Home » Artists » Schubert

Khatia Buniatishvili: Bio

Born on 21 June 1987 in Tbilisi, Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili and her elder sister Gvantsa were introduced to the piano at an early age by their mother, an enthusiastic music lover. Playing four handed remains one of the
sisters' favourite activities.

Khatia's extraordinary talent was recognized when she was very young. Aged six, she gave her début performance as soloist with an orchestra, and was subsequently invited to give guest performances in Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Russia, Israel and the USA.

Khatia prefers not to be regarded as a child prodigy: virtuosity for its own sake does not appeal to her. Above all, she embraces pianists from earlier generations such as Rachmaninoff, Richter and Gould. She admires her "favourite pianist", Martha Argerich, for her uniqueness and, as a consequence, does not view Argerich as someone she should try to emulate. And since she regards herself as "wholly a person of the 20th century", Khatia does not identify so much with pianists of today.

Khatia's warm, sometimes sorrowful playing may reflect a close proximity to Georgian folk-music, which, she attests, has greatly influenced her musicality. Critics emphasize that her playing has an aura of elegant solitude and even melancholy, which she does not feel to be a negative attribute. "The piano is the blackest instrument," she says, a "symbol of musical solitude", which even a pianist must become accustomed to. "I have to be psychologically strong and forget the hall if I want to share it with the audience."

During her studies at Tbilisi's State Conservatoire, Khatia won a special prize at the Horowitz International Competition for Young Pianists in Kiev in 2003 as well as first prize at the Foundation to Assist Young Georgian Musicians competition set up by Elisabeth Leonskaya.

At the 2003 Piano Competition in Tbilisi, she became acquainted with Oleg Maisenberg, who persuaded her to transfer to Vienna's University of Music and Performing Arts. Winner of the Bronze Medal at the 12th Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition in 2008, she was also distinguished as the Best Performer of a Chopin piece and as Audience Favourite.

Khatia Buniatishvili has given critically acclaimed solo recitals and chamber music concerts at such renowned venues as London's Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and the Musikverein in Vienna. In 2008 she made her US concert début at Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall), performing Chopin's Second
Piano Concerto.

A BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist for 2009-2011, Khatia regularly collaborates with BBC orchestras. In 2010 she receiveda Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and has been nominated by Vienna's Musikverein and Konzerthaus as a Rising Star for the 2011/2012 season.

In 2011 Khatia Buniatishvili made her recording debut with a Liszt recital on Sony Classical, following now with her first recording accompanied with orchestra
for a Chopin album.

Highlights of the 2012/13 season include a tour with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi, a tour of Japan and Europe with the Kremerata Baltica, a tour with the Basel Chamber Orchestra under Krystian Järvi and a tour of the United States, including a series of concerts with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski. She also can be seen at her appearances with the Philharmonia under Paavo Järvi, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra della Scala, Milan,under Gianandrea Noseda, the Orchestre de Paris under Andrey Boreyko to name only the most important. Furthermore recitals will also take her to Singapore, Tokyo, Barcelona, Paris, London,
Baden-Baden among others.

Khatia Buniatishvili speaks five languages fluently and lives in Paris.

1 Piano Sonata #21 in B-flat major, D 960: I. Molto moderato  
2 II. Andante sostenuto  
3 III. Scherzo  
4 IV. Allegro ma non troppo  
5 4 Impromptus, Op. 90, D 899: #1 in C minor, Allegro molto moderato  
6 #2 in E-flat major, Allegro  
7 #3 in G-flat major, Andante  
8 #4 in A-flat major, Allegretto  
9 Standchen (arr. Liszt) from Schwanengesang, D. 957  

Press Release
SCHUBERT par KHATIA BUNIATISHVILI !.
Khatia Buniatishvili - Verbier Festival 2013 - Interview
interview with Khatia Buniatishvili in paris with subtitles

Having blazed her way into public consciousness with her fearlessness on stage as well as on record, Georgian-born pianist Khatia Buniatishvili has become known for her distinctive artistic approach and bold interpretive flair, which combine to make her playing and performances both unmistakable and unmissable.

