Who are some really good pianists?

You’re looking for composers or performers? A pianist is a performer.

You can’t go wrong with Van Cliburn (pianist) performing Chopin (composer).. This album is pretty old, but it holds up.

Schroeder :) He does not compose his own music, he plays Beethoven.

Claudio Arrau
Vladimir Horowitz
Glenn Gould
Art Tatum

All these (now-deceased) gentlemen were renowned performers of the 20th century and recordings they made are widely available.

Frederic Rzewski

Bud Powell, Bill Evans, and I may get ripped for saying this, but Billy Joel is and has always been incredibly gifted.

Arturo Michelangeli, Earl Wild (good Rachmaninoff), Simone Ferraresi

I don’t wish to toot my own horn but mine’s not too bad.

I believe the questioner is asking for composers of classical piano music in the Romantic/Impressionistic style.

For some reason I neglected the most important part of this question and posted an idiotic response.

Even better is Van Cliburn playing Rachmaninoff. No one can touch him. Van Cliburn My Favorite Rachmaninoff.

I currently love Giovanni Allevi, Ludovico Einaudi and Yann Tiersen.

Sviaoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Vladimir Horowitz

I’m afraid I have to fast forward to Scott Joplin.

I like:
Yanni
Keith Green (Gospel singer)

@andrew, great recommendation. I was trying to stay a little closer to Debussy because that’s what the questioner asked for, but that is hard to do—there’s no one like Debussy. I’m almost thinking we should suggest Erik Satie.

If you are looking for a truly inspiring, reinvigorating piano playing, look for Glenn Gould’s performances of Bach music. Glenn Gould was unique in his view of music; he was a creative genius.

Other great pianists were Horowitz, Rubinstein, Hofmann… Among the still alive ones, I find Krystian Zimerman and Arcadi Volodos simply amazing.

If you like the piano, look for music by Bach, Chopin, Mozart, and Beethoven.

I like Debussy a lot, although I don’t know much of his music. Recently, I heard the recordings by Michelangeli playing Debussy’s preludes (very nice) and some recent recordings by Nelson Freire. I think you would appreciate them.