Valentina Lisitsa, a pianist that stands out

[sevencircles]

It is really unusual these days that you see a famous young female performer that doesn´t care too much about her image. Valentina Lisitsa is for sure a performer that focus on her pianoplaying and not her looks. The contrast is really obvious when you see her duo partner Hilary Hahn for instance. Hilary is an amazing violinist for sure but really awhare of her image as well.

Lisitsa seems to be a pianist that is constantly getting better and better I think.  Her technique in particular is outstanding.

What do you think?

[countrymath]

I S2 her

[perfect_pitch]

For years... I've been nothing but totally impressed by her - and her Totentanz for Piano Solo was just BLOODY FANTASTIC!!!

For me, she is better than Yuja Wang simply because she can still play fast, but keep the momentum or beauty needed in the music she's playing.

[gore234]

Valentina Lisitsa is my favorite pianist

[lhommearme]

My favorite too! Technique and control are two words that come to mind. She has an edge. She is beautifull.

[nadia goh]

i love valentina lisitsa. she inspires people. she gives the impression that classical music is approachable and close to people from various walks of life. she is generous enough to share her performance with everyone. she has amazing techniques and the most important of all, she replies comments on Youtube! i wish she has a blog so that i can read her views about life and of course, about music.

[pianoman53]

I'll stick out and say that I actually don't like her that much. Obviously she is a great pianist, but not a great musician.
For me, she is just a conservatory student, with great technique, that "does everything right", but doesn't really get there...

[sevencircles]

i love valentina lisitsa. she inspires people. she gives the impression that classical music is approachable and close to people from various walks of life. she is generous enough to share her performance with everyone. she has amazing techniques and the most important of all, she replies comments on Youtube! i wish she has a blog so that i can read her views about life and of course, about music.

Me too, She is propably a better chamber musician then soloist actually.
I know that Hilary Hahn made "cold calls" to many composers (Penderecki among others) last year and many of them wrote short pieces for violin and piano. Hilary and Valentina will propably perform and record them next year.

[sordel]

For me, she is just a conservatory student, with great technique, that "does everything right", but doesn't really get there...

I sometimes wonder what this intangible thing is that people look for in a pianist in addition to doing everything right. For me, Lisitsa seems to understand both the letter and the spirit of every phrase she performs. I just don't sense anything missing.

[christefan]

Valentina is a capable pianist with a polished and consistent arm technique, she has great spirit and has marketed herself very well.  All the youtube videos are a terrific gift to the public and help with recognition of her skills and benefit musicians in general.  If you don't see anything missing in her playing you need to do more comparing of classic or outstanding recordings of the pieces that you can find her playing on the youtube venue--it is easy to find performances that are more musical or inspired then her playing, i hope that she will grow as an artist so that her feelings about the music come through more and that she is willing to push her playing into the risky territory where great performances are made. Horowitz isn't regarded as the greatest pianists of the 20 century by many people on this forum because he played music in a straight forward, flat manner.

[fftransform]

She is a formidable technician but I find her playing to be exceptionally dry and bland.

[xerula]

Lisitsa doesn't do it for me either, and not by some margin.