• Welcome to ASR. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Best Piano Recordings

I have always felt that the recorded piano on Miles Davis' Kind of Blue album vinyl and remastered CD was absolutely horrible both for Evans and Kelley.
 
Piano is difficult to record well and can be revealing of flaws in recording technique or playback systems. And there's so much great piano music nobody could listen to all of it in a lifetime. Here are some of the best piano recordings that I have heard. By "best" I mean they sound the most lifelike and realistic. This is hard because there's so much great music to hold back because even though it's generally well recorded, this is about selecting the very best based on sonics.
https://www.amazon.com/Schubert-Impromptus-899-Radu-Lupu/dp/B00000JXZ5
https://www.amazon.com/Schubert-Military-Marches-Variations-Barenboim/dp/B000000SA0
https://www.amazon.com/Schumann-Fantasy-Liszt-Transcendental-Etudes/dp/B000003FY4
On the last it is Etude # 12, the Chasse-Neige that is just fantastic. I have the classic Berman among others, but this one blew my mind in both sonics and performance.
What are some of your best piano recordings? I'd love to discover some new ones.

51z4811Yl1L.jpg


I just listened to Zimerman's 2022 CD recording for DG of several Szymanowski pieces. Zimerman doesn't carry his personal piano on tour, but a keyboard modified to his liking. I seem to remember that it struck the strings in different places from a standard Steinweg. Most of the pieces were recorded in the Fukuyama Hall of Art & Culture. This venue was chosen for its acoustic. Z: "every note is clear...yet each is in a cushion of warm surroundings." Z. used a Hamburg or a Japan Steinweg.

I was immediately struck by the sound, notably in the first pieces, Preludes, Op.1. The extreme treble had nothing clangy or metallic, but had a ringing resonant quality many find lacking in Steinways. (I preferred bare stereo to simulated surround.) The bass was low and full, warm and open. I loved the long decay of the low left hand notes at the end of the first prelude. The sound reminded me of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, which possesses by far the finest acoustic I have ever heard. Most locations seem to fight musical expression in one way or another, especially my rooms at home.

Here we have several factors: the piano, the modified keyboard, the hall, and the recording technique. Your reactions to this CD very much welcomed.
 
Last edited:
51zztI2IjRL.jpg
 
31iWU1brh-L.jpg
 
rifkin-joplin-piano-rags.jpg
 
41N0QFA0G9L.jpg
 
I love Allen Toussaint's Songbook record, a solo performance in NYC contemporaneous to the Bright Mississippi record, although I am unqualified to comment on the technical merits of the recording beyond "Sounds great to me!"

Edit: Hey look, there's a CD/DVD Special Edition with more songs! That's better than finding $20 in my pocket on laundry day!

image.jpg
 
Last edited:
I just listened to Zimerman's 2022 CD recording for DG of several Szymanowski pieces. ... Your reactions to this CD very much welcomed.
I just listened to this on Qobuz - lossless, 96-24 master. It is a well engineered recording with excellent sonics. Thanks for the link!
 
I would like to commend one of Allen Toussaint's later albums, The Bright Mississippi. Well produced and a showcase for Toussaint's jazz talents: ...
EXCELLENT
Indeed, that album really put a smile on my face. It's recorded a bit hot with moderate dynamic compression, which is a shame. But it still sounds pretty good despite that, and what great music.
 
I had never heard of him [Barnatan] until recently, when I listened to a fantastic performance him with Alisa Weilerstein playing Rachmaninoff and Chopin.
...
This afternoon I listened to them (Barnatan & Weilerstein) with James Ehnes live here in Seattle. 2nd row center seats. All Schubert, great music, wonderful performance.
 
I have always felt that the recorded piano on Miles Davis' Kind of Blue album vinyl and remastered CD was absolutely horrible both for Evans and Kelley.
This is common on vintage jazz recordings on Blue Note and other popular labels. The piano sounds like a honky-tonk upright recorded with a compact cassette. Disappointing, since some of the playing is excellent.

In the opposite direction, I recently discovered Paul Lewis performances of Schubert's solo piano works on Harmonia Mundi. I immensely enjoy his performances and the sound quality is fantastic.
 
For more of a general impression i have to recommend the Grand Piano Label for terrific classical piano recordings. Very lifelike "piano in the room" quality
 
My reference piano recording is Chopin Nocturnes from François Chaplin in 24/88.
https://www.qobuz.com/es-es/album/nocturnes-frederic-chopin/3760009292222

Preview:
Updating this old post of mine, I currently love this recording: Anna Fedorova - Storyteller, in 24/192.

