Hi All,
On another board which I post on from time to time, there is a thread about Valentina Lisitsa and most people seem to be very impressed with her pianism.  I've just watched a few of her recordings on U-Tube and she really is rather good!  The recording of her warm up in which she plays the Wagner / Liszt Spinning Chorus is amazing and she plays it as though it were easy.  I've only heard one other piece played by her besides what is on U-Tube and that is her take on Ginzbourg's Largo al Factotum transcription and that is amazing as well! 

I just wondered what anyone else thought really.

A late response to this thread, Jonathan, but I had the pleasure of attending Lisitsa's Wigmore Hall recital this evening. Despite being under the weather with a cold, she put in a barnstorming performance of Rachmaninov (Etude Tableaux Op.39 No.6 plus four Preludes), Thalberg (Fantasy on Rossini's Barber of Seville) and Liszt (Totentanz, original version).  There was more power in Beethoven's Appassionata, which would have made for a very muscular/ driven recital were it not for a delightfully tender/impish Kinderszenen after the interval. I sat in the second row with a fantastic view of the keyboard and was amazed, especially in the Thalberg and Liszt, at her performance. We had a couple of Lisztian encores - Liebestraume and La Campanella - although I was rather hoping for the Wagner/Liszt Spinning Song, which was originally advertised on the Wigmore's website before the programme got changed a month or so back.

There are some Youtube clips here, including a couple of the Rachmaninov pieces heard this evening.

http://www.youtube.com/valentinalisitsa

La Campanella here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaX1j4elJRU

And the Thalberg Fantasy here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew8SEyOE01o&feature=related