Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Valentina Lisitsa--"Rach Project"

I do have to disagree with one point stores, I absolutely do not think she is pretty A better example of that would be Lola Astanova.

Though I would still much prefer to listen Louis Lortie and putting up a picture of Jessica Alba.

I care only about the music, but make no mistake that her looks DO play a part in her popularity as is the case with some other pianists that come to mind.

Yes, but if I were you, I would not mention the "looks" aspect. It diminishes your opinion.

Victor, I don't think she's pretty either, nor did I say she was. I said she's above average in the looks department, which simply means she not ugly. I don't really care about her looks one way or the other though. I care only about the music, but make no mistake that her looks DO play a part in her popularity as is the case with some other pianists that come to mind. Plover, if you're reading this I'll state this as fact, before you begin your opinion/fact blah blah blah again.

But the real forum question is, is she prettier than the third concerto by Rachmaninov is hard ?

You already stated it as if it was a fact by not including any IMO or "I think".

"Since a lot of what makes music work famously defies explanation and verbalization, I guess it is easy to come to the conclusion that "it's all subjective" - but it isn't."

It isn't?

"Of course, all this varies with the individual, and no one is infallible, and there will always be disagreement between knowledgeable people, too. But experience and expertise still do count."

It all varies with the individual but not subjective?

Is it too naive anymore to just say, "Enjoy the music!"?

"Since a lot of what makes music work famously defies explanation and verbalization, I guess it is easy to come to the conclusion that "it's all subjective" - but it isn't."

It isn't?

"Of course, all this varies with the individual, and no one is infallible, and there will always be disagreement between knowledgeable people, too. But experience and expertise still do count."

It all varies with the individual but not subjective?



" I remember reading somewhere that it isn't enough to love the music you play, but the music must also love you. If she can focus on music that loves her, I think/feel/hope that there could be a great artist in her, not yet realized."

What in heaven's name does this mean? Is it a fancy way of saying that a person relates to the music? Or a clever way of saying that the music is still alive even though written down?


All these words about music, so little time. I don't mean to disparage all this discussion, but I have to say in some way it all strikes me as rather ludicrous. Maybe too much sophistication (or pretenses toward such) is the problem. I remember the first time I heard Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 #2, and was completely enchanted into another world. It was over the radio, a tinny speaker, I can't remember who the pianist was. But it was the music. The music. The music.

Since then, I've collected hundreds upon hundreds of CDs of a wide variety of piano music and pianists. But I'd be pretty hard pressed to tell anyone who I think is "best" or who my favorite pianist is. (I could say something like "I really love Pires's Chopin Nocturnes" but I can't say it in terms of "Her interpretation is the best that I've ever heard." I just don't understand "best" when it comes to these sorts of things, especially when you get to a certain level of competency.

And when I go to YouTube, and find myself listening to some guy in Passaic, doing his best to perform "What Have You" by "The Great Composer" I'm not going to be after his throat. And maybe Lisitsa is a showgirl, I dont know (although I'm certain of one thing and it's that she's looks 87.892901 times more serious with the music than Clang Clang) but I can't help but simply fall into an awed respect of someone who has absorbed herself so fully into the music.

I don't go to performances to judge or compare. That's a waste of time. I wonder sometimes if we're just too easily saturated with "input" - that there are so many easy ways to listen to a performance these days. Maybe we lose too much (and I hate to use this word, but...) innocence in our approach.

Is it too naive anymore to just say, "Enjoy the music!"?

I do have to disagree with one point stores, I absolutely do not think she is pretty A better example of that would be Lola Astanova.

I do have to disagree with one point stores, I absolutely do not think she is pretty A better example of that would be Lola Astanova.

Well, just based on the two replies above, methinks I'd rather go to concerts with Debrucey than WR, even though I might learn more from the latter, musicologically speaking. Of which, such aforementioned difference of the methodology of concert attendance, in and of itself, ipso facto, does thus clearly prove the complete subjectivity of the musical experience.

I am beginning to see why you'd prefer to see it that way.

Care to expand on your innuendo?

Care to expand on your innuendo?