1900x1900-000000-80-0-0.jpg
 
I loved the marketing video put out by KORG featuring Yuko Ueno playing Chopin on the KORG Poetry.

1728889088512.jpeg
1728889109679.jpeg
1728889131397.jpeg


That led me to discover that she is working on a series of albums to showcase different pianos. Her goal is to run through Prokofiev’s sonatas using Steinway, Bosendorfer, Bechstein, Kawai, Yamaha, and Fazioli pianos. This is particularly great because it's rare to see a modern pianist record music with different pianos using the same recording engineer so that you're getting the sound of the piano more than anything else. The Kawai and Fazioli were recorded in the same location (Sumida Triphony Hall) while the Yamaha was recorded at Yamaha Music Hall.

As far as I can tell (searching Amazon for 上野優子), there have only been three albums released to date. They are not the same piece played on different pianos, but a selection of pieces that seem to showcase the tone of the specific piano. There are no overlapping pieces, so direct A-B comparisons are impossible, but it's still easy to hear the difference in tone between pianos and it makes more sense from a commercial standpoint.

So far, the releases have been with a Fazioli F278 (2020), Yamaha CFX (2022), and Shigeru Kawai SK-EX (2024). It's not available on high-res streaming services but you can easily buy it from Amazon and CD Japan. Tower Records Japan has low-quality samples if you scroll down to the bottom.


The recordings and performances are sublime. I couldn't find any online magazine reviews of the album, so I'll tag @dualazmak since this seems to be the type of release that audiophiles can rally around since it's a bit of music with a bit of gear in case he can add more info from the liner notes/marketing. :)

As this is ASR, I used EAC to rip the CDs. I then ran the tracks through both "DR Meter 0.7" which tries to give you a number that is similar to the numbers you get at the loudness-war website and the older Dynamic Range Meter plug-in. I also used the more modern assessment of EBU R128's Peak to Loudness Ratio (PLR) based upon LUFS, which is part of the ReplayGain scanner in the current version of Foobar. That is more accurate and it is interesting to see with the Yamaha album that the track with the highest DR Meter score wasn't the track with the highest PLR and where there are inconsistencies in the algorithms where one track will read PLR 17/DR 13 and another will be PLR 18/DR 12.

Dynamic range isn't how you measure the performance of a piano performance or recording, but it's the only objective tool I have. There is a belief that Fazioli pianos project sound uniquely, and it did end up being the album which had the highest dynamic range which may reflect that it was louder rather than it was quieter.

FAZIOLI F278 : DR Meter 14
Highest DR: 26 (PLR) / 22 (DR Meter)
Lowest DR: 14 (PLR) / 11 (DR Meter)
foobar2000 v2.1.6 / DR Meter v0.7
log date: 2024-10-13 23:36:52

