Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Daniil Trifonov vs Valentina Lisitsa - Who do you prefer?

Hello,

So I am having a debate with someone who prefers Valentina Lisista to Daniil Trifonov. I prefer Trifonov.

If you haven't listened to them, please go listen to both of them and let me know who you prefer. You can find many of the same pieces that they've both played to compare.

Daniil Trifonov on YouTube
Valentina Lisitsa on YouTube

For the sake of our discussion would you also be able to provide some information on your piano background, e.g. how many years you've played, if you have any degrees, or certifications (ARCT, etc), and if you're a piano teacher.

Thank you!

I prefer Trifonov.

I've played piano for a while.

Trifonov.

Lisitsa is good, but I feel she often sacrifices musicality for virtuosity. Sometimes she can get away with this (like in the various showpieces by Liszt) but other times it's just mood-killing (Beethoven sonatas).

That said, they both play better than I do!

Lisitsa is a terrific pianist and Trifonov is one of the best in the world.

Trifonov is simply on another level in my opinion. Not only can he play anything in the standard repertoire , artistically and convincingly (Lisitsa is limited in what she can pull off) he also composes really cool pieces.

Trifinov wins this match up i think.

Lisitsa can play anything in the standard repertoire too.

Why should it be one or the other? We are fortunate to be able to listen to both. I don't know what bearing my piano background has on the question.

Regards,

We prefer who we prefer. What's the point of doing a survey? And then there's the implied "credibility" factor. Do you think that a piano teacher who has played for 50 years and holds advanced degrees would clearly "prefer" one artist over the other? If so, why?

"My taste is right. So-and-so on the Internet who has played for 50 years agrees with me."

my key words were artistically and convincingly, I've heard some Lisitsa interpretations that were just not very good.

I've also heard some Trifonov interpretations that were not very good either. In 2013 I heard him play Liszt's B-minor sonata and it felt very rushed, disjointed and harsh. He followed that with a lovely, sensitive rendition of Chopin's preludes, so it wasn't just a case of an off night.

I know what I like when I hear it.

So, it's a toss-up between a Fazioli and a Bösendorfer Imperial.......

While Trifonov is relatively far from the top of my preference list, I completely excluded Lisitsa from my piano world for the same non-pianistic reasons I excluded Matsuev.

And even before that, I would probably placed Trifonov above Lisitsa.

I am piano beginner, but with 5 decades of classical music listening experience.

That's interesting because the Lisitsa performance I was primarily thinking about was also the Liszt B minor. I also thought it was harsh, but there were lots of wrong notes and really sloppy pedalling.

I guess it's just a tough piece even for the pros *shrug*

Lisitsa's Hammerklavier on YouTube is one of my absolute favourite performances by anyone.

Goes to show why such a thread is entirely pointless. As I mentioned earlier, I find nearly all of her Beethoven (with a few exceptions) to be very lacking in substance. Many disagree, as evidenced by her large concert attendance and numerous youtube subscribers. This sort of thing is all personal preference and the opinions of others should not even be considered, especially if you like a particular musician.

On a side note, if you haven't already done so, I recommend also listening to Igor Levit's Hammerklavier interpretation. It's truly amazing, as are all of his recordings of the late Beethoven sonatas.

He's fantastic!

Lisitsa's prettier ! Her forearms are also extremely muscular.

T'was just a matter of time before someone would go there.