Khatia Buniatishvili

From left to right, Khatia Buniatishvili in an excerpt from Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54; a performance of Chopin’s Prélude, Op. 28, No. 4; Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626: When I am laid in earth (Dido's Lament); Tchaikovsky, Valse Sentimentale

The Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili will appear in concert next month at Carnegie Hall in a program of works by Beethoven, Liszt, and Schubert.  She was born in Batumi, Georgia, in 1987, and began studying the piano at the age of three under the guidance of her mother; by six, although it might seem hard to imagine, had already appeared with orchestra.

Buniatishvili is perhaps best known for what has been called her interpretive imagination.  Listening to her perform it is clear she has put a great deal of thought into her interpretations, and her works from the Romantic repertoire provide excellent examples of the way in which a pianist can approach repertoire and interpret it in ways that makes the listener consider it from an entirely new perspective, no matter how many times it has been heard before.

Buniatishvili does not break any rules, but instead shines a new light on classical repertoire that in my mind makes her a bit of pioneer—not of music, but of the way we think about it. I believe that her interpretations help a listener to expand the range of their feelings, even about works that are centuries old. In this way she refreshes them in our minds, and lets us revisit them the way we might a film we haven’t seen for a long time.  I’m sure her Carnegie appearance will be another excellent performance. 

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