Please let me join. My favorite 20 active pianists would be:

1.Andras Schiff -- truly talented, which cannot be heard on recording.
2.Mitsuko Uchida -- exciting; almost no difference between live and rec.
3.Murray Perahia -- fiercely passionate in live and exquisite on rec.
4.Martha Argerich -- much more exciting in live than on rec.
5.Maria Joao Pires -- passionately introvert both in live and rec.
6.Alicia de Larrocha -- most integrated, but powerless in recent live.
7.Stephen Hough -- great transcriptions by his own, much better in live.
8.Ivo Pogorelich -- extremely interesting at times.
9.Peter Jablonski -- most integrated among young pianists.
10.Marc-Andre Hamelin -- extremely well-equipped; nice repertoire.
11.Maurizio Pollini -- once great.
12.Gianluca Cascioli -- very interesting both in live and rec.
13.Freddy Kempf -- well-equipped and integrated; much better in live.
14.Paul Crossley -- intelligent reading.
15.Martin Roscoe -- exquisite on rec.
16.Martin Jones -- wide repertoire.
17.Stephen Kovacevich -- great Bartok.
18.Bruno-Leonard Gelber -- still in very good shape in recent live.
19.Krystian Zimerman -- exquisite on rec, and very extrovert in live.
20.Nikolai Demidenko -- better on rec (Schumann, Chopin) than in live.

*** Hitoshi Asaoka ([log in to unmask]) ***