Ukrainian pianist to debut with NaxosUkrainian pianist to debut with Naxos
20th Jul 2010
Gig news staff
Category: Soundboard
Kiev-born pianist Valentina Lisitsa is to release her debut recording with Naxos in September. The 37-year-old, now based in North Carolina, has recorded an album of romantic piano classics, such as Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ Sonata, Schumann’s Kimderszenen, Liszt’s Totentanz and the Fantaisie sur des motifs de Il barbiere di Siviglia by Thalberg.The album is already available for streaming and download on the Naxos website.
Lisitsa, who now lives in North Carolina, has previously released six recordings on the Audiofon label, including two albums of duets with her husband, pianist Alexei Kuznetsoff. She has also recorded DVDs of Chopin's 24 Etudes and Liszt’s transcriptions of Schubert’s Schwanengesang.
Lisitsa has been based in the US since 1991, when she and Kuznetsoff won first prize in the Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition. In 2009 the couple toured Europe, Japan, and North and South America.
- Naxos has recently signed distribution deals with four independent labels. As of 1 July the company has begun distribution for Newton Classics, the Netherlands-based label created by Theo Lap to release top-quality archive recordings (see Gig Vol 6 No 11), while its US arm, Naxos of America, has begun distribution for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO). It has also signed deals with Carpe Diem, the Bremen-based early music and jazz label founded in 2008 by engineers Jonas Niederstadt and Johannes Wallbrecher, and the South African boutique label TwoPianists Records, crated by pianists Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhães. The label, which records in studios at Stellenbosch University, aims to give classical artists in the country a higher level of exposure.