Celebrated by media around the world, she has been described by The Observer as "one of today's most exciting and technically gifted young pianists", while Madame Figaro has called her "the popstar of the classical music world", adding that "with Khatia Buniatishvili, only the repertoire is classical. As for the rest, there's no limit." 

Stories

  • Khatia Buniatishvili explores quiet corners of the psyche on 'Labyrinth' / blogcritics
    Posted At : October 2, 2020 12:00 AM

    Khatia Buniatishvili, a pianist knows for both introspection and romanticism, explores quiet corners of the psyche on her new album, Labyrinth. A collection of mostly well-known pieces by a broad variety of composers – from Baroque through contemporary, Couperin through Philip Glass – it's an album to listen to with a glass of wine or two. Billed as a concept album, Labyrinth is a collage of short works that give the pianist the opportunity to explore human nature from the inside out. It has something of the character of her emotional live performances. The deep, long-held tone that introduces the opening selection, "Deborah's Theme" from Ennio Morricone's Once Upon a Time in America, signals the album's spirit immediately, suggesting a bell tone rung to begin a meditation or a yoga practice. Buniatishvili gives wide, expansive readings of two of the most familiar tunes in the piano repertoire: Satie's "Gymnopedie No. 1" and Chopin's Prelude Op. 28, No. 4. A sharper mood encroaches with Ligeti's Etude No. 5 "Arc-en-ciel" ("Rainbow") and reaches an explosive height with Buniatishvili's own arrangement for piano four hands of the "Badinerie" from Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2, on which she's joined by her sister Gvantsa. Labyrinth spotlights Buniatishvili as a curator with a distinctive perspective as well as a pianist with an unusually sensitive spirit. It's out October 9 on Sony Classical. Listen and pre-order here, and explore your own psyche's most sensitive corners. READ THE FULL Blogcritics REVIEW
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili plays the Liszt 'Piano Concerto no. 2 in A Major' with fury and craftmanship at Kravis Center / Palm Beach Daily News
    Posted At : January 20, 2020 12:00 AM

    The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra opened a promising Sunday evening at the Kravis Center. Pianist Khatia Buniatishvili took the stage to perform Franz Liszt's "Piano Concerto no. 2 in A Major," S125. Benjamin Mellefont on clarinet had gorgeous moments with brief soloistic passages. A homogeneous violin section expertly blended every pitch and dynamic swell. It was a pleasure to witness the precision of articulation and bowing in the strings of the orchestra, allowing the audience to bathe in the beautiful Lisztian sound palette. Buniatishvili played with a fury that denoted battle and violence, and a flair for the dramatic. The exactness and craftmanship of her sound on the massive Steinway grand was an unmistakable hallmark of this brilliant artist. She smoldered in the quieter phrases of the concerto, almost as if she desperately wanted to get back to communicating raging fire in the multiple Allegro movements, but there were still passive moments to go before the big finish. When Buniatishvili did arrive back at those tempestuous moments, she whipped her hands away from the keyboard, thrashing her hair back and forth and bodily leaning into the orchestra, almost daring them to challenge her fury. The balance was right until the very end when any evidence of the piano's final chords was lost in the crashing orchestra. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} READ THE FULL Palm Beach Daily News REVIEW
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili to perform in Music Worcester debut at Tuckerman Hall / the telegram
    Posted At : April 14, 2019 12:00 AM

