I've been playing piano, classically trained, for almost 50 years. I believe I have earned the right to have an opinion as to the "greatness" of a pianist. Khatia is an incredibly gifted and passionate pianist whose interpretation of Rach 2 is refreshing. People who criticize either do not truly know or understand music from the perspective of the pianist or they are just cruel and jealous of the talent others possess. Many people may think people are merely born with a gift. Yes it's true there MUST be a certain amount of raw, natural talent involved - this is obvious - but what people don't see are the thousands and thousands of hours one practices to achieve greatness. It's a discipline most are never willing or capable of achieving. So a word to "critics"....once you are honestly able to say you spent your childhood, teen years, and many adult years hovering over a keyboard of other musical instrument, playing until your hands hurt, wanting to stop yet can't stop because the passion that compels you to play exceeds any physical pain or social price you pay for missing out on many things..hen you can have a platform and a right to criticize a true musician. Until then, you need to be very careful. When one lays their hands on a musical instrument to play in front of others- they are actually laying their soul bare to show the world. It's a vulnerability few can ever understand and certainly something small minded people can not respect.
Speed is almost always a poetic necessity! You can never fault Khatia for that, unless having the technique of being able to play it is something she shouldn't have! There is a tiger in Khatia and it is something that is necessary to have to become a great pianist. Without it you are simply living to pacify everyone. Surely you can see the sense ! I am particularly amazed with how she plays La Campanela of Liszt. Both her and Valentina Lisitsa have the technique to play it with a blistering speed.
You are so right and express very well in words what is going on here. Musicians like this are like athletes in their discipline, dedication, and passion. The results such as this performance speak for itself.
Much of the criticism of Khatia is simply silly, especially those who say she doesn't play things exactly they way they were written by the masters. Artists are supposed to interpret the music. Who is to say a great musician can't actually ADD something to the piece? The great composers probably would have loved talented artists interpreting their works in new ways as long as they were respectful of the original. Brava Khatia.
Ur right musicians can interpret the music however they want ON THE PREMISE OF COMPLETENESS AND RESPECT FOR THE COMPOSERS. Being able to play scores as written is the bottom line of a musician, beyond that you can then talk about musicality or whatever
@@steverichardson7971 Dude, you just killed Jazz musicians and Folk musicians, do you feel complete? It seems like being a musician is not about musicality, but playing like a MIDI. Being prescriptivist/elitist/eurocentrist/ is not respecting the composers.
Dan G lol ur just trolling. In this context it’s very clear that I’m talking about classical musicians. Playing like a MIDI is bad, but can’t even hit the right notes and rhythm? Worse. If ur gonna change the music go play jazz, like u said. Cuz classical music is about delivering the composer’s message in a touching way, essentially.
Khatia is a world treasure. She embodies passion, tenderness, joy, and pain. Her performances leave me speechless. This performance epitomizes the words, “life is struggle.” And follows with, “so, embrace the struggle.” Real beauty and happiness are found there.
I went to her concert in Kansas MO and it fulfilled my dreams. The performance was, course impeccable, an I got to meet her afterwards. She was, beautiful, and when I asked her for a selfy, she took my hand, held it to her face, and said of course. I told her she had made an old man happy. She smiled and held my hand closer to her face. Such talent and class. That was my brief encounter with this gifted beauty.
The focus of the comments is of course directed toward Khatia and the composition. I did a word search for the conductor Gianandrea Noseda and found only 2 comments out of 2,219; his performance has been sadly overlooked. I feel Noseda did a masterful job. The Rach 2 is, as are all the Rach piano concertos, a composition of extreme dynamics and passions, and, as such in need of a conductor who can manifest those energies up and down the spectrum in the performance. Noseda did just that in a manner which I have never seen before. Masterful work sir.
