What level is Valentina Lisitsa in ?

[lostinidlewonder]

Quite unreasonable on both counts; firstly, there's very little that could be "under Richard Clayderman level"

I don't see how it is unreasonable to say so if we are considering the level of financial success derived from music.

"Clayderman has recorded over 1,300 melodies and has created a new romantic style through a repertoire which combines his trademark originals with classics and pop standards. As of 2006, his record sales number at approximately 150 million, and has 267 gold and 70 platinum albums to his credit. He is popular in Asia and is noted by the Guinness Book of World Records as being "the most successful pianist in the world".[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Clayderman

"the average Asian piano student" is not an example of such as there is; the racism implicit in your latter statement is likewise unwelcome (assuming that you were being serious)...

I'm part Chinese so I like to promote that we are a superior race...ahha. Yes quite racist.

Best,

Alistair

No, I'm the best!

[bronnestam]

I am no fan of Lisitsa. While I have the greatest respect for her technical skills, I join the side who thinks her interpretations are boring. I cannot play like she does, OF COURSE, but if I could ... I would play very differently. I have shown a video with her Appassionata interpretation to some prominent pianists (I mean concert pianists) and they agreed fully with me.

But it is good that not everybody thinks the same. Tastes may vary; we need pianists for them all.

[mjames]

The first sonata is better

And Chopin 3 is cliche and boring mjames

rachmaninoff is the definition of cliche lmao

[visitor]

[mrcreosote]

I like what she does and while I detest the theatrical facial expressions now considered in vogue today, I simply adore watching her hands - it is literally another performance, a ballet of exquisite beauty.  Here is a favorite of mine:

[perfect_pitch]

Sorry, but for me - her Liszt has a thunderous magnificence that no one seems to be able to replicate:

She manages to play the most difficult passages with ease, and I mean a genuine, effortless ease.

[mrcreosote]

Liszt was so far out of the box in his time, it boggles the imagination.  In fact, L now reminds me of Debussy....

[timtim]

I classify her as a Level 8 out of 10.

Here's my thread

She's probably in the same tier as Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, and Buniatishvili.

Errrm.....
Lisitsa is not close to Yuja by any means, and I agree similar level of Katia. I have very ambivalent feeling about Lang Lang - he is capable of producing literally everything what one can imagine on the piano, but his playing seems to my most of the time childlish. Especially encores are often beyond the border of a good taste.

She made her fan base on technical skills and good videos. Kudos to her for gaining such popularity, but I have to agree that while her playing is absolutely lovely to watch and is technically of highest possible skills, than indeed she is missing emotional part.

When you will through Yuja recordings, she is not “one style pianist”. It may be hurtful for the Valentina, but I think Cziffra Bumblebee of Yuja has more music than most of VL recordings. YW is maybe not always up to expectation of her being absolute breathtaking genius, and of she plays anything step lower than this we tend to underrate her.  But listen to her Chopin f-minor live (Found it somewhere on youtube). It is ungodly good, it there is anyone who could match especially the 2nd part, is Zimerman.

And, bywhatever means, we should never ever compare pianists whom we know mainly from their 60+ recording, with young (25-35) pianists. There is whole life experience, which is between the performances is two groups, and while both of them have their merits, those young sound young.

We know Horowitz, Arrau and other playing mainly from being old. There few exceptions like Kapell, Lipatti and Francois, who died quite young, but besides those three I cannot find any other pianists to be remembers today and not live long.

I was reading here that Arrau was playing slow and his technique was hard to listen. This shows only how small one’s knowledge and understanding of pianism and history it.

Both Arrau and Horowitz played life with ungodly fast tempos in their young. Just listen to Vladimir’s rendition of Rach3 with Barbirolli. I do not how he was able to do full concerto in this tempo. Really. Arrau always was telling that you should play publicly at half of your maximum possible tempo. Both of them had their very own, individual technique, producing unparalled sound, by which everyone was thrilled.

As for Yuja – if you want to know how good she is, than there is recording of her having masterclass on Tchaikovsky PC1. When she starts to play, she alone sounds as full as the student and his accomppianist together.

[mrcreosote]

Does anyone know how many notes Lisitsa can span?  Rach and Liszt could do a 13th which casts La Campanella in a completely different light.

NOTE:  I, myself, am cursed like Scriabin capable of only an 8th.  Yeah, it ain't the span that's stopin' me!  LOL

[mrcreosote]

RE:  it's maybe unfair to compare the Young with the Old.  Early Lisitsa is inferior to current.

What I like about L is she'll play an airport piano and have informal "recitals" (is a very wron word for what she does.)  She is the only person I've seen welcoming people to lay under the piano - which is very special if you've ever done it!

I like seeing the Young excel, however when I see a 4 year old protege playing sloppy and not even getting the notes down.  I am not impressed.  Letting a young child like that imprint horrific technique is near abusive.  Too early to call them anything.

[ranjit]

Does anyone know how many notes Lisitsa can span?  Rach and Liszt could do a 13th which casts La Campanella in a completely different light.

I've read that the keys in Liszt's time were thinner, so a 13th back then was probably the same stretch as an 11th nowadays. Rach was a mountain though.

[mrcreosote]

Wow that was harsh. I'm not saying she plays bad or anything, just from my eyes she plays without the expression I like. Saying she has no soul is kind of over the top, but really you can see the difference between her and somebody that I like to hear, like Horowitz. Really, I don't just listen to piano to see absolute perfection, if you want to hear that let a robot play.

If you don't believe me just listen to these recordings of the Chopin Etude Op. 25 No. 12:
Lisitsa:

Horowitz:

See the difference? Horowitz sounds so much more mellow and "musical" while it feels almost as Valentina is pounding on the keys and not putting herself into it. While her performance was nevertheless perfect technique-wise it's the emotion put into it that makes it music, not to mention it was too fast. Yes I know No. 12 has a 160 metronome marking but that doesn't mean you turn into a human metronome. It turns out that Chopin lived in the Romantic Period where tempo changes and variations were acceptable. In fact, that's the reason why I like Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, etc., even though they are different people with different thoughts and musical expression. And it's sad to see all of that different expression all these composers thought of just not going through Lisitsa.

Comparing an Valentina The Child with a Legend Reaching The End of His Difficult Life is ridiculous.  Let's see where Val is when she's as old as Martha.  Everyone when young pounds on the piano.   You can't learn suffering.

[mrcreosote]

Comparing a Valentina The Child with a Horowitz, The Legend Reaching The End of His Difficult Life is ridiculous.  Let's see where V is when she's as old as Martha.  Everyone when young pounds on the piano.   You can't learn suffering.