PETA STEWART
“I never thought I would be the flagbearer of a technological revolution,” says pianist Valentina Lisitsa, in Cape Town to perform with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and on the Cape Town Concert Series platform. “But that’s what it has turned out to be.” She’s right – with nearly 150 million views of her internet clips, she is the most downloaded classical performer in history.
However, Ms Lisitsa could have been a chess player. “I was a child prodigy musician, having started to play the piano at the age of three, when my parents forced me to start. But at 12 I decided that chess was another challenge. Russia is very competitive in sport and music, and in music it is so politicised that the real winner is often not the winner at all. In sport it is a different matter. You play better, you win; you play badly you lose. Chess is a spectator sport and you use your brain. It’s a very violent game but intellectual. So I used to bunk school and go to play chess until a neighbour told my grandmother …. And I was so scared of being caught out that I wanted to kill myself!”
Of course she’s kidding, and soon she got bored with the 40 or so regular moves and started to create “beautiful” moves, sacrificing chess pieces to play psychological havoc with her opponents. But even that got her down and so she reconnected with music.
Blonde Russian to play piano?
Valentina and her husband, Alexei Kuznetsoff, then a pianist, emigrated to America from the Ukraine where she was born and where they both studied. In America, she felt that she had become a commodity. “Someone would want a blonde Russian to play Tchaikovsky so they asked me. I started turning down such offers and soon they went on to the next blonde Russian. What to do? Should I quit and start to work in a supermarket?”
“Alexei and I decided to make a DVD together for YouTube and soon it was being downloaded, free and against the word of all contracts. Suddenly the ‘eureka’ moment! Don’t make DVDs. Make clips, upload them and see what happens.” She found that actually most people were intrigued and soon their DVD was one of the top sellers of all time. That first YouTube clip in 2007 went viral and today she has more than 300 000 subscribers to her channel.
The family decided to leave America for France but the rain in Normandy where they lived depressed even the cats and their son, Benjamin, 12, so they jumped in a car and drove for a couple of days and ended up outside Rome where they are now happily settled. Valentina is on the road most of the year, and when she plays in Europe her husband and son usually accompany her. Travelling is in the blood, and virtually the only thing she carries in her hand luggage is her concert dress. Not that she will be phased if, as has happened, her luggage doesn’t arrive. This has happened a couple of times and she just gets on with it!
Best orchestras and conductors
And what a life to get on with. Valentina has played with some of the best orchestras and conductors, in the best festivals, given recitals in the best venues – her performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall drew an audience of 8000. Her CDs will be on sale at her concerts here and this charming advocate for music will sign them. She is passionate about teaching the new generation and her master classes with Victoria Fokkens (17), Qden Blaauw (13) and Mike Wang (10) recently in South Africa were attended by 150 children from disadvantaged communities.
Much as she loves her life, she is quite happy that her son will not follow in his parents’ footsteps. When Benjamin, who has perfect pitch, named the keys after the periodic table they realised he would become a scientist! Her husband has swopped his piano for audio-visual production and is her closest confidante, acting as a guinea pig when she compiles new programmes.
Two chances to hear Lisitsa
Valentina will leave Cape Town for Brazil, Thailand and a number of other places before being reunited with her family. Before she goes, you have two opportunities to hear her. On Thursday, November 16, she will perform the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini by Rachmaninov with the CPO under the direction of Martin Panteleev (the dress rehearsal is open at the City Hall at 11 am); and on Saturday, November 18, she will give a celebrity fundraising recital at the Baxter Concert Hall. Her programme: Appassionata Sonata by Beethoven as well as Gaspard de la nuit by Ravel, Three Nocturnes and a Scherzo by Chopin and Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky.
Who: Valentina Lisitsa (piano) Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra / Cape Town Concert Series
What: Symphony Concert / Piano Recital
Where and when: Cape Town City Hall/Baxter Concert Hall on 16 and 18 November 2017 at 8pm
Info: Valentina Lisitsa
Book: Here
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