# I Love Valentina Lisitsa!



## Barelytenor

I think that Valentina Lisitsa is one of the most amazing pianists -- male or female -- to come along in recent decades. She is technically flawless, to my ears (although I am not a professional pianist), and plays with great emotion and sentimentality. I love listening to her playing the Chopin Etudes, particularly La Campanella, and some of her Beethoven leaves me breathless, for example the last movement of the "Moonlight" sonata.

Let me say in advance before this thread gets launched. The lady is very marketing-savvy and has launched her career largely via YouTube. BUT. It would be very nice if we could completely avoid getting into discussions of her politics or the whole Russia-Ukraine business. This is a forum about her music. Not politics, please.

Here is a video of her playing the Moonlight sonata, last movement. As stunning as it is, it does reveal the one quibble I have with her playing. She is so technically proficient, sometimes it seems as if she is playing too fast _just to show she can,_ rather than digging deeper emotionally into the piece.

What say you? And again, NO POLITICS.






:tiphat:

Kind regards,

George


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## Animal the Drummer

That does seem a rather superficial, if technically impressive, performance. At the other end of the spectrum, some of her other performances that I've seen/heard pull the music about a little too much for my money - one doesn't want totally emotionless performances, but personally I find a pianist "letting it all hang out" even less to my liking. There is a balance to be struck and I'm not sure Ms.Lisitsa finds that easy to achieve yet. 

Small point BTW - "La Campanella" is by Liszt!


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## Guest

I find most of her performances to be superficial...she just flings the notes out as fast as possible with little regard to phrasing or bringing out innervoices. Dazzling? I guess. Musically satisfying? No.


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## Barelytenor

Animal the Drummer said:


> That does seem a rather superficial, if technically impressive, performance. At the other end of the spectrum, some of her other performances that I've seen/heard pull the music about a little too much for my money - one doesn't want totally emotionless performances, but personally I find a pianist "letting it all hang out" even less to my liking. There is a balance to be struck and I'm not sure Ms.Lisitsa finds that easy to achieve yet.
> 
> Small point BTW - "La Campanella" is by Liszt!


Oh yes, of course!

:tiphat:

Kind regards,

George


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## HaydnBearstheClock

Kontrapunctus said:


> I find most of her performances to be superficial...she just flings the notes out as fast as possible with little regard to phrasing or bringing out innervoices. Dazzling? I guess. Musically satisfying? No.







Hm, can't agree, at least based on this performance here. It seems to me to be the opposite of emotionless.


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## lextune

I did not know any of her recordings, so I searched her on YT,

...wow, she has a lot of videos, ha!

The video posted in this thread of her 'Moonlight' 3rd mvmt, did not really grab me, but I liked her 1st mvmt! (Which is a MUCH tougher feat to pull off I'll tell you).

And this Scriabin is actually quite nice. 




Several other things I watched were not nearly as good though.

I think she is playing/recording way too much repertoire. Most of the other performances I watched seemed like the "Have Notes, Will Play" style that is so prevalent in the last few decades.

EDIT: Seriously, she has filmed/recorded the entire standard literature it seems. Just because one can play anything/everything, does not mean one should.


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## lextune

This is very well done...a bit 'old fashion' in a few ways, _(an older version of the score maybe?)_. But she is quite good. She is a little 'hit-or-miss' with repertoire _(spread too thin!_, but her hits are nice.


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## Pugg

Kontrapunctus said:


> I find most of her performances to be superficial...she just flings the notes out as fast as possible with little regard to phrasing or bringing out innervoices. Dazzling? I guess. Musically satisfying? No.


+ 1

She is not even a shadow from what Daniil Trifonov is , who, I am adding is almost 20 years younger.


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## lextune

Her 1st Chopin Ballade is not superficial at all.

And it is a huge cornerstone of the repertoire. 

That said, she is not on the level of Trifonov, but that is not any way to judge a pianist.

....if it was, no one would listen to anything but Richter.


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## Barelytenor

Personally, I think the whole "this artist is better than that artist" mentality so prevalent on this thread -- no, make it this forum (and for which on YouTube you occasionally hear a voice crying in the wilderness to "stop it and just enjoy listening to the music") can be tiresome. Regardless of which artist in which repertoire you think is the best, if you could all put down your pencils and scorecards and try to pay more attention to what the artist is actually doing and trying to communicate, you could find some increased enjoyment in many great (and even some not so great) artists. This isn't a beauty contest, and there is no One Best. And many of the polls on this site are simply absurd.

I will certainly try to listen to more Trifonov, as he is not that familiar to me. But what has age got to do with it? Horowitz was a genius at 20, at 50, at 85. 

