Valentina Lisitsa - Pyotr Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker and Other Works for Piano (2022)

Pianist Valentina Lisitsa was among the first classical musicians to use an online video as a significant method of promoting her career. Her strategy was successful: in the 2010s decade she was signed to the major label Decca and has been a fixture in its stable of artists.

Lisitsa was born in Kiev, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, on March 25, 1973. She took up the piano at three and was giving concerts within a year, but for a time she hoped to become a professional chess player. Lisitsa attended the Lysenko School of Music in Kiev and then enrolled at the Kiev Conservatory, studying with Ludmilla Tsvierko. There she met pianist Alexei Kuznetsoff, and the pair began performing as duo pianists. They won the Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition in Miami in 1991 and moved to the U.S., settling in North Carolina. The pair married in 1992. They had some success in the U.S., appearing at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York in 1995 and making recordings, both as a duo and by Lisitsa as a soloist, on the Audiofon label in the late 1990s. However, Lisitsa's career stalled, and she became interested in the possibilities of new media for promoting classical music. She posted a video on the internet in 2007 and found immediate success in that medium, topping charts in early metrics. Lisitsa hoped that internet stardom would propel her to success in conventional channels of touring and major-label recordings. Her videos did both: in the late 2000s decade she toured the U.S. and Europe as an accompanist to violinist Hilary Hahn. She issued a solo recital of works by Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, and Sigismond Thalberg on Naxos in 2010, and accompanied Hahn on an Ives sonata recording for Deutsche Grammophon the following year.

In 2010, Lisitsa and Kuznetsoff executed the next step in their plan. They self-financed a recording of the four Rachmaninov piano concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra. This required the investment of their entire life savings, but it paid off. By 2012, with Lisitsa's online views mounting toward the 50 million mark, she was booked at London's Royal Albert Hall and signed to the Decca label. Decca issued her Rachmaninov recordings singly, and she has continued to record for Decca at least yearly. Most of her recordings have focused on Romantic and Russian repertory, but she also issued a recital of music by Philip Glass in 2015. Lisitsa has appeared at top venues including Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall, but she faced controversy in 2015 as her appearance with the Toronto Symphony was cancelled due to provocative tweets supporting the Russian-backed insurgency in Ukraine (Lisitsa herself is of Russian and Polish ethnic background). In 2019, Lisitsa recorded the complete piano music of Tchaikovsky for Decca.

In mid-2019, a video of her performance of the finale of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, amassed more than 40 million views. ~ James Manheim

01. Overture (Arr. Piano)
02. 1. The Christmas Tree (Arr. Piano)
03. 2. March (Arr. Piano)
04. 3. Children's Galop and Entry of the Parents (Arr. Piano)
05. 4. Dance Scene - Drosselmeyer's Presents (Arr. Piano)
06. 5. Scene - Grandfather Dance (Arr. Piano)
07. 6. Departure of the Guests - Clara and the Nutcracker (Arr. Piano)
08. 7. The Battle (Arr. Piano)
09. 8. A Pine Forest in Winter (Arr. Piano)
10. 9. Waltz of the Snowflakes (Arr. Piano)
11. 10. The Magical Palace of Sweets (Arr. Piano)
12. 11. Arrival of Clara and the Prince (Arr. Piano)
13. 12a. Character Dances: Chocolate (Spanish Dance) (Arr. Piano)
14. 12b. Character Dances: Coffee (Arabian Dance) (Arr. Piano)
15. 12c. Character Dances: Tea (Chinese Dance) (Arr. Piano)
16. 12d. Character Dances: Trépak (Russian Dance) (Arr. Piano)
17. 12e. Character Dances: Dance of the Reed Pipes (Arr. Piano)
18. 12f. Character Dances: Mother Gigogne and the Clowns (Arr. Piano)
19. 13. Waltz of the Flowers (Arr. Piano)
20. 14a. Pas de deux: Intrada (Arr. Piano)
21. 14b. Pas de deux: Variation I (Tarantella) (Arr. Piano)
22. 14c. Pas de deux: Variation II (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy) (Arr. Piano)
23. 14d. Pas de deux: Coda (Arr. Piano)
24. 15a. Final Waltz (Arr. Piano)
25. 15b. Apotheosis (Arr. Piano)
26. 1. Morning Prayer
27. 2. Winter Morning
28. 3. Mama
29. 4. Playing Hobbyhorse
30. 5. March of the Wooden Soldiers
31. 6. The New Doll
32. 7. The Sick Doll
33. 8. The Doll's Funeral
34. 9. Waltz
35. 10. Polka
36. 11. Mazurka
37. 12. Russian Song
38. 13. The Accordion Player
39. 15. Italian Song
40. 16. Old French Song
41. 17. German Song
42. 18. Neapolitan Song
43. 19. Nanny's Story
44. 20. The Sorcerer
45. 21. Sweet Dream
46. 22. Lark Song
47. 23. In Church
48. 24. The Organ-Grinder Sings
49. 1. The Young Maiden Walked so Far
50. 3. Please, Try to Remember, My Darling
51. 4. The Eel Coiling in the Water
52. 5. Do Not Flood, My Gentle Danube
53. 6. Keep on Spinning, My Spinner
54. 8. The Pine-Tree Swings by the Gate
55. 9. All Flowers Fade
56. 12. Be Calmed, Stormy Winds
57. 14. It Isn't Drink that's Muddling My Head
58. 15. Rise up, Rise up, O Sun
59. 16. Do Not Sing, O Nightingale
60. 18. The Duckling in the Meadow
61. 20. I Shall Come to Your Town
62. 21. It's Not the Sound Resounding
63. 22. Coming Down the Mountain
64. 23. A Little Duckling Was Swimming on the Sea
65. 24. I Wear My Hair in a Plait
66. 27. Upon the Sea so Blue
67. 28. On the Green Meadow
68. 29. Our Wine Cellar
69. 31. Thank You, but No Thank You, Father Superior
70. 32. Little Ivan Wears a Big Hat
71. 34. Merry Katya
72. 35. O My Heart, My Heavy Heart
73. 39. O, My Fields
74. 40. Stop My Merry Dance
75. 42. Under the Green Apple Tree
76. 43. O, My Unspoilt Field
77. 44. Like a Princess in the Town
78. 45. Cranberries and Raspberries
79. 46. In the Meadows
80. 47. Vanya Was Sitting
81. 48. By the Gates
82. 49. Song of the Volga Boatmen
83. 50. There Was No Wind
84. 6. Thème original et variations. Thème
85. 6. Thème original et variations. Variation 1
86. 6. Thème original et variations. Variation 2
87. 6. Thème original et variations. Variation 5
88. 6. Thème original et variations. Variation 6
89. 6. Thème original et variations. Variation 7
90. 6. Thème original et variations. Variation 8
91. 6. Thème original et variations. Variation 9
92. 6. Thème original et variations. Variation 10
93. 6. Thème original et variations. Variation 11
94. 6. Thème original et variations. Variation 12
95. 6. Thème original et variations. Coda
96. 1. January: By the Hearth
97. 2. February: Carnival
98. 3. March: Song of the Lark
99. 4. April: Snowdrop
100. 5. May: White Nights
101. 6. June: Barcarolle
102. 7. July: Reaper's Song
103. 8. August: The Harvest
104. 9. September: The Hunt
105. 10. October: Autumn Song
106. 11. November: On the Troika
107. 12. December: Christmastide