06 February 2018
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Lisitsa
at Usher Hall’s Sunday Classics series concert on 4 March
A powerhouse Russian programme including Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto
Since posting her first video ten years ago, the Russian pianist Valentina Lisitsa she has amassed a staggering 138 million video views on her channel whilst at the same time wowing audiences in person with her exceptional interpretations of the piano repertoire.
On March 3 Lisitsa joins the mighty forces of the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra for Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3, known to be the most technically challenging of the composer’s four piano concertos. In 1996 ‘Rach 3’ played a starring role in the Oscar-winning film Shine ensuring that the work was introduced to a whole new audience, reaching an even higher level of popularity.
The Orchestra and conductor Valery Polyansky will also pay homage to the Great Russian composer Tchaikovsky through two of his standout works. Sleeping Beauty Suite, composed for the iconic 1890 ballet, will see the ensemble explore the ballet’s themes of light and dark, good and evil.
To complete this Russian programme we have a second Tchaikovsky piece, the intensely emotional Fourth Symphony. Written as the composer emerged from an overwhelming period of depression, the work circles between moments of poignancy to those of passion, expressing the composer’s fluctuating state of mind.
Lisitsa will appear a few days later, with the same programme, at the Corn Exchange, Cambridge, on 7 March.
Watch Valentina play Liszt's virtuosic La Campanella:
RUSSIAN STATE ORCHESTRA WITH VALENTINA LISITSA
Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Sunday 4 March 2018, at 3pm
Programme:
Tchaikovsky - Sleeping Beauty Suite
Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No 3
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No 4
Valery Polyansky Conductor
Valentina Lisitsa Piano
Valentina Lisitsa appeared on the cover of Pianist issue 72. The issue is still available as a digital back issue.