Fiona Maddocks 

Valentina Lisitsa: Live at the Royal Albert Hall – review

Valentina Lisitsa is a YouTube sensation, but this live disc fails to convince Fiona Maddocks
  
  


Valentina Lisitsa made her Albert Hall debut on 19 June. This speedily released disc is the result. The Ukrainian pianist has established her reputation via 45 million hits and 55,000 subscribers on YouTube. It's a novel way of forging a classical career and so far the most interesting aspect. This recital disc of short piano pops proves Lisitsa's technical skill rather than the potential depth or reach of her musicality. She opens, in reckless mood, with Rachmaninov's Prelude in G Minor, then settles into an elegant Für Elise (Beethoven), a light-fingered, alert La campanella (Liszt), a "Moonlight" Sonata with an oddly heavy left hand, and so on in similar vein. Those who like her will like it. Let's see what happens next.

 

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