Anyone who heard pianist Valentina Lisitsa at Koerner Hall a year ago knew right away she wasn’t just a passing YouTube wonder, but an artist deserving a place at the head table of the world’s most interesting classical soloists.
The latest keepsake of her highly individual, overtly expressive approach to the piano is a new Decca-issued album of nine works by the original keyboard rock star, Franz Liszt (1811-1886).
(In an ironic example of how slow and sludgy big labels are compared to the quicksilver world of social media, Lisitsa recorded this album in Germany in 2011.)
The journey drags us from the drawing room to the concert stage and then back again as well as taking us from introspection to extravagant shows of emotion — and back again, as well.
Lisitsa’s interpretive contribution impresses on many levels: The first, the most obvious, is her unbelievably fluid technique, which doesn’t recognize any obstacles; the second is in an absolute clarity in teasing out every musically important idea in each score; the third is making the piano sing seductively from beginning to end.
This is not just about sparkle and cascading runs and crashing chords. This is about gorgeous, if highly mannered music. But then again, a well-to-do 19th century drawing room would have been a pretty mannered place, too.
My favourite pieces on the album are the Sacred Dance (from Act I) and final duet from Verdi’s Aida, and “Gute Nacht,” from Schubert’s Winterreise song cycle. They capture everything that makes the original music so captivating, including the singing, while enhancing it with colours and textures that take advantage of everything a modern concert-grand piano has to offer.
You’ll find some album details here.
Here is Lisitsa playing the Verdi reminiscence:
John Terauds