Classical Music for Aficionados

Now listening to Rameau keyboard suites, Angela Hewitt.So fine.In fact she is one of my favorites, so listenable.Faure, Back, Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Debussy, Couperin, Chabrier,Schumann  + many duets and trios

Now listening to Andrei Diev, piano, "The Fantasies"which includes Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin and SchumannsuperbFirst heard of Diev from his recordings of Scriabin in a huge collection (1.50 GB) that also includes Ashkenazy, Weissenberg, Richter, Barenboim conducting Chicago SO, and others.
Also love his Rachmaninov Preludes, 1993 Rossijsky instrument, Moscow,produced by Sonopress GmbH GermanyDiev has a youtube channel, mostly Mozart
https://www.youtube.com/user/AndreiDiev

For the last month I’ve been listening to,almost exclusively, what I consider one of the least heard masterworks of the man I consider the greatest of all modern composers , Bela Bartok . .His "Mikrokosmos", which is a series of 153 progressive solo piano pieces written as a didactic work for the edification of his son much in the same manner as Bach did with his" Klavierbuchlien ", and IMO written at the same level .
.I have all 153 on CD and half on LP all played either by Bartok himself or
his student , friend and greatest interpreter, Gyorgy Sandor .I also have the entire 6 volumes of the scores which I study before I listen to a piece and try to follow as they play . I get perhaps 10% of what a trained
musician does but I find , even at my level, getting even just a glance at what a great composer is trying to do increases my joy over the music greatly and gives me personal gratification at doing my best , weak as it is .
The incisive rhythms and percussive tones while pushing the melody to its limits at the same time using systematic changes of register bring together the music of both Eastern and Western Europe in his unique way .Bartok is less concerned with supple fingering than introducing the mind and ear to the free rhythms , bold dissonances and complex harmonies he championed .

Much of the music is just plain beautiful and can just be listened to as that .Piece (97)" Notturno" has a tender melody that would make Schubert jealous and is in a perfect synthesis of diatonic and chromatic , to me right up there with any piano music I have ever heard .

Schubert, FWIW, mainly because  your moniker suggests a special interest, a recording of some Schubert's music for solo piano that I can't resist listening to fairly often when I'm in the mood for Schubert, "Le Voyage Magnifique" by Maria Joao Pires on a DG CD. This is a two CD set which includes Impromptus D899, Impromptus D 935, and Drei Impromptus Aus Dem Nachlass D946. 

For anyone who enjoys the Piano Concertos by Chopin, you must hear those by Krystian Zimerman, Carlo Giulini, and the LA Phil, on DG. The music is crystal clear and lyrical. Just beautiful to hear. These easily replace my long time favorites by Claudio Arrau.