Bill Blank writes:

>I have not followed newer pianists for the last 20 years or so.  I have
>never heard of Pollini, eg.  Who are the current 'greats' and young Turks
>to watch.

Pollini has been in the limelight for almost 40 years now.  Concerning
the current 'greats', I suppose that the nods would go to Martha Argerich,
Alfred Brendel, Maurizio Pollini, Marc-Andre Hamelin, and Murray Perahia.
My personal list would include Argerich, Brendel, Piotr Anderszewski,
Lief Ove Andsnes, Jean-Marc Luisada, and Burkard Schliessmann.

>I find Brendel lacks passion to be my favorite, but he certainly can be
>subtle.

I find that Brendel generally delivers everything I want and is at his
absolute best in Haydn.

>I have the Goode set and many individual recordings of my favorite sonatas.

Fortunately for me, I refrained from buying the Goode set after listening
to a couple of his Beethoven Sonata discs; that's not my idea of Beethoven.
I think Goode does much better with his Schubert recordings on Nonesuch.

All of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas have special qualities, but the one
I love the most is the "Hammerklavier".

Don Satz