I happened across this video on YouTube of Valentina Lisitsa playing Rachmaninov's Etude Tableau Op 39 No 6. A study in fabulous pianism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAb2nI2hVqk

Check out her other videos - especially the Chopin Etude Op 25 No 6 "Thirds"

Edward

WOW ! wish i could play like that! i loved the Chopin Etude Op 25 No 6 "Thirds".

Jacob.

oh yes! I sent the url of her "Thirds" to my piano teacher a few weeks ago because I was so impressed
with her easy relaxed hands. I was looking to see how good players did trills. Unfortunately I updated my
flash-player-whatever-it-is and now I have no volume!!! ARGH

what I really want to play myself is Lizst's Die Stadt......Lisitsa makes it so gothic it is totally fabulous.
When I mentioned this ambition to my teacher about a year ago, he just said, but it's a Liszt transcription!!
and that was that. Now he's going to have a look at it after I menioned I still wanted to do it...how hard can it be
anyway??

she's the one with the Ondine video also isnt she?

i was impressed

She is incredible, not just her jaw dropping technique but the way she's maintained such a beautiful tone throughout the performance. I am familiar with her name but until now have'nt heard her play.

I always go through 2 emotions when I watch things like that (1) astonishment that the human body (or more precisely hand) is capable of doing that and (2) utter despair because I know I'll never be able to do it

It's like when I watch Shine - at the end, I always feel really depressed or really motivated to practice

me too!! First it's motivation (i generally spend half the film thinking 'it doesn't look all that hard'), then when you quickly realise you're not anywhere near as good as the man in the film, it turns to depression. Really good film though.

its really weird to watch someone like that play something you also play.

like i have been playing Ondine for around a year and a half- and to watch the video of her playing it makes you think that its not that hard really. then sit down to do it yourself and you think how does she do it with so little effort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnkuJpGSSgY

Some ideas:

1. Perhaps it only LOOKS effortless. Effort does not necessarily mean tension and struggle - that is wasted efffort. You can make a great effort, but if it is effective you can look calm and relaxed.

or,

2. It really is "effortless" for her to perform so well. Nevertheless she probably still put a huge effort - in the form of a lot of well-spent time - into learning the piece (or into earlier pieces that gave her the necesssary technique), so she is spared from making a monumental effort when she performs. She probably knows the pieces in her repertoire ten times better than the average amateur or aspiring professional.

Either way:

3. She knows how to relax and put all her attention into the playing.

And unlike most of us:

4. She was probably taught properly when she was very young.


It isn't fair is it? She plays so well and is incredibly good looking too. What hope for 50+, third-rate male pianists.



Stop wishing. get practising!!!!