Product Details

• Actors: Valentina Lisitsa
• Directors: ValalProductions
• Format: Full Screen, NTSC
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Valal Productions
• DVD Release Date: January 1, 2004
• Run Time: 58 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002KZXAU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,068 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Instead of a house, buy Bosendorfer!, February 11, 2005

By 

Joshua Janvrin "Technique is 95% mental" (At the piano) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: F. Chopin - 24 Etudes for Piano Op.10 , Op 25 (DVD)

I was quite thrilled when I heard someone had recorded the complete etudes for DVD. Highly educational to watch for an amateur pianist. This review will address two points: The Instrument and Audio Synchronization.

The Instrument.

It was clear from the opening octaves of Op. 10 #1 that the star of the show was not Ms. Lisitsa but...the bass register of the Bosendorfer. Talk about an orchestra in a box. Its presence haunts (in a good way) the entire recording.

Bosendorfers are generally lightly regulated and this 1925 275 is no exception - in fact I have a feeling it is a bit over-enginereed.
This allows the performer to play with considerable ease and do some pretty spectacular things. Note the feather touch of Op. 25 #6 (thirds). Splendid. Remind me to record the etudes on this instrument.

Audio (A)synchronization.

With this ambitious project (Etudes AND DVD), its pretty much 'damned if you do, damned if you don't'. That is, if you choose to record uncut, you risk having people used to edited perfection on CDs dismiss the recording as amateur. If you dub, you risk having people cry fraud! Sigh.

It is a shame, but they chose pretty much what they had to do in today's world. Dub. One reviewer mentioned 40% of the material. I think that is high. The suspension of disbelief is held intact for most of the DVD. You may think the sound is late for quite a bit of the recording, but it is actually the delayed action of the instrument. This may be evident at the beginning of Op. 10 #3, and why would they dub that?

I would have preferred to just let the girl play. She has technique to burn. I can live with a few mistakes. Take Op. 10 #1. This one is definitely uncut. This is actually one of the harder etudes, yet she really makes it look easy. And dead even as well. Yet, there are a couple of misses. So what. And Op. 25 #6 (thirds) is also uncut - and she is just about perfect. If you want a lesson in physical economy, watch her play this etude. It cannot be approached better.

I recommend this DVD highly. It is certainly a 'pianists' video and I guarantee you will learn a lot from it. I took a star away for the audio sync, but don't blame her. Blame us.

And mortgage the house. Buy Bosendorfer.

45 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FIRE and ICE ! The Great Valentina !!, May 28, 2005

By 

RBSProds "rbsprods" (Deep in the heart of Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: F. Chopin - 24 Etudes for Piano Op.10 , Op 25 (DVD)

Five Stars!! Valentina Lisitsa is one of the most heralded stars among the current generation of classical pianists and the DVD "Chopin 24 Etudes For Piano Op. 10 and Op. 25" is an excellent introduction. It's also a pleasure to "see" Ms Lisitsa playing, displaying her awesome technique and her tremendous right hand. The DVD is a graphic visual demonstration of how artfully different her fingering technique is on some works. Forget the controversy, this woman can 'scorch' with the best of them. And Chopin etudes are an excellent choice with which she can display her command of nuances as well as her keyboard fireworks, all while displaying little facial emotion. Total concentration. Fire and ice!!

My best of the best, Pieces D'Resistance, are the beautiful 10/1 with it's awesome arpeggios, the challenging fingerings of 10/2 (an apparent direct antecedent of the future "Flight of the Bumblebee"), 10/3 ("Tristesse") which Chopin felt was his most beautiful melody, the raging flames of 10/4, and the resounding echos built into 10/5: "the Black Keys Etude". Add to that, the stunning performances of 25/1 ("Shepherd Boy"), 25/2 ("Bees"), the grace notes of 25/5 ("Butterfly") which has been a huge influence on jazz pianists, 25/6, the howling gales of "Winter Wind" (25/11) and "Ocean" (25/12), and you have a wonderful compendium of Chopin etude performances, visually and aurally. It's interesting to note that these etudes were the first true seriously taken stand-alone pieces of their type and were dedicated to Franz Liszt (Op. 10) and Countess d'Agoult (Op 25). Chopin was in his mid-20's and already a certified and somewhat iconoclastic musical genius.

(NOTE: Truth be told, however, Ms Lisitsa's stunning good looks and her blue silk dress, cut to demand attention, occasionally threaten to upend her pianism with 'eye candy' shown from multiple camera angles. She could be dressed in a potato sack and we would notice her statuesque nordic-like beauty. But this can't be helped; this about the MUSIC. A few times, I got up and walked over to the speakers to just listen to her magnificent pianism, in and of itself: She's a great pianist!)

Five MAGNIFICENT Stars for her pianistic reading of Chopin, for the excellent sound recording, for the cinematography, and yes, the dress designer. LOL.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent expose, September 17, 2004

By 

Peter T. Sipos "Peter T. Sipos" (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: F. Chopin - 24 Etudes for Piano Op.10 , Op 25 (DVD)

I've watched this several times, and I agree that this is a DVD worth purchasing. For pianists, especially, it's instructive to watch an artist with perfect technique. She clearly plays these pieces with ease, which is necessary if one hopes to play them musically, rather than as practice pieces.

As far as musical inspiration is concerned, this set is interesting, but falls a little short of the more well-known recordings (Pollini, Cortot, Ashkenazy, etc). Yet there are many moments of real poignancy here, and many of her tempos depart from the mainstream, usually with very good effect. I was impressed by the middle section of 25/10, which she plays very slowly, giving it a haunting quality. I was astounded by the lightness of touch in 25/6 and the ease with which she tosses of 10/1. In her hands, 25/9 is scintilating and 10/4 breathes fire. My main disappointment was with the last two. Both sounded a bit mechanical - I percieved neither the wind-swept desolation of 25/11 nor the surging pathos of 25/12.

Sound quality is first rate. The camera work is especially nice. I found it to be a perfect blend of angles - the hands are shown at the appropriate times, but the camera cuts to various views of the artist frequently enough that the audience is always aware of her presence as a person. We catch her smiling on multiple occasions (which I understand is a trademark of hers) but she never succumbs to the sort of contortions which are so distracting in some artists. The back and forth cutting of the camera in the middle section of 10/4 is clever and very effective. Clearly, the video people were very in tune with the whole music making experience and probably intimately familiar with the pieces.

Overall, the set is entertaining and instructive from beginning to end and well worth adding to any collection. For anyone who has actually learned any of these works (and I have) this video is full of superb insight.