F. Chopin - 24 Etudes for Piano Op.10 , Op 25

Rating:
Summary: Amature Pianist / Amature Production
Review: Her interpretations are weak, hollow, and boring. Her technique is amature. The production value is cheap. And she exudes a quality of "sleaze". A complete rip-off. Don't buy this DVD unless you find it somewhere in a dime-bin at a yard sale.


Rating:
Summary: An excellent expose
Review: I've watched this several times, and I agree that this is a DVD worth purchasing. For pianists, especially, it's instructive to watch an artist with perfect technique. She clearly plays these pieces with ease, which is necessary if one hopes to play them musically, rather than as practice pieces.

As far as musical inspiration is concerned, this set is interesting, but falls a little short of the more well-known recordings (Pollini, Cortot, Ashkenazy, etc). Yet there are many moments of real poignancy here, and many of her tempos depart from the mainstream, usually with very good effect. I was impressed by the middle section of 25/10, which she plays very slowly, giving it a haunting quality. I was astounded by the lightness of touch in 25/6 and the ease with which she tosses of 10/1. In her hands, 25/9 is scintilating and 10/4 breathes fire. My main disappointment was with the last two. Both sounded a bit mechanical - I percieved neither the wind-swept desolation of 25/11 nor the surging pathos of 25/12.

Sound quality is first rate. The camera work is especially nice. I found it to be a perfect blend of angles - the hands are shown at the appropriate times, but the camera cuts to various views of the artist frequently enough that the audience is always aware of her presence as a person. We catch her smiling on multiple occasions (which I understand is a trademark of hers) but she never succumbs to the sort of contortions which are so distracting in some artists. The back and forth cutting of the camera in the middle section of 10/4 is clever and very effective. Clearly, the video people were very in tune with the whole music making experience and probably intimately familiar with the pieces.

Overall, the set is entertaining and instructive from beginning to end and well worth adding to any collection. For anyone who has actually learned any of these works (and I have) this video is full of superb insight.

Rating:
Summary: a magnificent production
Review: In my forty years of collecting recordings, I have acquired or heard at least a couple of dozen versions of the complete Chopin Etudes. The first thing I can say is that even if this recording by Valentina Lisitsa were an audio-only CD, I would still be very happy to own it. I would place it among my top two versions, the other being by Juana Zayes. Lisitsa is not only magnficent technically and tonally, but is much more musically compelling, and plays with much greater imagination, than such famous pianists as Maurizio Pollini (dull and colorless) or Vladimir Ashkenazy (who rarely offers anything more than mere competence). Her interpretations are personal, but never sound willful or mannered.

Add to this the stunning video production and excellent, rich sound, and this becomes a truly exceptional document. The camera work is breathtakingly imaginative, with beautiful lighting and multiple camera angles that exchange or crossfade into one another, never haphazardly or randomly, but always in a way that illuminates the technical demands of the particular Etude being played and enhances the musical experience. This DVD is a magnificent achievement, and I recommend it highly.




Rating:
Summary: Transcendental
Review: Lisitsa is, herself, a very strong expression of the music. Her face, her smile, her hands, hair, all her beauty contributes to create a atmosphere of more and more beauty. But when her hands touch the keyboard, all the sounds be silent, and the true music simply flows from her fingers to our ears. Lisitsa's interpretation really touches the heart.

I'll coment all the studies:

10/1: I never liked this Etude. But when I listened her performance, I've changed of idea, it's marvelous.

10/2: Her light touch make his etude semms like a delicate and melodic "glissando", and the acents in left hand are very beautiful.

10/3: The best recording I've ever heard, this is the preferred Etude of Chopin, and hearing Valentina's performance, we can understand why.

10/4 Is simply unbreathable, I can't take a breath when hearing the study, the "Con Fuoco" indication is truly observable, she really make her hands make fire, like a very happy review above this said.

10/5: Joyful and supberb, the best interpretation I've ever heard, combinasting lightness of touch and melodic sense to make the music live.

10/6: Poetical and melancholic, she does the piano cry, in Idil Biret's style.

