“Lisitsa isn't at the beginning of her career: she's 39 and has known the hardship of obscurity. She told us as much in a disarming introduction to the recital (she also joked about the concurrent clash between the football teams of Ukraine and England), but once at the keyboard, she dispensed with the casual banter and became a woman utterly focused on the task at hand. Had she had her way, Lisitsa wouldn't even have paused to allow applause between any of the evening's items; only when she let a few seconds too much to pass between the end of one piece and the beginning of the next did the mostly attentive audience interject with their appreciation.”
Valentina Lisitsa’s Royal Albert Hall concert felt like a genuine event, and contained a lot of fine pianism to boot. The above extract is from my Classical Source review; you can read the rest here.
The concert is to be rushed out for CD and download by Decca in a matter of weeks. The whole recital was live-streamed on Youtube (jump to around 18 minutes for the first item).
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