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Being the best does not mean there is no room for improvement. In fact being the best means you always are improving. Arrogance shows itself in different ways. Sometimes not playing along just for fun is arrogance. Rach on!

Top 1% would be a great understatement on that.

Of course it's possible that my idea of what it means to have mastered a piece is different from that a given person who's saying it.

What I'd mean by it is being able to play the entire piece very well and reliably, without any musical compromises or sacrifices due to mechanical limitations.

All you need to do then Mark_C is pour your soul into it. Then you are the best! Of course many others may be the "best" as well.

I never said there was only one best.... only that some might be better than me.

No, it does not work that way.

I don't understand what this thread is about.

Well taken.

I am not even the best in my immediate family

I think the OP is just bored with jazz and jazzers, which are his normal haunt. So, he just came here to stir things up, despite knowing nothing about what makes classical musicians tick.
I noted that there was no post in the Non-Classical Forum for five days - until a few hours ago, in fact.

Hmmm, maybe I should go over to the Non-Classical Forum and stir things up there, like starting a thread with the title: "Why are jazzers so boring?". I'm pretty good at stirring (with or without a spoon), even if I say so myself .

I made the mistake of assuming the OP was sincere so I held back my harsh judgement after listening to a snippet of his performance and tried to reply ever so tactfully "get ye to the non-classical forum" in an attempt to shelter what I assumed was a fragile ego. (I really sweated over this.) When I hear someone call themselves great where they are merely pounding on the keys, I shake my head. There is little understanding of voicing, tone, rubato, agogics, pedaling and all the things that we classical players do to make our playing as special as we can. The OP was, as bennevis suggested, feeding his boredom and by the OP's own admission, yanking our chain. This thread now seems to be a foolish ride, initiated by a juvenile. A waste of time.

To the OP: most of us who visit Pianist Corner enjoy a little humor and jousting but we take our music seriously.

I think this thread has backfired...

Not totally.
It was, after all, a nice opportunity to mention some of our finest pianists.

No, I don't have a fragile ego. Music is pretty subjective. Perhaps I did choose the wrong forum. I was not yanking anyone's chain. I was just interested in who the really good players were here. I read all the forums, but now I understand everyone pretty much keeps to their own clique.

I thought I had made it pretty obvious that my claim was tongue in cheek. I even said think of me as the fool who gets dunked in a tub. But people read what they want to read and hear what they want to hear. It was an opportunity to get to know what people thought and maybe who they are. I guess I found out.

So here is my conclusion: some of you are the most humorless critters I have come across. And the poor attempts at humor, let alone wit are
About the thinnest soup I have ever tasted.

And finally to my friend gooddog and his sensitive ears. I have performed both at The BlueNote and Birdland in NYC. Somehow they seemed to like it. And what is this nonsense about sweating? You loved heaving your engorged opinion and lofty values. Rubato indeed.

I did not post this thread to make a fuss, but it seems like others must.

For the record, the OP is definitely not a juvenile , and the musical improvisations he has created are very interesting and appealing.

And yes - "Can" is clearly at the top of the classical players participating on PW.

And, finally, to the OP - Gooddog is a she - and a valued member here !!

Again, this thread is clearly about me, but also Can and Thracozaag.

But mostly me.

Definitely not about me. Once there was a time when I thought I was pretty good. I'm better now, but I also know that I'm nowhere near as good as I thought I was.

You're probably the best in the world.

You are only the master of pieces containing more than a million notes, e.g. Beethoven-Liszt 5th Symphony, Messaien Vingt Regards complete, Liszt Dante Sonata and Tanhauser Overture, Bach WTC Book 1 complete, Rzewski The People United and De Profundis, etc. But can you handle Kreisler's Easy Piece ?

It's not the kind of music I appreciate but that doesn't mean it's bad. Thanks Phil.

And let's not forget Frederic Chiu fredericch