Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner October 19th - Valentina Lisitsa at 92Y

Incidentally, I can't even think of what this means.

I'll speak with a dead composer and maybe I shall find the true light.

Just trolling along, eh?

Sorry, not interested.

By the way, I think it's worth pointing out that there are a variety of "critics" of LL here and not all of them talk about that extraneous stuff (actually, I think relatively few of them do), but instead talk about his actual playing. The worst playing from him I ever heard was in a radio broadcast, where I didn't see him at all.

The smoke machines are particularly ludicrous. How can one respect a musician who does things like this?

Well, that one is easy enough to answer...just don't attend the kind of events where they are used and you won't be bothered by them. Or you shouldn't be, IMO.

Her tone was an issue for a reviewer of a recent Rach 3 she did in the UK, too. He said "Her technique is sufficient to enable her to play the notes but not to produce depth of tone at anything above mezzo-forte, with the result that much of the music sounded brittle to the point of ugliness. I winced at several moments of attack."

So maybe her technique is not "beyond question", either.

Exactly. As I said, LL performs in two different worlds. When he is playing with orchestras, he is not much different than any other pianist. You may not like his interpretation, but he's perfectly comfortable in, and respectful of, what I'd call the "traditional" world of classical music.

The smoke machines and black leather are reserved for the hoi polloi (to use bennevis' term). He is not trying to preach to the choir (us), and he has no expectation that you or I would even show up at such events. His goal is to attract a younger crowd who are not well versed in classical music, but who may give some consideration to a piece by Chopin or Liszt simply because they're geeked by the charismatic performer.

This is not rocket science. If you want the "serious" Lang Lang, see him when he's playing with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia, the Cleveland, etc. I guarantee you won't be seeing any smoke machines, and you may actually enjoy the performance. For all other events, stay away.

Does anyone know how much actual control a musician like Lang Lang or, say, Yanni (I know, I know... just stick with me for this particular question...) how much control they have regarding the production of their "show"?

Along those lines, when Valentina was here in Rockford, I asked her how much say she had over her program. Basically, she said something like, "not as much as one might think." "Management" had its say, she said, and at the time, she indicated that she was looking forward to playing something besides Liszt when the anniversary year had passed.

Sometimes I think we forget that there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes at that level of performance, and that the person at the piano faces certain pressures beyond what we see and hear them do on stage.

--Andy

Put yourself in the position or a concert series promoter, particularly in a composers' centennial year. Even of a parochial music club.
If they left the programs entirely to the whim of the players, they are likely to get a very narrow variety of fare.

Now put yourself in the position of artistic director of a music festival with 3-4 concerts and lectures every day of the week(s), all attended by the same audiences. . They often have to arrange cycles of concerts on various themes to the extent that the programs are pre-arranged and then the musicians are sought out who can play it.