Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Kissin, Lisitsa, Lang Lang So Overrated

I don't understand why they are so popular, they are approaching to a piano like some kind of athletics. they miss out the composer intention and show off with their skills rather than convey the music itself like cortot, rosenthal, paderewski, horowitz, richter and every other great pianists did. i think %90 of new age pianists destroy classical music. for example I watched the last chopin competition and i dissapointed compared to old ones i remember dang thai son, pollini, zimerman how they played with such delicacy but today pianists are more like hammer hitting on the piano, doing weird facial expressions they are just attention seekers. I ask to myself what is the difference between today pianists and lady gaga i don't see any difference

Years ago I saw a documentary of Horowtiz playing his last concert. He was quite frail by then and I was thinking, you have got to be kidding me- he can barely walk, how can he play? But he absolutely nailed pieces by Mozart and various Romantics with a touch and fluency which were celestial.
BTW, do not apologize for your Eglish. It is excellent.

Really?

Kissin? Seriously?

Batuhan, you say that as if it were a bad thing.

I can't comment about Lisitsa or Lang Lang, since I have heard very little of their works. However, I do enjoy listening to recordings of Kissin. You should watch the documentary/film "The Gift of Music" featuring Kissin, available on YouTube if you feel inclined to do so. I won't compare Kissin or Lang Lang to Richter or Horowitz in the same way that I won't compare Beethoven to Bach.
Then again, maybe I have bad taste or maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about

Don't watch competitions if you want to hear seasoned artists playing with mature and well-developed interpretations. Competition players are young and they're playing to impress judges. Watch concerts of today's best well-established concert pianists instead.

Don't confuse entertainment with virtuosity. It's nice when the two combine, but often entertainment leads the way.

and don't confuse virtuosity with artistry. It's nice when the two combine but often virtuosity leads the way.

The other two yes, but Kissin? I would have added Wang to that list.

It's the economics of commercialism in today's societies. Pianists that have something to say musically, usually do; deep personal art forms are something that doesn't market very well to the masses. If we want better artists on stage, we need more educated audiences that appreciate thought provoking experiences, over entertainment.

We live in different times.

OP, The pianists you mention in your title grew up in radically different environments, cultures etc......than the earlier pianists you mention in the body of the post.

I seem to remember a couple of my teachers making similar criticisms about Pollini during the 70"s: ".....bang, bang, and still more banging."

During the 80's, Kissin seemed to be a child-prodigy-freak-show; that is, if you believed some of the cruel criticisms that I heard.

It was all overly petty, jealous and stupid: I walked away thinking that these former teachers of mine were certified "a-holes."

Performing pianists can grow up in public, not quite like our Gaga-s and Kardashians, but they can. Not an easy thing to do, I bet.

Sometimes I feel that Lang Lang is genuinely trying out new ideas onstage to see if they work or not (disclaimer: this is from video and audio, it's been a # of years since I've seen him live). If he is, then that's his prerogative as an artist - one that is still growing.

Do we need to like everything that he does? No, we don't.

To me, regarding a live performance as a finished product is sort of
part of a competition mindset. Or maybe it's fear.

I'm a Lisitsa fan, but damned if I haven't tried to find something that I dislike about her playing, and I couldn't. That was probably some strange ego thing at work.

Attention-seeking? I hope so. How are they going to build the career that they want in our current cultural environment without that trait?

I like to think that we all seriously want to respect the composer's intentions - especially if we are still students. But my "objectivity" in that realm can easily be interpreted and filtered by your perception as "subjectivity", and vice-versa.

I'm getting in too deep for a leisurely Saturday morning. I'll shut up now.

First of all, you compared the three pianists to some of the really great pianists of all time. Saying someone is not as good as Horowitz, Richter, Cortot, or Zimerman would be true for the huge majority of professional pianists at any time in history.

Kissin IMO has been one of the best pianists in the world for 25 years and is incredibly popular with the public and often gets terrific critical reviews also. Lisitsa has gained great popularity from the internet and her radiant personality. Although I think she is very good, probably not many would call her world class. Lang Lang is a separate case. Very talented but more of a showman like some of the pianists of the 19th century. But as much as some dislike his playing, few can deny his incredible contribution to popularizing classical music and this alone makes him very important IMO.

I think it is huge big mistake(often made on this forum) to criticize the majority of young pianists as just bangers with technique and nothing else. Recent winners of the Chopin competition have been really terrific IMO, and I have heard at least a hundred concerts by young pianists who I believe show great musical understanding as well a big technique.

Some pianists who make facial expressions do it for attention but for many others, Trifonov or Uchida for example, that is not the case.

Lady Gaga happens to be a terrific singer if you heard her recent collaboration with Tony Bennett.

One difference between LGG and today's young professional pianists is that most of today's pianists probably can't play the piano while standing on the piano bench with their behind sticking up n the air.

I don't really see how anyone who has seen many of the huge number of terrific young pianists playing today could say that they all are on the purely entertainment level of Lady Gaga.

Most of today's young professional pianists can't sing either. Heck, even Horowitz and Richter couldn't sing, much less stick their behind up in the air........

I wouldn't put these three in the same bucket.

First, there is no comparison between Lisitsa and the other two. Let's take her out of this class because she is very inferior in every way compared to Kissin or LL. It is almost comparing an amateur to professionals.

That said I would not put Kissin and LL in the same bucket too.

Kissin right from the very start of his career had a usual normal, standard career of what other prodigies before him had. He plays predictably and solidly though some might find too standard and not so interesting at times. But nevertheless he is a great artist and deserves his place. I am happy that the world has him.

LL, is altogether on his own category. He represents the popular side of classical music mainly aimed at Asian and US markets. But it is not by luck that he is where he is. He earned his reputation too. Maybe it would be more appropriate to put him and Yuja Wang in similar categories.

I have yet to hear a truly interesting recorded performance from Kissin.

A few years ago, I heard Kissin play the Brahms First with the Toronto Symphony. It was wretched.

I consider Kissin an astoundingly talented pianist, and his video (as a teenager) of Prokofiev 6 just destroyed me. How could a young lad grapple with such 'adult' content? It is not music for youngsters.

That said, and with all due respect, Kissin can be oddly inconsistent. I heard him a number of times in London during my uni years (of course I knew everything then ), and a magisterial Schubert D958 oddly contrasted with a rather impatient assault on the 4 Chopin Ballades.

Of course the plentiful encores were great fun, including a breath-taking daredevil wiz through the finale of Weber's 1st sonata. Wow!

His recording of the Brahms F minor IMO was very fine, though I have not heard him play it live.

Selected cuts from that album are currently in rotation on our local jazz station.

If Tony Bennett makes up in enthusiasm what he may lack in current vocal abilities, who cares. A great collaboration, and anyone doubting the awesome talent of Lady Gaga should listen in!

But you are in a small minority because his concerts have been selling out for many decades and these are not the same people who flock to hear LL.

Not sure what "truly interesting" has to do with great piano playing.