Violin icons of East & West meet up: Kala Ramnath and Hilary Hahn

A meeting up of world famous violin players from different classical traditions is not an evryday phenomenon. Recently it happened to Hindustani classical (raga) performer Kala Ramnath and Western classical player Hilary Hahn. Kala wrote a piece for Hilary and in this video she explains a few basics of raga music and about the piece she’s done for Hilary.

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Valentina Lisitsa release Rachmaninoff 2nd Piano Concerto on October 22nd, 2012


It took a while, but it looks like Valentina Lisitsa’s long awaited release of her Rachmaninoff Project is on its way now. In 2009-2010 she recorded the four piano concerti and the Paganini Variations with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Francis. I reported extensively on this fabulous undertaking on my website and on YouTube. On Amazon, Valentina’s recording of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2 is now announced – right here – for release on October 22nd.

And how about the release of the other recordings? On October 10th, Valentina herself stated on her Facebook wall that after the MP3-release of Piano Concerto No.2 on October 22nd, the release of the other recordings (also as MP3) will follow later on this year. She added that around February-March 2013, the complete set will be released on CD.

I was present at the recording sessions in London’s Abbey Road Studios and it was a unique and unforgettable musical experience. Yes, such was the power of Valentina’s performing!


Rachmaninoff Project, December 2009, Valentina and me in the Abbey Road Studios

For those interested in how the ‘Rachy project’ came about, I’d like to refer to my documentary on YouTube, embedded here below.

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On my YT-channel: Valentina Lisitsa talks about Rachmaninoff in video with all new material

Yesterday I published a new video of pianist Valentina Lisitsa, containing footage of not formerly published segments of an interview with her about – primarily – Rachmaninoff. I revisited and reconsidered some of my unpublished footage and photos, resulting in this new video, I thought it would be worthwhile to share it with the YouTube audience.


Still from my video (at 12’54”) and from another era it seems… Valentina as a youngster playing chess.

Earlier on I already produced and published on YouTube a documentary on Valentina’s Rachmaninoff Project with the London Symphony Orchestra. The fabulous recordings done in the Abbey Road Studios in 2009 and 2010 will be released later on in 2012 by Decca.

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The pleasurable sensuousness of ‘Eros Piano’

Eros Piano, a work by John Adams, is such a delightful piece. If I were a concert pianist it would be part of my repertory for sure! 🙂 YouTube offers only one performance of Eros Piano, the one here above, played by pianist Jay Gottlieb with L’Ensemble Orchestral de Paris conducted by John Nelson.

Composer John Adams wrote the work – almost a small piano concerto in one movement – in memory of two of his composer heroes, Morton Feldman and Toru Takemitsu. About the music Adams wrote that it’s “a quiet, dreamy soliloquy for piano, played against a soft, lush fabric of orchestral screens and clusters. It was a direct response on my part to a piece by Toru Takemitsu, riverrun, that I had heard in a performance by the English pianist Paul Crossley. (..) I wrote Eros Piano as a tribute to Takemitsu, to Bill Evans, and also to Paul Crossley, whose exquisitly balanced sense of color and attack in music by Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen and Takemitsu reminded me so strongly of that of Bill Evans.”

Pianist Jay Gottlieb with L’Ensemble Orchestral de Paris conducted by John Nelson deliver an enjoyable and admirable performance, but is that enough? Do they reveal the work’s sophisticated soul? I think I’ve heard better in another performance, a well known one, played by pianist Paul Crossley with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s/The London Sinfonietta, conducted by composer John Adams himself and available on the album American Elegies (1991). In my opinion Crossley, Adams and the London Sinfonietta are more convincing in revealing the work’s pleasurable sensuousness and this comes across in many wonderful tonal colours and in their highly sophisticated outline of the work’s dynamics.

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Pianist Valentina Lisitsa LIVE-streams her Royal Albert Hall concert-rehearsals

From Sunday June 3rd until Friday June 8th, YouTube’s most popular classical pianist, Valentina Lisitsa, is once more streaming her rehearsals LIVE via her Ustream-channel. To watch click here.
Valentina's Ustream channel
Valentina Lisitsa’s rehearsing is a not-to-be missed event for anyone with a serious interest in classical piano playing. From her home in North Carolina Valentina is rehearsing the scheduled programme of her upcoming Royal Albert Hall concert. She’s done this before and up till now she’s the only classical musician that I know of who’s sharing this preparation process in a live event for a worldwide audience. This is really fascinating and a unique opportunity to witness Valentina Lisitsa getting prepared for this major event on June 19th in London.