I am glad that at least a few people here are finding some positives in Valentina Lisitsa. Please feel free to post some of your favorite videos of her playing.

:tiphat:

Kind regards,

George


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## pcnog11

Didn't we all overly analyzing or criticizing those performers we come across? Many of you may have a number of Moonlight sonata that you can compare one against another. We can access to different recordings and compare them easily than a generation before. Each performer have an artistic style or expression that appeal to their audiences (I call this as a performer's 'livable space'). There has been a movement that I observed over the last 10 years or so, newer performers seem to develop 'niches' of artistic style that engage a certain type of listener/audience. In Valentina's case, it seems that she had developed such a niche, so is Lang Lang, Yundi Li, Yuja Wang etc....the list is long and endless. She could be compared to other established standards (Brendel, Argerich, Ashkenazy etc.) anytime. On the other hand, the livable space has to be different from the established standards in order to stands out.

More and more newer performers has more channels to appeal to their audience due to the social media more so than those 20 years ago. I think the niches they developed will position themselves in their audience's mind effectively. Due to the amount of performers (new and old) in the marketplace, they only way they can stands out is to ensure 'niches' are established and positioned well in the audience's mind.

My 2 cents.


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## Janspe

I used to be very fond of Lisitsa's playing as a teenager but these days I'm not as enthusiastic anymore. Some of her interpretations work really well, though, and I do find her YouTube activity quite admirable, given that hundreds of thousands of people have discovered classical music through her videos.

I think this solo performance of Liszt's Totentanz is stunning as hell; I mean seriously, one just has to admire the tremendous power and technical precision of her fingers.

I also love her take on the 14 Schubert-Liszt Schwanengesang songs, not only because of the playing but because of the beautiful set up of the studio and the melancholy mood in general.



lextune said:


> -- Seriously, she has filmed/recorded the entire standard literature it seems. Just because one can play anything/everything, does not mean one should.


Hardly. Sure enough she has many warhorses on her channel and loads of videos overall, but she has recorded only a handful of Beethoven sonatas, hardly any Mozart or Bach, very little Schubert, no Debussy, only a few pieces of Haydn, Schumann, Brahms and Ravel... Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Liszt are a bit better represented, but still.


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## Fan66

I saw her video of the Chopin etudes and was impressed, and had high hopes for the her Etudes CD, but, when I heard the samples, was disappointed. They are too rushed. Do not like. But, her video performance of Tempest Sonata and Moonlight, very nice, as well as her Rachm Concertos.


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## Barelytenor

Hi Fan66 and welcome to the forum. I am glad you too like some of her work. Did you find the tempo of the last movement of the Moonlight too rushed? Welcome aboard,

:tiphat:

Kind regards,

George


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## lextune

Janspe said:


> Sure enough she has many warhorses on her channel and loads of videos overall.


This is all I meant. My hyperbole came from clicking on the "videos" tab on her YT page and seeing the sheer number.

Certainly many of the greats have recorded far bigger swaths of the literature. (Richter jumps to mind).


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## Vaneyes

I don't like her playing. The voluminous self-promotion is better left for others to enjoy. Bon appetit.


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## Heliogabo

I've saw her once performing live Rachmaninov's 2nd concerto, it was an amazing performance, certainly dazzling. I was so moved that I bought her Rachmaninov concertos set on Decca, and I might say that it was a little bit deceiving listening, very different from what I've heard in concert. It is listenable but I didn't returned to it since I prefer other renditions.


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## hpowders

I can't even say Valentina Lisitsa....but I can learn.

I absolutely adore superficial female pianists.


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## Heliogabo

On the other hand, her Phillip Glass piano music recording seems to fits very well to her style. I'm not saying that Glass piano music is superficial. Am I?


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## Pugg

Heliogabo said:


> On the other hand, her Phillip Glass piano music recording seems to fits very well to her style. I'm not saying that Glass piano music is superficial. Am I?


We get the hint.


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## Larkenfield

HaydnBearstheClock said:


> Hm, can't agree, at least based on this performance here. It seems to me to be the opposite of emotionless.


It's nice to hear her taking more time to bring something out in the music that has depth and she is not rushing it through. Still, I could scarcely recognize her performance as being idiomatic of Scriabin. For me, she takes the intensity and fire out of it where needed and renders much of it shapeless. I think she's technically gifted, probably because she practices hours and hours upon hours a day, but I rarely feel anything when I hear her, and her Scriabin is just not Russian enough for me with too many rounded off edges. I've long had the feeling that she practices too much and leaves her best and most spontaneous performances at home. I was expecting to hear so much more.


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## DeepR

I'm not a fan, but there are a few pieces she plays amazingly well.


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