    World-renowned pianist Khatia Buniatishvili will perform a program of Schubert and Liszt April 19 at Tuckerman Hall. The concert marks Buniatishvili's first time in the city, and is one of only two American performances on her 2019 tour. "I'm always excited to go for the first time somewhere, to discover the new culture, to share my emotions and physical experience with people that I've never met before," Buniatishvili said. "I want to share my music with the Worcester public." The 31-year-old Buniatishvili has recorded a new album, "Schubert" (containing Sonata D 960 and Four Impromptus D 899), which she will highlight in the recital. "There's more art of patience in Schubert's music," Buniatishvili said. "You have to learn how to appreciate and understand and master the art of patience." READ THE FULL Worcester Telegram ARTICLE
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili makes Modest Mussorgsky sound anything but bashful / RT
    Posted At : March 9, 2019 12:00 AM

    With a toss of the hair and a playful lip bite, Khatia Buniatishvili makes Modest Mussorgsky sound anything but bashful – and the otherwise stuffy world of classical music just can't get enough. The long-dead composers she plays might have written some jazzier rhythms if they knew they'd be brought to life by a woman whose whole body sways and bounces with every arpeggio. The tension builds as the audience is left wondering whether her low-cut dress can keep her sufficiently covered as she pounds the keys harder and harder towards the climax, before the joyous burst of deafening applause. Best thing is, Buniatishvili has the chops for Chopin. A Georgian-born former child prodigy who speaks five languages and now lives in France, she is considered one of a handful of top pianists in the world. READ THE FULL RT ARTICLE
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili with Israel Philharmonic set for Georgia's Tsinandali Festival / Agenda.ge
    Posted At : March 14, 2017 12:00 AM

    Israel's leading symphony orchestra and award-winning Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili will play for audiences in Georgia later this year as a preview of the country's upcoming Tsinandali Festival of classical music. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, led by its musical director and conductor Zubin Mehta, will team up with Buniatishvili to present the classical show in September. The concert will be held at a 1000-seat amphitheatre currently under construction, and is aimed to promote the Tsinandali Festival which is scheduled to launch in 2019. Watch the attached tailer for new Buniatishvili - Rachmaninoff piano concertos - Sony Classics disc READ THE FULL Agenda.ge ARTICLE p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili - Liszt PC2: blu-ray release has fire and sensitivity / Texas Public Radio
    Posted At : January 31, 2017 12:00 AM

    There's moment in the middle of Liszt's "Piano Concerto No. 2," newly available on Blu-ray, when pianist Khatia Buniatishvili is deep into a solo cadenza. The Israel Philharmonic is silent, and conductor Zubin Mehta, looking out at the orchestra with a hundred-yard-stare, turns the page in his score so flippantly and forcefully it's picked up on mic with a great "flap!" sound. Within a few seconds, the ensemble and Buniatishvili are back together, dazzling in their technical virtuosity. Whether or not the page turn represents any tension between soloist and conductor I cannot tell, for at the end of the piece it's all hugs and smiles between Mehta and Buniatishvili. Perhaps it was only a momentary irk. READ THE FULL Texas Public Radio BY Nathan Cone
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili named TF1 - musician of the year / Agenda.ge
    Posted At : December 12, 2016 12:00 AM

    Award-winning Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili has claimed another international prize - last week Europe's most viewed television channel TF1 named her Musician of the Year. On December 9, the French TV channel held its annual awards ceremony honouring artists, sportspeople and media personalities of 2016. Buniatishvili was at the awards ceremony and collected the special prize before addressing the audience in her acceptance speech. SEE THE Agenda.ge PAGE READ Georgia Today PAGE       p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}
    Bookmark and Share

  • Listen to dramatic reading of Khatia Buniatishvili's bio / WFMT
    Posted At : October 17, 2016 12:00 AM

    If you're a music lover, you've likely read your fair share of artist biographies in program notes, liner notes, or artist websites. But you've never read an artist bio quite like Khatia Buniatishvili's, which contains choice lines such as, "nothing can be imposed on this young lady of the air whose wing-beats pollinate works and who sprinkles a musical cloud of golden powder to the four winds." Luckily for the internet, Soundcloud user Matt Marks has uploaded a dramatic reading of Buniatishvili's bio for the world to relish, complete with dramatic underscoring. Enjoy his reading below, and follow along with Buniatishvili's complete bio, written by Olivier Bellamy.  LISTEN VIA WFMT: Chicago PAGE
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili - Paris Match feature
    Posted At : August 21, 2016 12:00 AM

