Having won a receptive audience by posting videos on YouTube, pianist Valentina Lisitsa has taken the next logical steps for a self-promoting star: booking the Royal Albert Hall for a solo recital of pieces by Rachmaninov, Liszt, Chopin, Beethoven, and Scriabin, and getting Decca to record it. Naturally, Rachmaninov's Etude-Tableau, "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf," is included, because Lisitsa's video performance of this piece started her rise to fame, and it was a clever idea to make listeners associate a particularly flashy and fun piece with her style of playing. Lisitsa is a dynamic performer who plays with great speed and volatility, rather in the manner of Martha Argerich, and her interpretations are full of teasing rubato, hectic attacks, and surging and diminishing dynamics, all characteristic of the Romantic individualism that is Lisitsa's strong suit. She is at her best in short but loud character pieces that require a show of force, and less impressive in softer pieces where her lack of sublety is more apparent. The inclusion of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata was a mistake because it reveals her limitations in handling Classical style and a two-dimensional understanding of Beethoven's expressions, resulting in a fairly mechanical performance. Even so, Lisitsa is an entertainer, rather than an aesthete, and her showmanship dominates this album so much that to expect anything else is pointless. Decca's sound is big and expansive, so the piano isn't lost in the Royal Albert Hall's space, but its presence isn't immediate.
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