Label news: Valentina Lisitsa is back on the record

You may remember Valentina Lisitsa from the first decade of this century when she was the leading classical pianist on Youtube with millions of views, widely praised also for her Rachmaninov recordings on Decca.

Then Vladimir Putin occupied part of Ukraine and Lisitsa became a vociferous supporter of the occupation.

Orchestras and venues cancelled her concerts, friends and supporters shrank away and she has been off the record for several years.

Now, however, the Naive label has signed her for the complete piano works of Beethoven, Rachmaninov and more.

Here’s her announcement:

Naïve, a Believe label, is delighted to announce the start of a long-term collaboration with pianist Valentina Lisitsa and her production label “Queen of Rachmaninov”.

The partnership will present an intensive and ambitious series of projects, such as Rachmaninov’s complete solo piano works, Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas, and albums dedicated to Chopin, Scriabin, Schumann, Ravel and more, to be released over the next three years. To mark the beginning of this relationship, the first recording – Scriabin recital disc – will be released in digital format on 7th January 2022.

Valentina Lisitsa is the first classical artist to have converted her internet success into a global concert career in the principal venues of Europe, the USA, South America and Asia. She posted her first video on the internet platform YouTube in 2007, a recording of Rachmaninov’s Étude Op.39/6. The number of views was unprecedented, and more videos followed. The foundation stone of a social media career unparalleled in the history of classical music had been laid. Thanks to an unwavering dedication towards her audience and a personal approach to videos, her YouTube channel now boasts over 650,000 subscribers and 147 million views with an average of 75,000 views per day, whilst her Spotify account has over one million listeners monthly.

This singular success has led Valentina Lisitsa to perform at some of the world’s most prestigious music venues, including a spectacular recital at the Royal Albert Hall in London, to an audience of 8,000 in June 2012 that sealed her international breakthrough.

Commenting on this new partnership with naïve, Valentina Lisitsa said: “Our label “QOR” is a result of years of experience in creating highly successful, top quality YouTube productions. Having this experience helped us record the best, truly world-class audio without compromising on artistic ideas. The “QOR” is an “audiophile” label drawing the inspiration from the Golden Age of pianism and following in footsteps of the musicians who inspired and influenced me – Hofmann, Rachmaninoff, Sofronitsky, Schnabel, Backhaus – while taking the advantage of the best recording equipment available today. This allows for my artistic freedom to be expressed on entirely new level. When we started the discussions with the naïve team, I felt that we were speaking the same language; their team showed the highest level of understanding towards our principles and long-term aims and brought focus and expertise to my projects without affecting my creative freedom. I am very excited about this new partnership with the naïve team!”

Pierre-Antoine Devic, Head of naïve classique, said: “Valentina has a very special status in the international music world. I have admired her trajectory since the beginning of her career. For naïve and for Believe, this new signing marks a major step in the rapid development of the classical music genre that we have been working on for several years. Valentina’s outstanding musical talent, her personality and her digital audience are fantastic assets we are eager to capitalize on and develop to serve her art and create the best environment for each of her recording projects. The last few months of intense conversation with Valentina and her general management have been so rich and interesting! We are thrilled to welcome you into the naïve family, Valentina!”