Mozart called it the king of the instruments, Schumann recommended to learn to play it to achieve more understanding about the power of music, most of the great composers played and wrote works for it. What makes the organ being so extremely apart of all other musical instruments and containing at the same time the power of expression of all these together?
At this point we could not fail to mention the great master Johann Sebastian Bach, who plays the leading role in the music history as an organist of unlimited abilities and as a supreme composer of works for all styles and musical forms. Bach set the fundament of harmonic, chromatic and highly developed contrapuntal structure in all kind of composition. Bach’s prolific attitude toward a great artistic expression led him to improve existing musical forms, creating an innovative way of composing through unfatiguing exploration of original patterns and models. [...]

He was one of the most inspiring pianists of the twentieth century. His remarkable personality as a unique artist was perfectly reflected in all his compositions. Sergei Rachmaninoff charcterized the last Romantic piano tradition with his charming, lyric and expressive playing and creative interpretations.
A virtuoso technique, rhythmic precision, colorful tone, polyphonic clarity of inner voices, incomparable sense of lyricism, accurate interpretation of different musical styles, force of expression through every detail of a composition: Rachmaninoff was in absolute possession of all these peculiar “instruments” for his performing.
The great charisma of this pianist came through especially when he played his own works. Due to his personal composing style, which was first influenced by Tschaikovsky, he further developed a contrapuntal writing and a distinguished variety in the chromatic harmonic structure, both deriving from Bach and Chopin.
He certainly dedicated a profound study, work and way of musical thinking from those great composers, becoming [...]

A terrific singing piano tone, a sublime technique, always serving the purpose of the musical message, and a perfect seducing interpretation.
Alexander Isaakovic Cherkassky, known as Shura Cherkassky, was one of the leading personalities among the generation of great pianists of the 20th century. He started his early piano education with his mother Lydia. Later on he became pupil of Jozéf Hofmann.
His concert career lasted through his long life, in fact he was actively performing until his death 1995.
What made his approach to the piano that singular?
He was able to focus on the keys with astonishing concentrating power, his interpretations were full of inventive musical atmosphere, he always created inspiring piano recitals for the audience.
Shura never played the same piece the same way. Spontaneity and freshness characterized his playing, the purpose of creating the music in every single moment drove this excellent artist to the highest level of musicianship.
One of the [...]

Nowadays everybody knows YouTube as an enormous source of information. No matter what kind of video or just audio related documentation we need, everything can be found there….almost everything.
My regular use of YouTube is concentrated on the search of interesting and historical documents about pianists. A couple of days ago I found something really astonishing. Looking for a comparison between different interpretations of Prokofiev´s Seventh Piano Sonata Op. 83, I have been guided by some comments posted on videos of this piano work. So I discovered a completely unknown pianist, the Russian Vladimir Bakk.
His Prokofiev interpretation really captured my attention to further listening to other recordings.
One of the best examples of Bakk´s artistic expression doubtless comes through the Rachmaninoff´s Second Piano Sonata Op.36. His technical skills are full of transparency, absolutely serving the musical path of the work. His singing tone shows a deep understanding of the melodic line of [...]

“I practice very industriously…” – Quote Ferruccio Busoni, Letters to his wife 1895-1907, London, Edward Arnold & Co. http://www.rodoni.ch/busoni/bibliotechina/letteregerdaEN/gerdaEN1.html

Do these words of Ferruccio Busoni sound familiar to you? They certainly do, especially if you are a pianist with your heart and soul like Busoni was. He was the pianists´pianist, the musicians´musician. To be as good as he was, or at least if you want to play with his virtuosity and to have a profound knowledge about piano playing, you have to do only a simple thing: practice!
Oh my God, this terribly sounding word…our teachers threatened us with it, I am sure that the more your piano teacher repeated this word during the lessons, the less you wanted to do it.
I practiced up to seven hours a day during the time of my former music education, not only because my teachers said that, but also because I felt that spending many [...]