Valentina Lisitsa--technique?

could I have some comments on Valentina Lisitsa's technique? Take a look/listen here: For example, beginning around 6:30 and into the tremelo 6:45: It looks like she is using just about perfect alignment. However, as she goes forward into the trill with her right hand, by 7:15 or so, her hand is standing on the tips of her fingers. Around 8:45 it looks good, in fact great, with super ease and rotation in the left hand. Just like Horowitz, she plays with straight, aligned wrist and arched fingers; as well as straight fingers and arched wrist. By 10:16 or so the arch is definitely at the wrist. And going forward, she even makes an arch with the wrist and with the fingers, on the same hand at the same time. Does she use everything there is to use, whether it is "proper" or not? Near the end of the piece, just as at the beginning, her hands appear to be just hanging. Relaxed, in perfect control, and all the technique needed to make music. Sheeessh! Regardless, for me her playing is very impressive. How in the world do you practice to be able to play like this? She did say she practices 12-14 hrs/day. maybe that's the answer? Still, how do you know when to do what? --just for fun, take a look/listen to this Rachmaninoff of hers-- Comments? Bob T.

Valentina is a fine pianist with great technique. There are certain things lacking in her orchestration sound that I would work on, but to find the physical element in all that I would need to work with her at close quarters - it's not something that's physically visible on a video. At the distance we see/hear her at on YouTube, she is great! AFF

Thanks for the comments Alan. I am still trying to figure out her technique as it relates to proper skeletal alignment, especially when she races through octaves. I think she is perhaps the only pianist who really shows what's happening at the keyboard. It helps a lot. I agree with you about orchestration things, but solo, relaxed at the keyboard, she blows me away. Her gestures, at first I did not like. Then I tried just a few and my goodness, the relaxation it put back in the hands! And how do these people know when to go flat fingered, when to do arch? It all happens seamlessly and so quickly--shifting one to the other and then playing trills from having the hand hanging loose and the fingers just standing on the keys--sheesh!

I also heard Horowitz play the Rachmaninoff G minor prelude live in Boston in '81 so it's not really fair to Valentina for me to make the comparison. But I will anyway. It's similar to what I just wrote about Peter Nero - her forward drive is unrelenting, and when it does relent it does so in the standard way taught in conservatories the world over, rather than in a way that reflects the tremendous orchestrational potential of this work. This is not so true in the middle section but in the outer sections yes. She's a really fine pianist, but what I failed to say in my other post is that I personally don't like her playing very much. I wish I could play with that physical virtuosity but I wish she did more with it musically. It's too much like a good machine a lot of the time... And yet to be that good a machine is an amazing, incredible achievement! Life is full of paradoxes... AFF

Alan, when I first saw Lisitsa, I was really distracted by her gestures. I thought, what is she doing? As I attempted the same thing, I became aware of how much those lifts of the hand and flow, do for relaxation. It took me quite a while before I put her technique together with the music she makes. It seems completely different from other pianists. For me, I'd much rather hear her than a LangLang. Even though her playing does seems mechnical, but perfectly so, in her interpretations. It's not like Horowitz or the other Valentina: Igoshina. The first thing I saw/heard her do was the Chopin "Raindrop." Her interpretation is completely different from Horowitz, yet for me, equally valid. Horowitz makes a very distinct coming and going of a real storm, one that is fierce and terrible. Igoshina makes it more subdued, yet still a storm, but one with great melancholy. I like her interpretation very much. Or maybe it was just the video.? Her long hair, the soft lighting, the dress, her eyes., were well done. I finally had to close my eyes so as to not be distracted by the atmosphere set up by the video. Actually, I prefer her interpretation to Horowitz. I know that's heresy, but i feel more melancholy and sadness in that piece than the fierce and terribleness of the storm as it comes and goes that Horowitz gives it. Lisitsa on the other hand, seems to have perfect control and technique but the extremes of emotion that Igoshina and Horowitz pulled from their interpretations, i did not feel. I'm still blown away when I see her doing trills. She often lets her hand hang very loose, high above the keys, and the fingers following that natural arch made by letting the wrist break, versus it being in the hand. With her finger/hand/wrist/arm alignment, she winds up playing trills with her fingers being nearly vertical. She is still using arch, but it being wrist/through hand to fingers, seems to be contrary to what I always thought of as "correct." Yet, it seems very relaxed, effortless, and gets the sound out. So it is confusing to me--how do you play a trill with vertical fingers that just hang from the hand? Obviously, I do not know or haven't been taught this technique. Does her style go along with the skeletal alignment that you and Fink are instructing? Or is it Lisitsa's own or some thing learned in the Russian/Ukrainian school? Anyway, I wouldn't mind having technique like that, along with the musical depth of feeling i get from Igoshina and Horowitz. Bob T

Could you post a link for the Valentina Igoshina raindrop prelude? I've never heard of her. As for Lisitsa's vertical finger trills, that sounds like simply a good manifestation of unstable equilibrium. Remember, the arch doesn't have to be shaped like an arch to function like an arch. Once the right action of the lumbrical/interosseous (the arch-generating force) is well-established, it can take place in any physical configuration. Another thing, if your hand is already in an arch shape, then the force needed to generate the arch has already been exerted. So you'll often see healthy arch generation beginning from what might seem a relatively collapsed position. AFF

Thanks Alan, that helps me understand the arch better. It seems that there are several ways to approach it that are correct, but many ways to get it wrong. Here's the url for Valentina Igoshina's "raindrop": I don't know if it's the backlighting on her hair or what, but it sure makes the performance nicer. That's why I have to close my eyes to listen & not be enthralled with the video. Here's the url for her playing the Fantasie Impromptu. It looks and sounds pretty good. somewhat muddy here and there but nevertheless, not something to dismiss. Watching her left hand, I often see it drop, arched from the wrist, then her fingers raised above the top of the hand to make a second arch with curved fingers. I've seen other Russian pianists do this. I have a hard time trying to hold my hand in that position (double arches), yet alone playing that way. She too, often makes use as Listisa does of playing with the hands held very high and playing with nearly vertical fingers. I haven't seen any video of Horowitz doing either of those two things, but maybe I haven't seen enough? So, I enjoyed it (especially the video). Even the playing. UNTIL: Horowitz doing it: His music blows her's and everyone else's away. Clean, articulate, vibrant, great tone, crystal clear, interpretation, perfect execution, what else can I say? Perhaps the only edge Valentina has over him is she is much, much easier on the eyes than he is (lol). Bob