The most popular pianist on youtube

You thought it was Lang Lang, right?

Wrong. Lang Lang scores 1,537,277 views for an early video, Gone Mad, that has been up for about five years. Only two other Lang Lang videos top the million mark.

Another classical pianist repeatedly outscores Lang Lang on youtube.

Her name is Valentina Lisitsa.

Her top hit is Rachmaninov’s G-minor prelude with 1,605,052 views, followed by Etude opus 39/6 with 1,304,978 views, Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata 1,296,475, Chopin’s Etude opus 10/4 at 1,037,627, op 25/4 at 1,238,364  – and that’s without clicking on Für Elise at almost two million.

How does she do it. Val’s a Ukrainian pianist based in North Carolina who has just changed management from Cami to IMG. I first heard her accompanying Ida Haendel in a London recital and was impressed both by her sensitivity and her strength of character.

But how did she get to be #1 on youtube?

No-one knows. Or, if they do, they ain’t telling for fear Lang Lang will try to beat her with Chopsticks.

Well done, Val. We’ll keep watching.