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Royal Albert Hall-concert op 19 juni 2012 van Decca-artieste Valentina Lisitsa live op YouTube

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Valentina Lisitsa / photo by Gilbert François

Valentina‘s muzikale wordingsgeschiedenis is volstrekt uniek. Haar concert voor een 5200-koppig publiek in de Royal Albert Hall op 19 juni a.s. wordt live gestreamd via YouTube en een week later al uitgebracht.


promotiefilmpje voor het Royal Albert Hall-concert op 19 juni 2012

Vanaf het moment dat ik enkele jaren geleden met Valentina kennismaakte – zie mijn bijdragen op YouTube en op mijn weblog – heb ik geen moment getwijfeld dat haar ster naar de hoogste platforms zou reiken. Het wonderlijke is wel, voor ieder die haar muzikale verrichtingen goed heeft gevolgd, dat de gang naar het grote succes nog zo lang op zich liet wachten, maar ach, over een paar jaar heeft niemand het daar nog over. 🙂


een door mij gemaakte Valentina Lisitsa promo-video van voorjaar 2010

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Piano recital Valentina Lisitsa in Haarlem: a triumph!

A big ‘Hurray’ for pianist Valentina Lisitsa!


A picture I took of Valentina after her recital in Haarlem

What a musical triumph on Friday night 27 January 2012 in Haarlem, where Valentina played a recital. It was stunning-superb! In contrast to her recital in Delft on January 22nd – where she played on a terrible Yamaha – the stage in Haarlem offered far better conditions to help improve the performance and to stimulate Valentina to give her best. The Philharmonie in Haarlem had (from my position in the middle of its hall) good acoustics and Valentina played on a well prepared Steinway and – very crucial – one on which she had been practicing the past few days with good guidance of a piano technician. It paved the way to push Valentina to yet another extraordinary musical result. She played an astonishing programme, that covered many composers and a huge array of emotions: Beethoven’s Sonata No.26, Schumann’s Kinderszenen, Thalberg’s Grande Fantaisie Op.63, five Chopin Nocturnes and Liszt’s Totentanz.
Her touch ranged from the utmost delicacy to the most exuberant and extreme. In some pieces I heard an angelic poet (Schumann), in some a tempting siren (Chopin), in some a devilish lady with stainless steel in her mighty hands (like no one else really and totally amazing in the Totentanz!) and in yet other pieces all these musical powers greatly combined.


The Steinway that was put to the test by Valentina. Afterwards the instrument was diagnosed with PTS-syndrome, due to its peak-experiences on ‘1/27’ 🙂

Throughout the evening the musical delivery was clearly articulated and expressed with subtlety in evry detail. The audience was spellbound and carried away by the eloquence of Valentina’s musical tale-telling, always interesting and alternating from sheer poetry to an amazing virtuosity that doesn’t look difficult for her.
There was a nice surprise at the beginning: because of Mozart’s birthday – on January 27th – Valentina started her recital with a brilliant execution of his Fantasia in C-minor, KV475. Then the programme unfolded as mentioned. The audience’s great enthusiasm (there was already a standing ovation before the break) was rewarded with three marvellous encores: first Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’ (arranged by Liszt), then the charming Chopin Nocturne in E Flat Major Op.9, No.2 and Valentina ended with a mighty virtuoso-bravura piece: Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.12.
This was a night to remember. Wow!

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Piano sensation Valentina Lisitsa highlighted in dutch national press


(click on picture to enlarge)
An article on Friday 20 January 2012 about virtuoso classical pianist and YouTube-sensation Valentina Lisitsa in dutch national newspaper De Volkskrant. Valentina plays in The Netherlands, on Sunday 22 january 2012 in Delft and on Friday 27 January 2012 in Haarlem. The article in De Volkskrant shows that more and more big media finally begin to recognise what I (see my videos of Valentina on the web) and so many people on YouTube have known for years already… the unique stature and greatness of Valentina! 🙂

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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

A couple of days ago – on 18 December – Valentina Lisitsa published on her YouTubechannel a wonderful performance of Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’, transcribed for piano by Liszt. In the comment on her video Valentina made this suggestion: “If you feel creative, please go ahead and make better visuals – or just use it as a soundtrack for a self-made Christmas card (..).” As I was planning to make a Christmas & New Year-video, I took my chance and combined Valentina’s awesome playing with some footage that I thought would fit in nicely and so on the evening of Thursday 22 December I made this video… and oh, don’t forget to play in HD. 🙂

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

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Gluck’s ‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’ in a mesmerising choreography of Pina Bausch

This performance – at the Palais Garnier in Paris in 2008 – of the ‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’, from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera ‘Orfeo ed Euridice’ (1762), is of an immense, mesmerising beauty. It’s from the famous production of world renowned German choreographer Pina Bausch (1940-2009), with excellent musical support of The Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble, conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock.

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