Around 755 thousand subscribers on YouTube, over a million monthly listeners on Spotify: pop star numbers, but the repertoire is that of Chopin, Rachmaninov, Liszt, Tchaikovsky.
Valentina Lisitsa is a classical pianist and one of the performers who has best leveraged the internet to build direct relationships with audiences. On October 11, she arrived in Cagliari, at the Conservatory Auditorium, to open the eleventh edition of Itinerari Musicali dell'Identità, the series organized by the cultural association La Casa Rosa.
The pianist who brought Chopin to the web
Lisitsa began studying piano in Kiev when she was just three years old. After graduating from her hometown Conservatory, she moved to the United States and made her New York debut in 1995.
In 2007, Lisitsa posted a recording of Rachmaninoff's Etude, Op. 39, No. 6, on YouTube. Since then, the platform has become a hub for her music, with over 700,000 subscribers and 300 million views. Not just concerts and recordings, then, but also videos accessible with an internet connection.
" For me, YouTube has long since stopped being just a way to promote my talent and has become a tool to educate and grow audiences around the world: from casual listeners to young musicians who dream of dedicating their lives to art. Recently, I performed for the first time in Honduras and found an enthusiastic following of so many young musicians, who came to thank me for inspiring them to pursue their dreams. This is the greatest reward, " the pianist enthusiastically explains.
The network has nurtured an audience that has grown over the years to numbers that are hard to ignore. And in 2012, that journey reached one of its most significant milestones: a recital at London's Royal Albert Hall, before approximately eight thousand people. The evening's program was chosen by the audience through an online vote.
Since then, Lisitsa has ranged from classical repertoire to major international stages. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and Wigmore Hall, collaborating with major orchestras. She has released nine albums with Decca, dedicated to Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin, Philip Glass, and Tchaikovsky, among others. In 2020, she founded the QOR label and subsequently recorded three albums for Naïve.
For her Sardinian debut, she chose a program entirely dedicated to Chopin: the Polonaises, the Valses, the Fantaisie-Impromptu, the Nocturnes, the Scherzi, and the Ballades. The repertoire focused on the Polish composer's most famous and challenging works, placing the piano at the center.
In Cagliari, Valentina Lisitsa returned to her most essential dimension: that of the direct relationship between performer, instrument, and audience.
" The art of recording can't replace the social dimension of listening to music, something we humans have been doing since we lived in caves, beat drums made of mammoth skin, and danced in circles. Music is social. And at every good concert, something magical always happens: the audience comes in from the street, still trying to leave the outside world behind ," he says.
From the great interpreter to young Sardinian musicians: 11 concerts and 3 cities
Lisitsa's opening performance set the tone for a festival that, however, isn't limited to big international names. The day after the concert, the pianist hosted a public meeting with students from the Conservatory, during a convivial gathering surrounded by local artisanal products and food and wine.
Until December 27, the "Musical Itineraries of Identity" series features eleven concerts in three cities—Cagliari, Iglesias, and Sassari—and six collateral events. Alongside established artists, young musicians from the Cagliari and Sassari Conservatories will open the various events.
" Since the founding of the La Casa Rosa association, about twenty years ago, one of our main goals has been to promote young Sardinian talent ," explains Mirko Atzori, artistic director of the festival . " It's a commitment we've consistently maintained over the years ."
Even the choice of cities follows a precise idea of the relationship between music and territory.
« Cagliari and Sassari are the cities that best represent, from the point of view of musical art, the history, culture and traditions of Sardinia, also thanks to great institutions such as theatres and conservatories », says Atzori .
The journey continues with ambition and creative power. " What we do today contributes to shaping the cultural identity of those who come after, just as what came before shaped our own cultural identity ," says the artistic director. " As part of this journey, we are opening up not only to Cagliari and Sassari, but also to other important communities ."
Lisitsa returns to Sardinia for Liszt
For those who heard her in Cagliari, the next appointment with Lisitsa will be on October 16th at 6 pm, at the Teatro Electra in Iglesias, when the pianist will return to the stage for a recital dedicated to Franz Liszt.
" The Liszt program showcases the artistry of a brilliant composer, capable of transforming the piano, essentially a percussion instrument, into an entire orchestra, the human voice, the sound of bells, the howl of a winter storm, or the stillness of dawn on a calm sea. These are almost magical transformations, and it's a rare opportunity to hear so many of Liszt's masterpieces live in a single concert, " the Ukrainian artist reports.
The evening will also have a worthy charitable purpose: the proceeds will be donated to Casa Lions – a shelter for cancer and post-transplant patients, located on Via Jenner in Cagliari.
Tickets are available on Vivaticket.
The complete calendar of the Itinerari Musicali dell'Identità event, with all the events until December 27th, is available on the festival's official website.