    Khatia Buniatishvili, Georgian pianist dazzles with his musical genius as far as a sex appeal she emphasizes. That day, she had to play for the vast Martha Argerich. "A genius and my favorite pianist. I felt a mad joy and a lot of pressure at the same time, remembers Khatia. A few days before, visiting an Orthodox church in Vienna, someone inadvertently burned my hair with a candle. I had to shave my head. I introduced myself to Martha with a hat, but the visor bothered me. So I removed it, and it's bald I interpreted the "Mephisto Waltz" by Liszt. "All daring rather than abandon. That sums Khatia Buniatishvili, Georgian virtuoso whose playing so special and fiery temperament have attracted music lovers worldwide. READ THE FULL Paris Match ARTICLE
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili - Kaleidoscope wins ECHO Klassik Award / AGENDA.GE
    Posted At : July 22, 2016 12:00 AM

    Acclaimed Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili has added another prize to her growing list of accolades after collecting the prestigious ECHO Klassik 2016 Award from Germany's Music Industry Association this week. Promoted by its founders as "one the most important and renowned music awards worldwide", the German prize has been granted to reveal "the most successful and outstanding achievements of German and international musicians" since 1992. On Wednesday, winners of this year's competition were announced in 22 categories including female and male singers of the year as well as ensembles and orchestras that impressed music experts the most. Buniatishvili was selected for the prize-winning list for her album Kaleidoscope, with the young Georgian artist receiving the Solo Recording of the Year Award AND released Kaleidoscope on the Sony Classical label.  The ECHO Klassik awards are granted by a jury of 11 music experts basing their assessment on "artistic criteria, while also taking account of popular acclaim and the response of music purchasers". The awards ceremony for the ECHO Klassik 2016 contest will be held at the Konzerthaus Berlin venue in Germany's capital on October 9, where the award-winners will perform in a grand gala concert. The announcement marked the second time Buniatishvili was awarded the ECHO prize, coming after the 2012 Newcomer Award she won along with four other musicians from Europe. Watch the attached video. READ THE FULL AGENDA.GE ARTICLE
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili releases new Sony Classical disc - Kaleidoscope
    Posted At : April 18, 2016 12:00 AM

    Classical pianist Khatia Buniatishvili has astounded her audiences around the world with her virtuosic performances of the classical piano repertoire. From Lizst to Chopin to Bach and Part, she has celebrated the works like a breath of a young soul. With her most recent release, Kaleidoscope, she presents her very personal approach to each composer with accomplished reading of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," Ravel's "La Valse," and three movements from Stravinsky's masterful ballet "Petruska." According to Ms. Buniatishvili, the title reminds her of the richness of colors in this music, highly personal works inspired by the existing circumstances of the times. She performs "Pictures at an Exhibition" as if the creator and observer were one and the same. She interprets each of Mussorsky's 10 pictures as well as stroll along the five "Promenades" with captivating harmonic progressions, broad sovereign and free messages the exhibit her intense passion for each symbolic scene. READ THE FULL examiner.com ARTICLE
    Bookmark and Share

  • BBC Music Magazine revisits interview with Khatia Buniatishvili
    Posted At : February 18, 2016 12:00 AM

    In the November 2010 issue of BBC Music Magazine, we interviewed pianist Khatia Buniatishvili for our 'Rising Star' series. Now, six years on and fully risen, the flamboyant Georgian is still making waves and in our March 2016 issue, out now, speaks to Jessica Duchen about why she believes risk-taking is an essential part of an artist's life. But here, in the meantime, we revisit that first interview.  READ THE BBC Music Magazine ARTICLE
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili joins Armenian musicians wearing ?Forget-me-not? badges@Al Bustan International Festival
    Posted At : March 9, 2015 12:00 AM

