Most classical music lovers are surely familiar with the wonderful series of recordings, "Great Pianists of the 20th Century," which EMI/Philips put out several years ago. I don't own all 100 volumes of the series, but I do have quite a few of them, including the György Cziffra volume (it's #23 in the collection, if you like to keep track of these things), given to me recently as part of an extraordinary gift. The pianists who made it into the series embody a wide variety of stylistic and aesthetic tastes. Some are introspective, others are flamboyant, some are lyrical, others are syrupy, yet others are downright pedantic, etc. Among the pianists in the collection is Murray Perahia, whose glorious performances of the Chopin Études was a CCM in 2007. Cziffra was also known for his Chopin performances, but he was a pianist of a very different type. Even with names like Argerich and Godowsky in the series, it is hard to think of a pianist with such prodigious technique as Cziffra. While some of his artistic choices were unusual (the E Major étude, op. 10 #3, sounds positively constipated in spots), the cleanliness and nimbleness of his finger command is truly something to marvel. Have a listen to this simple, little étude (!), a typical display for Cziffra. By the way, yes those are thirds you're hearing in the right hand.