I am in tears... Rachmaninov's 2nd is one of the most emotional pieces ever written... and it is performed so magnificently and with so much passion!.. I am glad that in this world, humans like Khatia exist... And don't forget that she is very intelligent, a patriot, and drop-dead gorgeous!..
It's not a pianist and a piano when Khatia plays. The two become ONE and together they make incredible music with feel and incredible power done with grace!!!! Khatia is brilliant and passionate! My goodness she is outstanding!!! Could watch her play for hours!!!
Khatia gently walks out to the piano in a stunningly gorgeous dress. But that's just the beginning. She begins to play and you realize this is an otherworldly experience. It's surreal. At the conclusion, you're left saying, "WOW! What just happened?" Khatia, much gratitude to you for these incredible performances!!!
This is a performance that makes you forget about every other piano concerto in history! This is Rachmaninoff at his most focused, melodically/ thematically and emotionally, and this is the pianist born to deliver his vision. I am in tears.
Alexander Boot Writer, critic, polemicist Sex sells - all of us short The other day I listened to something or other on RU-vid, and a link to Chopin’s Fourth Ballade performed by the Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili came up. The link was accompanied by a close-up publicity photo of the musician: sloe bedroom eyes, sensual semi-open lips suggesting a delight that’s still illegal in Alabama, naked shoulders hinting at the similarly nude rest of her body regrettably out of shot… Let me see where my wife is… Good, she isn’t looking over my shoulder, so I can admit to you that the picture got me excited in ways one doesn’t normally associate with Chopin’s Fourth Ballade or for that matter any other classical composition this side of Wagner or perhaps Ravel’s Bolero. Searching for a more traditional musical rapture I clicked on the actual clip and alas found it anticlimactic, as it were. Khatia’s playing, though competent, is as undeniably so-what as her voluptuous figure undeniably isn’t. (Yes, I know the photograph I mentioned doesn’t show much of her figure apart from the luscious shoulders but, the prurient side of my nature piqued, I did a bit of a web crawl.) Just for the hell of it I looked at the publicity shots of other currently active female musicians, such as Yuja Wang, Joanna MacGregor, Nicola Bendetti, Alison Balsom (nicknamed ‘crumpet with a trumpet’, her promos more often suggest ‘a strumpet with a trumpet’ instead), Anne-Sophie Mutter and a few others. They didn’t disappoint the Peeping Tom lurking under my aging surface. Just about all the photographs showed the ladies in various stages of undress, in bed, lying in suggestive poses on top of the piano, playing in frocks (if any) open to the coccyx in the back and/or to the navel up front. This is one thing these musicians have in common. The other is that none of them is all that good at her day job and some, such as Wang, are truly awful. Yet this doesn’t really matter either to them or to the public or, most important, to those who form the public tastes by writing about music and musicians. Thus, for example, a tabloid pundit expressing his heartfelt regret that Nicola Benedetti “won’t be posing for the lads’ mags anytime soon. Pity, because she looks fit as a fiddle…” Geddit? She’s a violinist, which is to say fiddler - well, you do get it. “But Nicola doesn’t always take the bonniest photo,” continues the writer, “she’s beaky in pics sometimes, which is weird because in the flesh she’s an absolute knock-out. “The classical musician is wearing skinny jeans which show off her long legs. She’s also busty with a washboard flat tummy, tottering around 5ft 10in in her Dune platform wedges.” How well does she play the violin though? No one cares. Not even critics writing for our broadsheets, who don’t mind talking about musicians in terms normally reserved for pole dancers. Thus for instance runs a review of a piano recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall, one of London’s top concert venues: “She is the most photogenic of players: young, pretty, bare-footed; and, with her long dark hair and exquisite strapless dress of dazzling white, not only seemed to imply that sexuality itself can make you a profound musician, but was a perfect visual complement to the sleek monochrome of a concert grand… [but] there’s more to her than meets the eye.” The male reader is clearly expected to get a stiffie trying to imagine what that might be. To help his imagination along, the piece is accompanied by a photo of the young lady in question reclining on her instrument in a pre-coital position with an