10/7: Changing the character abruptely in relation of preceding etude, very joyful and light, played like a happy polish dance.

10/8: Very beautiful and light, but I think the speed would be increased.

10/9: Morbid, sad, inquiet, she effort the semelhance with liszt transcendental etude Nº10.

10/10: Very happy and inocent, acentuating the mozartian caracteristique of Chopin's music.

10/11: Revolutionary interpretation, by putting melancholy and morbidness in this Etude, convincing of a nerver seen way.

10/12: Powerful and supberb, althought her tremendous technique, you can hear the people crying on Warsaw's 1830 invasion.

25/1: Combinating elements of Arrau's, Horowitz' and Freire's interpretations, and beating all of them.

25/2: Only comparable to Arrau's 1929 recording, but with Valentina's charming and elegant style, it makes sense.

25/3: Only comparable to Pollini's recording. but with a hint of poetry I've never seen.

25/4: Renowing the interpretation of this etude, she plays it smiling, making all the music smile too.

25/5: Playng with a deep sense of poetry, tragedy and resignation, a true monument in Chopin's interpretation.

25/6: Lightness of touch, "sotto voce" playing and dynamic varioance make her recording brilliant.

25/7: Only comparable to Biret's recording, she touchs our hearts with very deep Chopinian feelings and emotions.

25/8: Adds extra joy and happynes to a happy and joiyful composition.

25/9: Fly away, flying like a Butterly from her hands, above all other things in your mind. You forget the reality for 57 seconds.

25/10: Her interpretation of 25/10 is only beaten by Cziffra's one in the first part, but in the middle-part it's marvelous poetic and sentimental.

25/11: Heroic and brave, but something was lost. (What?)

25/12: Tempestuous and devastator, she plays like Argerich, but with a hint of insanity tat gives a obscure and awesome character to this music.

To concluse: Valentina Lisitsa is the more Lisztian pianist I've ever heard. And, Chopin said: "My etudes are only beautiful when Liszt plays them".

Rating:
Summary: FRAUD !
Review: The music on this DVD is, for the most part, solid. Some of her interpretations are genuinely exciting. Her Op. 25 #5 is the only one I really disliked.

HOWEVER, if you think you're going to be watching a "live", uncut performance, you'll be disappointed. In probably 40+ percent of this DVD, the audio is noticeably out of synch with the video.

Some etudes, like Op. 10 #2, are out of synch right from the start. Others *gradually* become out of synch - a clear sign that what you're hearing is from a different performance than the one you're watching.

In some cases, you can see her playing wrong notes (if you know the pieces anyway) but you hear the correct ones.

Another example of "fraud": At the beginning of Op. 25 #3, you see her smiling, hands bouncing away. We go to a different angle where she's not smiling, then right back to the shot where she's smiling. Apparently, she can't even make it through one etude in a single take! (I'm sure she can but the director certainly casts doubt by combining these different takes).

Anyway, if you want to watch an uncut performance of hers, go to her website and watch the video in which she attempts the Carmen Variations.

A final note on the DVD's special features: There are none.


Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Chopin DVD!
Review: Ukrainian virtuosa, Valentina Lisitsa, is nicely filmed playing the Chopin etudes from Opus 10 and 25. Her Bosendorfer piano is well recorded in Dolby Digital / PCM Stereo sound. I particularly liked the transitions from one etude to the next. As a pianist, I enjoyed the various camera angles that display Lisitsa's hands and technique. In general, her interpretation of each piece allows the music to "breathe." Her playing is reminiscent of Rachmaninov's style...almost improvisatory in long melodic phrases but taught and rhythmic when needed. A wonderful first dvd from a rising star. Check out her live performance of Liszt's insanely difficult "Don Juan" fantasy on her website. http://www.valentinalisitsa.com/valhome.html

Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal playing
Review: Valentina Lisitsa -- remember the name, and when she is in the town, get ye to the concert. She is special. Yes, quick-silver fingered, like many a Russian pianist; yes, a thunderer and a conjurer of colorful sonorities; and yes, very emotional... and yet, she has something those "new and young Russians" do not possess -- a thoughtful personality, a sense where each note of the piece belongs not just within the piece itself but within the body of the composer's works. On the surface, she is much closer to Ervin Nyiregyhazi than to Martha Argerich, to whom Valentina is often compared in the press. Hearing Ms. Lisitsa in a recent solo concert, it was Nyiregyhazi's name that came to my mind -- Nyiregyhazi the Magician, the Conjurer, the Great Trickster, and unfortunately the greatest career disaster among the greatest pianists of the Golden Era. There is something about Lisitsa's playing that slices the music at the angle at which time the most intriguing layered structure is revealed and that is very characteristic of Nyiregyhazi and other major pianists of Hungarian school.

I could not wait to have the 24 etudes in my collection. Marvelously done! A VERY good performance and execution, both visual and audio. Many years ago Harold Schonberg said to one Russian pianist who intended to record all of the Chopins' etudes, "Do not record the complete Chopin Etudes lest your name is Josef Hoffmann." Well, Valentina's DVD proves otherwise. Maybe it's not "a Hoffmann," but Hoffmann was irreplicable, and that's besides the point and completely irrelevant today. Her rendition of the etudes is 10 times more interesting and captivating than what's available today on the market, including such big wigs as Ashkenazi and Guiomar Novaes. Besides, it is FUN to watch. Again, brava! Great accomplishment!

Her husband (no tyro at the keyboard himself, by the way) did all the visuals. Commendable job! Much of the camera work is stylistically reminiscent of the Glenn Gould/Bruno Monsaingeon teamwork, which is a compliment.

I hope this is not her last DVD project. There are also Liszt's Transcendental Etudes, which Valentina already plays often in her recitals; and there are also "the terrifying fifty-three," Chopin's Etudes in dizzying Godowski's arrangement -- a repertoire only a few chosen have ever tried to harness. So far, no competition... Avanti!


Rating:
Summary: One of the Greatest Living Pianists !
Review: Valentina Lisitsa is a fairly new pianist who has stunned many with her heroic and original recordings. I find her to be light fingered, lyrical, and passionate in conveying her interpretation. She plays with strength and avoids constant overpedaling, giving the listener a clear and non-distorded recording.

I've listened to many recording of the Chopin etudes and very few succeed in demonstrating a musical rather than technical connection. My favorite recording of the entire set was by the Hungarian Pianist Gyorg Cziffra, and other pianists have recorded stunning fragments: I. Friedman, Sokolov, Richter and others. I believe Valentina has earned her place amongst these giants, as her overall conception of the music is sincere and foremost original. Something very hard to do with such technical pieces; however, she makes it look easy! Nevertheless, I believe each one of these pianists brought something true to the pieces and so does she.

I do have some complaints about the DVD though, I find the directing to be rather obsurd. Valentina, being the true artist she is--remains unaffected by the obnoxious directing and swirving of the cameraman. Secondly, I find the sound to be off and I may blame the engineer though it may be the piano. It doesn't seem to pronouce well and remains introverted.

Otherwise, Valentina's musicianship and interpretation of Chopin's etudes is not to be missed. The DVD is certainly worth the purchase and I await for more new recordings from a truly remarkable pianist. She has recorded a great version of Bach's Partitias no.2; the video can be found at www.valentinalisitsa.com (better directing thankfully). Though you may have to listen to it with your eyes shut because like Horowitz, her physical stature and playing creates a lot of magic that can often bias a recording =) .




Rating:
Summary: Amazing DVD
Review: Valentina Lisitsa is a superb artist. She possesses tremendous technical skill and is musically wonderful. Her playing appears effortless.

The sound and video on this DVD are excellent. It is a true pleasure to hear Chopin performed so well.

Hopefully, Ms. Lisitsa will produce additional recordings of great pieces in the near future.

Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal playing!!
Review: What a performance! What a surprise! Valentina Lisitsa may not be Sokolov or Horowitz, but she definitely is an outstanding artist in her own right. Her recording of the etudes has a great deal to offer: from sheer musicality and poetry in the slow ones to technical brilliance and drama in the fast ones.