Russian pianist turns Queen's Flash Gordon classical

8 March 2013, 15:58 | Updated: 2 October 2014, 16:59

Natalia Posnova has won the approval of Queen guitarist Brian May with her classical piano interpretation of 'Flash Gordon'.

A Russian pianist has turned the music of Queen into a classical piano piece in a new video inspired by the rock band's music for the movie Flash Gordon. Natalia Posnova, whose repertoire is more usually taken up with Chopin and Rachmaninov, has arranged her very own 'Flash Fantasy'.

In the video, Posnova takes as much visual inspiration from the Flash Gordon movie as she does musical, appearing in a very Gordon-esque red outfit.

Queen guitarist Brian May was among the first to heap praise on the young pianist's version of his band's music, via his website: "This video clip is worth a million hits. I hope it gets them … I have seriously, in all these years, never seen or heard anything like this."

He added: "I think we all have to see her do this live some day."

The pianist has also recorded versions of other Queen songs, including 'Who Wants To Live Forever' and 'Somebody To Love'.

Posnova is the latest classical pianist to turn well-loved rock classics into classically-inspired piano works. Turkish pianist AyseDeniz Gokcin 'Lisztified' the music of Pink Floyd for a recent EP and performed exclusively for Classic FM.