unmistakable ‘come and get it’ expression on her face. The ‘monochrome’ piano is actually bright-red, a colour usually found not in concert halls but in dens of iniquity. Nowhere does the review mention the fact obvious to anyone with any taste for musical performance: the girl is so bad that she should indeed be playing in a brothel, rather than on the concert platform. Can you, in the wildest flight of fancy, imagine a reviewer talking in such terms about sublime women artists of the past, such as Myra Hess, Maria Yudina, Maria Grinberg, Clara Haskil, Marcelle Meyer, Marguerite Long, Kathleen Ferrier? Can you see any of them allowing themselves to be photographed in the style of “lads’ mags”? I can’t, which raises the inevitable question: what exactly has changed in the last say 70 years? The short answer is, just about everything. Concert organisers and impresarios, who used to be in the business because they loved music first and wanted to make a living second, now care about nothing but money. Critics, who used to have discernment and taste, now have nothing but greed and lust for popularity. The public… well, don’t get me started on that. The circle is vicious: because tasteless ignoramuses use every available medium to build up musical nonentities, nonentities is all we get. And because the musical nonentities have no artistic qualities to write about, the writing nonentities have to concentrate on the more jutting attractions, using a vocabulary typically found in “lads’ mags”. The adage “sex sells” used to be applied first to B-movies, then to B-novels, and now to real music. From “sex sells” it’s but a short distance to “only sex sells”. This distance has already been travelled - and we are all being sold short.
The internet is a very, very - very strange place... This young lady is a gifted pianist and a beautiful woman. There is certainly nothing mediocre here. Brava, Khatia!
Bob Nicholson thanks, indeed if we, the world's people could just sit together for a moment and appreciate what magic is available to us in this Universe. Billy
I always enjoy listening to and watching Khatia. In my mind, she's one of the great pianists of our time. I've never heard her play in a way that isn't riveting, gripping, and moving. She really is the perfect fusion between sound and feeling. As soon as the pandemic is over, and i feel comfortable going out again, Khatia is one the first pianists I want to hear live again - I actually don't care what it costs.
My life has been music, especially the piano. In my many years of life I have never heard anyone play with such passion and Wonderful understanding of the music as Khatia. She brings my heart soaring and tears to my eyes. So much talent and passion. Bless her for sharing such beauty with us.
Alexander Boot Writer, critic, polemicist Sex sells - all of us short The other day I listened to something or other on RU-vid, and a link to Chopin’s Fourth Ballade performed by the Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili came up. The link was accompanied by a close-up publicity photo of the musician: sloe bedroom eyes, sensual semi-open lips suggesting a delight that’s still illegal in Alabama, naked shoulders hinting at the similarly nude rest of her body regrettably out of shot… Let me see where my wife is… Good, she isn’t looking over my shoulder, so I can admit to you that the picture got me excited in ways one doesn’t normally associate with Chopin’s Fourth Ballade or for that matter any other classical composition this side of Wagner or perhaps Ravel’s Bolero. Searching for a more traditional musical rapture I clicked on the actual clip and alas found it anticlimactic, as it were. Khatia’s playing, though competent, is as undeniably so-what as her voluptuous figure undeniably isn’t. (Yes, I know the photograph I mentioned doesn’t show much of her figure apart from the luscious shoulders but, the prurient side of my nature piqued, I did a bit of a web crawl.) Just for the hell of it I looked at the publicity shots of other currently active female musicians, such as Yuja Wang, Joanna MacGregor, Nicola Bendetti, Alison Balsom (nicknamed ‘crumpet with a trumpet’, her promos more often suggest ‘a strumpet with a trumpet’ instead), Anne-Sophie Mutter and a few others. They didn’t disappoint the Peeping Tom lurking under my aging surface. Just about all the photographs showed the ladies in various stages of undress, in bed, lying in suggestive poses on top of the piano, playing in frocks (if any) open to the coccyx in the back and/or to the navel up front. This is one thing these musicians have in common. The other is that none of them is all that good at her day job and some, such as Wang, are truly awful. Yet this doesn’t really