    On March 4 the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia performed a concert of classical music within the framework of the Al Bustan International Festival. The program included compositions by Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, and Khatia Buniatishvili performed as a soloist. All the performances of the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia at the Al Bustan International Festival are dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In this regard, both the musicians of the Youth Orchestra and Gianluca Marciano, the artistic director of the festival wear the "Forget-me-not" badges, the symbols of the 100th anniversary of the Genocide. Speaking of the Orchestra, the conductor Gianluca Marciano mentioned: "This Orchestra has far long passed the path of being youth, establishing its status today as mutual, highly professional collective". The Al Bustan concerts are supported by the State Commission on Coordination of the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. SEE THE Public Radio of Armenia PAGE
    Bookmark and Share

  • Renaud Capucon | Khatia Buniatishvili play Chamber Music San Francisco / San Francisco Examiner
    Posted At : February 12, 2015 12:00 AM

    From the start, violinist Renaud Capuçon and pianist Khatia Buniatishvili have had a musical relationship that was utterly natural. The virtuosos, performing together in San Francisco for the first time this week in a Chamber Music San Francisco presentation, are playing a program featuring César Franck's Violin Sonata. The melodic, sensuous, light-filled piece has special meaning for them. "Khatia and I met over Franck's sonata," Capuçon, 39, says. "This is the sonata that sealed our musical partnership, the sheer joy of playing together." The concert also features other works from their 2014 recording "Franck, Grieg, Dvorak: Sonatas for Violin & Piano," which, according to liner notes, is a "delectable program of Romantic sonatas for violin and piano – all, extraordinarily, composed within a year in 1886-87."   READ THE FULL San Francisco Examiner ARTICLE
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili makes her Abu Dhabi debut / The National
    Posted At : January 6, 2015 12:00 AM

    Khatia Buniatishvili is one of the most highly rated young pianists in the world, but she still feels herself to be a person out of time. The 27-year-old Georgian, who makes her Abu Dhabi debut at Manarat Al Saadiyat on January 7, describes herself as a "20th-century person", harking back to a time when she feels the world of classical music had more scope for idiosyncrasy. "Individuality and personality was much more important for 20th-century performers than today," she says. "Today, I think promoters don't request very original or unique personalities, they mostly want artists who are technically very good but no more than that. "My favourite musicians from the past had no stylistic similarity at all, even though they're from the same period. The 20th century was a time when the technical element and the very important human details were still not divided. "I am still there. I cannot make a sterilisation of myself as a 21st-century person just yet."  READ THE FULL National ARTICLE
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili plays with Toronto Symphony Orchestra / National Post review
    Posted At : October 3, 2014 12:00 AM

    We all need caressing. This is why I rate the professional prospects of Khatia Buniatishvili rather high. On Thursday night the 27-year-old Georgian played Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in a manner that turned Roy Thomson Hall into a flower-laden sitting room and all the listeners (and there were plenty at this Toronto Symphony Orchestra subscription concert) into intimate friends. Even the entry of the piano in the first movement, marked fortissimo in the score, came out as a less-is-more mezzo-piano. The Larghetto was a wonder of moonlit romance, the tempos free and the filigree exquisite. A quick tempo in the finale did not prevent the scherzando sequence from having a patrician lift. As if to demonstrate that she has extrovert chops, Buniatishvili played the manic finale of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7 as an encore. The rhythm had a jumpy quality that was true to the marking: precipitato. Of course Buniatishvili's elegant stage deportment and dark good looks had no effect whatever on the impression she made. That would be irony. READ THE FULL National Post REVIEW.
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili - Motherland is a WFMT 'New Release of the Week'
    Posted At : August 10, 2014 12:00 AM

