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Glenn Gould
Glenn Gould's 1955 recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations became one of the best-selling classical piano recordings in history, and his unconventional, highly personal interpretive approach to Bach's keyboard works established him as one of the most distinctive and idiosyncratic classical pianists of the 20th century. His decision to retire entirely from public concert performance in 1964, at just 31, to focus exclusively on studio recording reflected Gould's stated belief that live concerts were an outdated performance format, a genuinely radical position for a pianist at the height of his concert career. Gould's eccentric personal habits, including his practice of humming audibly while playing and his insistence on using a specific low, custom chair for every performance regardless of venue, made him one of classical music's most distinctively idiosyncratic public figures. His combination of genuinely innovative interpretive approaches to canonical repertoire and his radical rejection of live concert performance in favor of studio recording has made Gould one of the most intellectually and stylistically significant classical pianists of the recording era.
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Martha Argerich
Martha Argerich won the International Chopin Piano Competition in 1965 at just 24, establishing her as one of the most technically dazzling pianists of her generation, and her combination of explosive virtuosity and genuine interpretive depth has sustained her reputation as one of the greatest living classical pianists for more than five decades. Her notoriously severe stage fright, which has led Argerich to cancel numerous performances throughout her career and to strongly prefer chamber music collaboration over solo recital performance, reflects a genuinely complicated relationship with live concert performance despite her extraordinary technical gifts. Argerich's extensive chamber music collaborations with other major classical musicians, a format she's stated she finds more psychologically comfortable than solo performance, have produced some of the most celebrated recorded chamber music of the past several decades. Her combination of extraordinary technical virtuosity, sustained across more than five decades of performance, and her genuine preference for collaborative chamber music has made Argerich one of the most artistically significant and personally distinctive classical pianists of her generation.
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