matter either to them or to the public or, most important, to those who form the public tastes by writing about music and musicians. Thus, for example, a tabloid pundit expressing his heartfelt regret that Nicola Benedetti “won’t be posing for the lads’ mags anytime soon. Pity, because she looks fit as a fiddle…” Geddit? She’s a violinist, which is to say fiddler - well, you do get it. “But Nicola doesn’t always take the bonniest photo,” continues the writer, “she’s beaky in pics sometimes, which is weird because in the flesh she’s an absolute knock-out. “The classical musician is wearing skinny jeans which show off her long legs. She’s also busty with a washboard flat tummy, tottering around 5ft 10in in her Dune platform wedges.” How well does she play the violin though? No one cares. Not even critics writing for our broadsheets, who don’t mind talking about musicians in terms normally reserved for pole dancers. Thus for instance runs a review of a piano recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall, one of London’s top concert venues: “She is the most photogenic of players: young, pretty, bare-footed; and, with her long dark hair and exquisite strapless dress of dazzling white, not only seemed to imply that sexuality itself can make you a profound musician, but was a perfect visual complement to the sleek monochrome of a concert grand… [but] there’s more to her than meets the eye.” The male reader is clearly expected to get a stiffie trying to imagine what that might be. To help his imagination along, the piece is accompanied by a photo of the young lady in question reclining on her instrument in a pre-coital position with an unmistakable ‘come and get it’ expression on her face. The ‘monochrome’ piano is actually bright-red, a colour usually found not in concert halls but in dens of iniquity. Nowhere does the review mention the fact obvious to anyone with any taste for musical performance: the girl is so bad that she should indeed be playing in a brothel, rather than on the concert platform. Can you, in the wildest flight of fancy, imagine a reviewer talking in such terms about sublime women artists of the past, such as Myra Hess, Maria Yudina, Maria Grinberg, Clara Haskil, Marcelle Meyer, Marguerite Long, Kathleen Ferrier? Can you see any of them allowing themselves to be photographed in the style of “lads’ mags”? I can’t, which raises the inevitable question: what exactly has changed in the last say 70 years? The short answer is, just about everything. Concert organisers and impresarios, who used to be in the business because they loved music first and wanted to make a living second, now care about nothing but money. Critics, who used to have discernment and taste, now have nothing but greed and lust for popularity. The public… well, don’t get me started on that. The circle is vicious: because tasteless ignoramuses use every available medium to build up musical nonentities, nonentities is all we get. And because the musical nonentities have no artistic qualities to write about, the writing nonentities have to concentrate on the more jutting attractions, using a vocabulary typically found in “lads’ mags”. The adage “sex sells” used to be applied first to B-movies, then to B-novels, and now to real music. From “sex sells” it’s but a short distance to “only sex sells”. This distance has already been travelled - and we are all being sold short.
Do yourself a favour, and listen to Richter's playing of this. I believe the year was 1959 and the Warsaw was the orchestra. It's widely considered to be THE recording of this concerto. A good set of phones are recommended to hear every nuance in this masterpiece, as Richter undoubtedly plays this perfectly. It can found here on YT. Too bad it's only an audio piece. I would have loved to see him play it. Although Khatia is talented and technically proficient, her interpretation leaves much to be desired. Rests are missing, tempo is not fluid... in short, she never allowed the piece to open up and take the listener by the heart.
Of all the pieces I've heard in my life, this one is the most beautiful and moving. And of all the performances of this concerto, none have the sensuality and beauty of this one. None express the feelings the way that this beautiful performance does. I absolutely love how in sync Khatia and the conductor are. They have both captured the essence of this piece . This is the epitome of romance
You didn't just give me a concerto, you have given me a whole universe of music. I've found more subtle meanings that I could never feel and receive from all of the other pianists. It seems that every piano concerto you've performed inevitably transformed and transcended into another horizon, a grand and bold new world.
