsichords (the cycle on the Mirare label).
 
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MRC01

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PlayClassics has a couple of piano albums. They also have a cool comparison page of one of their albums to others out there. ...
Those PlayClassics recordings are consistently of excellent quality - thanks for the tip.
Not just the piano stuff. I'm listening to the Mozart & Beethoven woodwind piano quintets and they're among the most realistic lifelike recordings that I have heard. I can't wait to listen to it on the home system. The ensemble is great too.
 

Robin L

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Sometimes I like it to sound like I am sitting at the keyboard playing it !
That would be the perspective found in Glenn Gould's recordings. Valid and easier to pull off than a convincing replay of 30 feet from the instrument. That seems to be the recording philosophy of Hyperion, and it never worked for me.

There's lots of reasons why piano recordings are less than plausible, but the playback gear has at least as much to do with this failure of verisimilitude as do the recordings themselves. There's an awful lot happening in the bottom octaves that is either missing or randomly scattered in home playback. Having spent enough time with good pianos, both playing [badly] and recording [only half-bad], it sounds like the domestic environments for playback confuse the acoustic of the recording venue. Stick a piano in a room, the ear adjusts. But stick a recording of a piano in a typical living room and you've got a mess.
 

blueone

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Far and away my all-time favorite.

1579818777167.png
 
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MRC01

MRC01

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... There's lots of reasons why piano recordings are less than plausible, but the playback gear has at least as much to do with this failure of verisimilitude as do the recordings themselves. There's an awful lot happening in the bottom octaves that is either missing or randomly scattered in home playback. ...
That's true, but most piano recordings also sound "wrong" in the midrange too, and they sound just as wrong on my speakers, as on my headphones.
 

CtheArgie

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As my wife's piano is just a few feet away from my listening point for the music, I sometimes will adjust the volume of the music playing from my system to the volume of the piano sitting next to me. This way, I fool myself into thinking the recording is better than it actually is. I don't mind that it is a trick I play on myself if it makes me enjoy more the recording. On some recordings this is impossible as the orchestra would be too loud. On others, it seems the orchestra is across the street from home. On solo piano it is easier to achieve this trick.
 

Robin L

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That's true, but most piano recordings also sound "wrong" in the midrange too, and they sound just as wrong on my speakers, as on my headphones.
That too. I always like Decca miking of pianos better than anyone else's, particularly in the midrange.
 
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