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Yuko Ueno / Yuko Ueno : Recital -D.Scarlatti, Debussy, Prokofiev -with Fazioli
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR12 -9.14 dBFS -23.70 dBFS 3:52 01-Keyboard Sonatas In B Minor. K.27 / L.449
DR13 -5.72 dBFS -21.64 dBFS 3:43 02-Keyboard Sonatas In D Minor (Toccata). K.141 / L.422
DR12 -10.74 dBFS -27.38 dBFS 6:26 03-Keyboard Sonatas In F Minor. K.466 / L.118
DR12 -6.80 dBFS -23.32 dBFS 3:05 04-Keyboard Sonatas In E Major. K.531 / L.430
DR15 -2.92 dBFS -22.88 dBFS 3:22 05-Keyboard Sonatas In A Major. K.533 / L.395
DR13 -4.34 dBFS -23.85 dBFS 5:03 06-Estampes 1 Pagodes.
DR12 -3.61 dBFS -22.40 dBFS 4:47 07-Estampes 2 La Soiree Dans Grenade.
DR12 -3.66 dBFS -21.16 dBFS 3:52 08-Estampes 3 Jardins Sous La Pluie.
DR21 -3.26 dBFS -30.60 dBFS 2:58 09-Elegie
DR12 -1.66 dBFS -17.95 dBFS 2:11 10-Sarcasms. Op.17 1 Tempestoso
DR13 -1.26 dBFS -21.04 dBFS 1:30 11-Sarcasms. Op.17 2 Allegro Rubato
DR12 -0.59 dBFS -18.15 dBFS 1:50 12-Sarcasms. Op.17 3 Allegro Precipitato
DR13 -0.40 dBFS -20.45 dBFS 2:37 13-Sarcasms. Op.17 4 Smanioso
DR14 -2.56 dBFS -23.64 dBFS 3:27 14-Sarcasms. Op.17 5 Precipitosissimo
DR14 -0.39 dBFS -19.27 dBFS 7:48 15-Piano Sonata No.3 In A Minor. (D`apres Des Vieux Cahiers) Op.28
DR14 -1.77 dBFS -21.05 dBFS 5:39 16-Piano Sonata No.4 In C Minor. (D`apres Des Vieux Cahiers) Op.29 1 Allegro Molto Sostenuto
DR14 -2.84 dBFS -22.95 dBFS 7:56 17-Piano Sonata No.4 In C Minor. (D`apres Des Vieux Cahiers) Op.29 2 Andante Assai
DR13 -0.37 dBFS -19.39 dBFS 4:04 18-Piano Sonata No.4 In C Minor. (D`apres Des Vieux Cahiers) Op.29 3 Allegro Con Brio. Ma Non Leggiere
DR11 -18.33 dBFS -32.99 dBFS 1:25 19-Visions Fugitives. Op.22 - 17 Poetico
DR22 -3.87 dBFS -31.39 dBFS 2:54 20-Das Wohltemperierte Klavier Teil 1 Nr.1 Bwv846 - Praeludium C-dur
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 20
Official DR value: DR14

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 354 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================


1728889579500.png

Yamaha CFX : DR Meter 13
Highest DR: 22 (PLR) / 15 (DR Meter) || 21 (PLR) / 16 (DR Meter)
Lowest DR: 17 (PLR) / 12 (DR Meter)
foobar2000 v2.1.6 / DR Meter v0.7
log date: 2024-10-13 23:33:32

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Yuko Ueno / Yuko Ueno : Recital with Yamaha -Chopin, Liadov, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Ravel
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR13 -4.86 dBFS -22.90 dBFS 8:33 01-Barcarolle In F Sharp Major. Op.60
DR12 -9.34 dBFS -27.28 dBFS 2:47 02-3 Morceaux Op.11 No.1 Prelude In B Minor Moderato
DR12 -6.67 dBFS -24.12 dBFS 2:00 03-3 Morceaux Op.11 No.2 Mazurka(In Dorian Mode) In A Minor Vivo-meno Mosso-allegro-meno Mosso-allegro-
DR12 -7.66 dBFS -25.16 dBFS 3:01 04-3 Morceaux Op.11 No.3 Mazurka In F Sharp Minor Moderato-piu Mosso-moderato
DR16 -1.88 dBFS -23.87 dBFS 7:51 05-Piano Sonata No.2 In G Sharp Minor. (Sonata Fantasy) Op.19 1 Andante
DR12 -4.16 dBFS -21.12 dBFS 4:21 06-Piano Sonata No.2 In G Sharp Minor. (Sonata Fantasy) Op.19 2 Presto
DR14 -3.18 dBFS -22.59 dBFS 5:35 07-Poeme `vers La Flamme` Op.72 Allegro Moderato
DR13 -4.29 dBFS -22.20 dBFS 5:52 01-Piano Sonata No.5 In C Major. Op.38 1 Allegro Tranquillo
DR13 -8.34 dBFS -27.89 dBFS 4:04 02-Piano Sonata No.5 In C Major. Op.38 2 Andantino
DR13 -3.55 dBFS -21.72 dBFS 5:39 03-Piano Sonata No.5 In C Major. Op.38 3 Un Poco Allegretto
DR14 -6.46 dBFS -26.17 dBFS 3:34 04-Pensees Op.62 No.1 Adagio Penseroso - Moderato
DR14 -8.32 dBFS -29.29 dBFS 2:41 05-Pensees Op.62 No.2 Lento
DR14 -3.71 dBFS -24.69 dBFS 5:45 06-Pensees Op.62 No.3 Andante
DR14 -2.90 dBFS -22.90 dBFS 8:27 07-Piano Sonata No.7 In B Flat Major. Op.83 1 Allegro Inquieto
DR13 -2.61 dBFS -22.38 dBFS 6:38 08-Piano Sonata No.7 In B Flat Major. Op.83 2 Andante Caloroso
DR12 -1.98 dBFS -18.65 dBFS 3:43 09-Piano Sonata No.7 In B Flat Major. Op.83 3 Precipitato
DR16 -7.15 dBFS -29.72 dBFS 4:05 10-Miroirs No.2 Oiseaux Tristes
DR15 -4.75 dBFS -27.47 dBFS 6:19 11-Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte Assez Doux. Mais D`une Sonorite Large
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 18
Official DR value: DR13

