# Khatia Buniatishvili



## Clouds Weep Snowflakes

Any opinion(s) on this Georgian-born pianist? I have her performance for Rachmaninoff's 2nd and 3rd on CD, and I loved every moment of those 70 minutes! Here is one part:


----------



## Larkenfield

Love her. At her best, I find her more sensitive and expressive than Yuja Wang, and many others. As she's matured, she's settled down and developed greater depth of interpretation. I love the simplicity of a performance like this and she's capable of having a very delicate and refined touch. But her concert with Zubin Mehta was the worst that I've heard of her and I thought it was a very poor performance because she sounded nervous and hyper. That's not the case here and some pianists would break out into a sweat trying to play something that's as exposed and slowly paced as this. She's still young and I believe she has a great future.


----------



## Merl

I really like her. I particularly like watching her (not just because she's very attractive but that certainly makes it even more enjoyable) as she gets really emotionally involved. Sometimes this can be a bad thing for her but usually (of the clips I've seen of her performing live) it really makes her performances stand out. I'd love to see her live.


----------



## Guest

I love her passion and interpretations, but sometimes tempos get away from her in concert. This last movement from Prokofiev's 7th Sonata is way too fast and ends in a mess of made up parts! (from 2:20 she's just wildly slapping at the keyboard!)


----------



## RobertKC

I attended a concert by Khatia this evening. In my non-expert opinion, I think she is fabulous. It seems to me that Khatia feels every note of the music. A very enjoyable evening.


SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in B-flat major, D960
SCHUBERT/LISZT Ständchen S.560-7
SCHUBERT/LISZT Gretchen am Spinnrade S.558-8
SCHUBERT/LISZT Erlkönig S.558-4
LISZT Etude d'exécution transcendante No. 4 "Mazeppa" S.139-4
LISZT Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 in D-flat major, S.244-6

She met fans after the concert, and was very gracious.

I own this Blu-ray by Khatia:










She told me that another Blu-ray of one of her concerts will be released, but she didn't know when. I'll buy every Blu-ray she releases ... I like to see her play, in addition to hearing her.


----------



## Rubens

Warm, voluptuous, magestic.
Her playing is good too.


----------



## starthrower

Does she play anything other than standard repertoire?


----------



## Larkenfield

I find her quite beautiful and expressive when she's 'on'.


----------



## Mandryka

What do you make of this one?


----------



## Woodduck

Clouds Weep Snowflakes said:


> Any opinion(s) on this Georgian-born pianist? I have her performance for Rachmaninoff's 2nd and 3rd on CD, and I loved every moment of those 70 minutes! Here is one part:


Her performance is beautifully played, but Rachmaninoff's own recording immediately puts it into perspective:






His tempo is similar - daringly fast, even a touch faster - but just listen to the first two minutes: the thing has a shape, a variety, an attention to detail, an urgency, and a sense of fantasy that Buniatishvili and Jarvi have barely a clue about.

Rachmaninoff can do more with a phrase at high speed than most pianists can do at a more "standard" tempo, and his sense of proportion is infallible, always showing us where the key structural points are and always knowing just how much prominence to give the piano in relation to the orchestra. Buniatishvili could do worse than to listen and try to imitate what she hears.


----------



## Ras

Larkenfield said:


> Love her. At her best, I find her more sensitive and expressive than Yuja Wang, and many others. As she's matured, she's settled down and developed greater depth of interpretation. I love the simplicity of a performance like this and she's capable of having a very delicate and refined touch. But her concert with Zubin Mehta was the worst that I've heard of her and I thought it was a very poor performance because she sounded nervous and hyper. That's not the case here and some pianists would break out into a sweat trying to play something that's as exposed and slowly paced as this. She's still young and I believe she has a great future.


The way that Liszt transcription of a piece from Schubert's "Swan Song" ends is just sublime - it's so quiet and at the same time so intense and emotional. Wow!
The cd looks like this - it's on www.spotify.com :


----------



## Manxfeeder

This mural is on Church Street in Nashville. I've wondered if she is the model/inspiration for it.


----------



## John King

starthrower said:


> Does she play anything other than standard repertoire?


You mean like the rap version of '******* Woman'? Well, here are a few where she branches out:


----------



## Guest

I think she's a wonderful player when she doesn't try to outplay everyone else. As mentioned, she can be a little messy live. Yes, she's a beautiful woman, but I wish she'd dial back the super-model posing a little. Moving on, her Liszt Sonata is astonishing in its intensity.


----------

