Valentina Lisitsa practices live on the web until Independance Day

I don’t think any of the world’s best classical pianists has ever done this… but she does. Out of loyalty and gratitude to her worldwide following Valentina Lisitsa is running a live webcam inside her practice studio at home until the 4th of July (midnight to be exact).

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Buffy, one of Valentina’s cats, joined in at some point and started a piano duet… what a treat! 🙂

The use of technology to connect with an audience, like no other pianist Valentina Lisitsa knows how to do this. Her live-rehearsals involve working on recital and concert programmes that she has to perform next month. The number of pieces she’s working on in these rehearsals: 55 ! That’s FIFTY-FIVE, yes, and more than half of the material is brand new for her. She’s rehearsing this material 13-14 hours a day, from around 9-10AM EST to midnight. She adds: “Nothing exciting otherwise :-)”
I ‘attended’ some of her live rehearsals and it makes you realise once more what it requires to reach the absolute top level in piano playing. Watching Valentina rehearse is a unique opportunity for anyone interested in how one of the world’s finest pianists is working and getting prepared for bringing her art on stage.

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5 thoughts on “Valentina Lisitsa practices live on the web until Independance Day

  1. Hello, Tonal Ties.

    THis is very interesting. BUt what are the new pieces??
    So far, I think Val is rehearsing things she knows, except
    perhaps some of the CHopin nocturnes.

    Stan

  2. Dear Stan,
    Thanks for your response.
    Yes, the nocturnes, but she’s also been doing chopin polonaises, & chopin waltzes and a chopin scherzo and – i think – also a chopin ballade. Those chopin pieces – nocturnes, polonaises and waltzes, scherzo, ballade – all seem to be part of the ‘new stuff’ she’s practising during these live sessions… but I’m not sure really… anyway, I never saw her playing those chopin pieces before. Maybe I’ll soon find out 🙂
    Kind Regards,
    Pieter

  3. Hi, Pieter.

    Thanks for your reply. She has done at least two of the polonaises and two of the waltzes, but you are right, too. There is a lot more wonderful Chopin!!

    I’ve been a big fan of Valentina since I learned she lived here in my state of North
    Carolina. I attended two back to back recitals in Oriental, NC last December, and I was mesmerized. The audience went crazy.

    I enjoy traditional music as well as classical, so let me say thank you for all the work you have done on Tonal Ties. IT was great of you to put the interviews
    with Val on line, too. Is there any way to adjust the audio levels so that it is easier to understand her speech?

    Anyway, sincerely, thanks again. I believe in Valentina, and I hope she
    “breaks big” in the next year or so, with her new releases on Naxos and on ?……… with the Rachmaninoff concertos.

    BY the way, I have looked for reviews of her performances with the Rotterdam Orchestra, but I can’t find any. Maybe because they are in DUtch. Do you know of any newspaper reviews, of the Warenberg/Rachmaninoff , for instance?

    Best wishes,
    Stan Gilliam

  4. Hi Stan,
    Thanks again.

    Though (I know that) the media were notified that Val was playing in The Netherlands there were no reviews on her Rachmaninoff/Warenberg-concerto. Apparently they’re still not really aware of what we’re dealing with here, that’s all I like to say here about it. I did a thorough search and found out there was only an article in the Leidsch Dagblad that devoted a small section to Val in a preview article on the Cum Laude Concerten-series in Leiden where she was also performing and doing a Beethoven+Chopin-recital.
    I also think the recent Naxos release and especially the upcoming release of the Rachmaninoff concertos with the LSO (I witnessed the recordings, and it’s fabulous, to put it mildly) – possibly by the end of this year – will put her in a new and even better spotlight, a spotlight that the critics and the music world as a whole can no longer ignore.
    Later on this year I will publish new material of Val including a new interview, concerning the Rachmaninoff/Warenberg Concerto.

    Best Wishes,
    Pieter

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