Question: I am amused by the story of Beethoven dueling another composer in Vienna, in which he takes the other composer's music, puts it upside down, and proceeds to humiliate him. I feel as though keyboardists with that kind of talent must exist nowadays, but they are perhaps not as popular as they once were.

Do we have such "Rockstar" pianists in the modern age? Who are they?

Answer: 
Keep in mind that the Beethoven "duel" is legend. By legend I don't mean that it didn't happen, only that it's one of those famous stories passed down through the generations, and stories like that only come along once or twice in a lifetime.

We certainly still have "rock star" pianists today that you might want to check out:

* [Lang Lang](https://youtu.be/jYO9gTmCJTE?t=7m46s)
* [Denis Matsuev](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tdBFx37Mps)
* [Yuja Wang](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8alxBofd_eQ)
* And one example from an earlier era: [Sviatoslav Richter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ-NAgDpRVs)

And there's something to be said about someone that uses their encore to play [that piece that all the six year olds learn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTVF8e5pbNY).
You should definitely check out keyboardists from progressive rock bands. Prog rock musicians really introduced synthesizers to the popular music/rock scene and elicited really unconventional sounds from those synthesizers. Listen to what they'd done with synthesizers in the 70s, and you'd be amazed. That was 50 years ago!

The most famous keyboard giants of prog rock are probably Keith Emerson of the band Emerson, Lake and Palmer, known for his flamboyant live performances and unconventional techniques (e.g. sticking a knife into a keyboard), and Rick Wakeman of the band Yes, who was much less flamboyant but nevertheless a great keyboardist who created many interesting sounds.

My favorite, however, is Rick Wright of the venerable Pink Floyd; he wasn't into doing crazy, virtuosic things with his keyboards, but he was really good at creating sounds and conveying moods and atmospheres with his synths.