    Following the success of her Chopin album on Sony Classical, Khatia Buniatishvili now reveals a new, highly personal side on her album Motherland. The CD encompasses music from Bach to Pärt and from Brahms to Kancheli. Spanning a broad stylistic and historical range, the album celebrates the works that have accompanied Buniatishvili through her career, including pieces from her Georgian homeland. Khatia Buniatishvili's Motherland is a WFMT: Chicago 'New Release of the Week.'
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili - Motherland / KDFC: Download Of the Week
    Posted At : July 29, 2014 12:00 AM

    Each week KDFC - San Francisco members can download a free mp3 from some of the biggest releases in the world of Classical music, only at KDFC.com Following the success of her Chopin album on Sony Classical, Khatia Buniatishvili now reveals a new, highly personal side on her album ‘Motherland'. The CD is an intimate quest encompassing solo piano works from Bach to Pärt and from Brahms to Kancheli, in which the themes of longing for home, the merriment of a folk dance and the eternal cycle of growth and decay are apparent. Spanning a broad stylistic and historical range, the album celebrates the works that have accompanied Khatia Buniatschvili's personal path in life, including pieces from her Georgian homeland. Download a free mp3 of Buniatishvili performing Ravel's "Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte"
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili - Motherland / ClassicaLite review
    Posted At : July 11, 2014 12:00 AM

    Aggregating web articles about Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, you may find that the piano virtuoso has some sort of, well, complex. Whether it be unremitting self-indulgence or excessive pride, can you knock someone who's an undeniable talent? And, to no surprise, the latest from Norman Lebrecht (entitled "Another Georgian artist with gender issues") speaks to these truths about Khatia and her undeniable self-reflection of "natural assets." In Vienna, she's been chalking up her talents to her insatiable crusade for pure music, truth in what sets her apart from other artists who toil in similar musical vineyards. She has an album coming out via Sony entitled Motherland. READ THE FULL ClassicaLite REVIEW
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili concert review / San Francisco Classical Voice
    Posted At : April 13, 2014 12:00 AM

    On Sunday night at Le Petit Trianon in San José, the Steinway Society of the Bay Area presented the young Georgian-born, Paris-based pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, who played quite an ambitious program. How about Liszt's colossal B-Minor Sonata as a warm-up piece? Then follow it with Ravel's preposterously difficult transcription of his symphonic poem La Valse? Fortunately, in both of these pieces Buniatishvili demonstrated more than awe-inspiring octaves and astounding passagework. Liszt's sprawling, multifaceted Sonata can easily disintegrate into a succession of motley fragments. Buniatishvili, however, bonded the Sonata into a cohesive narrative that overflowed with ferocious intensity, vivid imagery, and sheer excitement. For many performers, the numerous transitions between the sections of this convoluted form can be rather problematic, but not for Buniatishvili; she navigated through these with naturalness and a deeply felt musicality. READ THE FULL San Francisco Classical Voice REVIEW
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili makes her playing unmistakable in 'Chopin'
    Posted At : October 6, 2012 12:00 AM

    Khatia Buniatishvili has been described by The Independent as "the young Georgian firebrand." At only 24 years old, this Tblisi-born pianist has already achieved an exceptional maturity of interpretation and a distinctive artistic approach that make her playing unmistakable. For her second album on Sony Classical, Khatia now releases Chopin.  The album encompasses five works superbly showcasing the breadth of her skills as a pianist. Chopin's Sonata No. 2, op. 35, in formal and pianistic terms, is one of the most consummate works of the post-Beethoven period and above all known for its fascinatingly, strangely scurrying finale, which Robert Schumann compared to the mocking smile of a sphinx. The unprecedentedly lavish Ballade No. 4, op. 54 is extremely demanding, both technically and artistically. Waltz No. 2, op. 64, is suffused with Slavic heavyheartedness, while Mazurka No. 4, op. 17 concludes enigmatically, as if with an open question. This Polish folk dance is also the basis for the finale of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2. Khatia, who lives in Paris and speaks five languages, made her debut as soloist with orchestra when she was only six years old. Before the age of ten she received her first invitations to play in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Israel and the United States.  Khatia is not only a third prize winner in the 2008 Rubinstein Piano Competition, but also a recipient of the award for the best Chopin interpretation.  In 2010, she received the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and was included in the BBC New Generation Artists series. Since then, Khatia's career has advanced into a new dimension: she has played with Paavo Järvi and Kent Nagano, among others, and in 2011 opened the Ruhr Piano Festival. In the current season, Khatia is the "rising star" in Vienna at the Musikverein and Konzerthaus.  She is performing recitals in Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam and Paris, as well as at the Wigmore Hall and is a guest at the festivals in Schwetzingen, Lucerne and Verbier.  In October, Khatia makes her debut with the Munich Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony.
    Bookmark and Share