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 306 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================
1728889796192.png

Kawai SK-EX: DR Meter 14
Highest DR: 21 (PLR) / 15 (DR Meter)
Lowest DR: 16 (PLR) / 11 (DR Meter)
foobar2000 v2.1.6 / DR Meter v0.7
log date: 2024-10-13 23:36:18

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Yuko Ueno / Yuko Ueno : Recital With Kawai-ravel, Prokofiev
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR15 -2.98 dBFS -23.86 dBFS 5:33 01-鏡 I.蛾
DR15 -4.96 dBFS -26.26 dBFS 3:25 02-鏡 II.悲しい鳥たち
DR14 -3.11 dBFS -22.20 dBFS 7:23 03-鏡 III.海原の小舟
DR14 -0.48 dBFS -20.46 dBFS 6:37 04-鏡 IV.道化師の朝の歌
DR13 -11.82 dBFS -30.12 dBFS 5:30 05-鏡 V.鐘の谷
DR13 -2.91 dBFS -21.67 dBFS 1:06 06-バレエ「シンデレラ」から10の小品 Op.97 1.春の妖精
DR11 -11.14 dBFS -27.21 dBFS 1:42 07-バレエ「シンデレラ」から10の小品 Op.97 2.夏の妖精
DR13 -3.08 dBFS -20.08 dBFS 1:13 08-バレエ「シンデレラ」から10の小品 Op.97 3.秋の妖精
DR12 -8.70 dBFS -26.36 dBFS 3:36 09-バレエ「シンデレラ」から10の小品 Op.97 4.冬の妖精
DR13 -3.20 dBFS -22.05 dBFS 1:04 10-バレエ「シンデレラ」から10の小品 Op.97 5.バッタとトンボ
DR12 -7.59 dBFS -24.59 dBFS 1:37 11-バレエ「シンデレラ」から10の小品 Op.97 6.東洋風の踊り
DR14 -3.66 dBFS -21.25 dBFS 1:42 12-バレエ「シンデレラ」から10の小品 Op.97 7.パスピエ
DR15 -4.62 dBFS -24.31 dBFS 1:19 13-バレエ「シンデレラ」から10の小品 Op.97 8.カプリッチョ
DR14 -1.20 dBFS -19.33 dBFS 1:24 14-バレエ「シンデレラ」から10の小品 Op.97 9.ブーレ
DR13 -3.93 dBFS -22.41 dBFS 3:52 15-バレエ「シンデレラ」から10の小品 Op.97 10.アダージョ(王子とシンデレラ)
DR13 -1.21 dBFS -18.65 dBFS 8:47 16-ピアノ・ソナタ 第6番 イ長調「戦争ソナタ」Op.82 I.Allegro Moderato
DR14 -2.78 dBFS -22.56 dBFS 4:45 17-ピアノ・ソナタ 第6番 イ長調「戦争ソナタ」Op.82 II.Allegretto
DR15 -1.49 dBFS -22.68 dBFS 8:18 18-ピアノ・ソナタ 第6番 イ長調「戦争ソナタ」Op.82 III.Tempo di valzer lentissimo
DR14 -1.29 dBFS -20.41 dBFS 7:14 19-ピアノ・ソナタ 第6番 イ長調「戦争ソナタ」Op.82 IV.Vivace
DR12 -0.40 dBFS -16.66 dBFS 3:35 20-ピアノ・ソナタ 第7番 変ロ長調「戦争ソナタ」Op.83より第3楽章
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 20
Official DR value: DR14

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 341 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

1728889957132.png
 
I have no clue if this belongs in this thread but I just love the sound of the piano on this recording:

Ahmad Jamal - Marseille (2017)

Absolutely! I have this recording favorited in Roon, and it’s great.
 
Angela Hewitt produced three recordings of the keyboard music of François Couperin. For many years I assumed that the music was only really playable on the harpsichord. But Hewitt renders the articulation and rubato appropriate for Baroque music with an unusual lightness of touch. The recorded sound is good, but the playing's the thing:

 
Back
Top Bottom