  • Khatia Buniatishvili celebrates Franz Liszt's 200th birthday this fall with an album devoted to the composer
    Posted At : July 12, 2011 12:00 AM

    The extremely gifted young Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili is devoting her debut album on Sony Classical, available July 5, to Franz Liszt in celebration of the composer's 200th birthday this fall. Although Buniatishvili sees herself as belonging truly to the 21st century, like the Romantics she looks for greatness in small things and for the universal in the individual. In the music of Liszt, she seeks and finds her idea of musical completeness and pianistic perfection, saying that "only he would enable me to present as a unity the many aspects of my soul."    On the recording, Buniatishvili begins with Liszt's third Liebestraum, a story of the intensity and passion of love which is also characterized by the thought from Goethe's Faust: "O stay! Thou art so fair!". The centerpiece of the recording, however, Liszt's Sonata in B Minor, is technically one of the most demanding works ever written for piano. It caused a stir in Liszt's lifetime because of its innovative orchestral treatment of the piano and because it consists of only one movement, encompassing an abundance of characters and types of motion in one single, great span.   The next piece on the recording is Liszt's first Mephisto Waltz ("The Dance in the Village Tavern"), which was inspired by an episode in Nikolaus Lenau's Faust poem: Amid the demonic dance set off by Mephisto, full of staccato harmonies, lightning scales, and sudden changes of harmony, appears a delicate voice that can be decoded as that of the loving Gretchen. Liszt composed La Lugubre Gondola, which follows, shortly before the death of his son-in-law Richard Wagner, after Liszt had stayed with Wagner in Venice for some time. The work ends with a whole-tone scale and the note G sharp, leading into the key of the last piece on the recording, Liszt's arrangement of Bach's transfiguring Prelude and Fugue in A Minor.    Khatia Buniatishvili stands at the outset of a promising career and is regarded as one of the great pianists of the future. Martha Argerich praised her astonishing musical imagination and brilliant virtuosity. Gidon Kremer, who sees her as one of the greatest talents of recent years, chose Buniatishvili as his chamber music partner at venues including the Lockenhaus Festival and the Wiener Musikverein.   Born in 1987 in Tbilisi, Khatia Buniatishvili first performed as a soloist with orchestra at the age of just six. At ten she accepted her first invitations to play abroad: in Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Russia, Israel and the USA. She won a number of awards at the 2008 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv, including the Audience Favorite Prize, and a year later made her stunning debut at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, standing in for Hélène Grimaud, who was ill. Buniatishvili played at the opening concert there in May of this year.   Khatia Buniatishvili's latest honors and accomplishments include receiving the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award; recording in the BBC New Generation Artists series; and a nomination by the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus in Vienna as Rising Star for the 2011/12 season. The highlights of her concert schedule this season will be performances at the Verbier Festival, the Lockenhaus Festival, the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, the Rheingau Musik Festival, and the MDR Musik Sommer. She will also travel to Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Sydney, Barcelona, and London's Wigmore Hall for various recitals. Buniatishvili will make guest appearances with the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Paavo Järvi, the hr-Sinfonieorchester, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano.
    Bookmark and Share