Alexander Boot Writer, critic, polemicist Sex sells - all of us short The other day I listened to something or other on RU-vid, and a link to Chopin’s Fourth Ballade performed by the Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili came up. The link was accompanied by a close-up publicity photo of the musician: sloe bedroom eyes, sensual semi-open lips suggesting a delight that’s still illegal in Alabama, naked shoulders hinting at the similarly nude rest of her body regrettably out of shot… Let me see where my wife is… Good, she isn’t looking over my shoulder, so I can admit to you that the picture got me excited in ways one doesn’t normally associate with Chopin’s Fourth Ballade or for that matter any other classical composition this side of Wagner or perhaps Ravel’s Bolero. Searching for a more traditional musical rapture I clicked on the actual clip and alas found it anticlimactic, as it were. Khatia’s playing, though competent, is as undeniably so-what as her voluptuous figure undeniably isn’t. (Yes, I know the photograph I mentioned doesn’t show much of her figure apart from the luscious shoulders but, the prurient side of my nature piqued, I did a bit of a web crawl.) Just for the hell of it I looked at the publicity shots of other currently active female musicians, such as Yuja Wang, Joanna MacGregor, Nicola Bendetti, Alison Balsom (nicknamed ‘crumpet with a trumpet’, her promos more often suggest ‘a strumpet with a trumpet’ instead), Anne-Sophie Mutter and a few others. They didn’t disappoint the Peeping Tom lurking under my aging surface. Just about all the photographs showed the ladies in various stages of undress, in bed, lying in suggestive poses on top of the piano, playing in frocks (if any) open to the coccyx in the back and/or to the navel up front. This is one thing these musicians have in common. The other is that none of them is all that good at her day job and some, such as Wang, are truly awful. Yet this doesn’t really matter either to them or to the public or, most important, to those who form the public tastes by writing about music and musicians. Thus, for example, a tabloid pundit expressing his heartfelt regret that Nicola Benedetti “won’t be posing for the lads’ mags anytime soon. Pity, because she looks fit as a fiddle…” Geddit? She’s a violinist, which is to say fiddler - well, you do get it. “But Nicola doesn’t always take the bonniest photo,” continues the writer, “she’s beaky in pics sometimes, which is weird because in the flesh she’s an absolute knock-out. “The classical musician is wearing skinny jeans which show off her long legs. She’s also busty with a washboard flat tummy, tottering around 5ft 10in in her Dune platform wedges.” How well does she play the violin though? No one cares. Not even critics writing for our broadsheets, who don’t mind talking about musicians in terms normally reserved for pole dancers. Thus for instance runs a review of a piano recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall, one of London’s top concert venues: “She is the most photogenic of players: young, pretty, bare-footed; and, with her long dark hair and exquisite strapless dress of dazzling white, not only seemed to imply that sexuality itself can make you a profound musician, but was a perfect visual complement to the sleek monochrome of a concert grand… [but] there’s more to her than meets the eye.” The male reader is clearly expected to get a stiffie trying to imagine what that might be. To help his imagination along, the piece is accompanied by a photo of the young lady in question reclining on her instrument in a pre-coital position with an unmistakable ‘come and get it’ expression on her face. The ‘monochrome’ piano is actually bright-red, a colour usually found not in concert halls but in dens of iniquity. Nowhere does the review mention the fact obvious to anyone with any taste for musical performance: the girl is so bad that she should indeed be playing in a brothel, rather than on the concert platform. Can you, in the wildest flight of fancy, imagine a reviewer talking in such terms about sublime women artists of the past, such as Myra Hess, Maria Yudina, Maria Grinberg, Clara Haskil, Marcelle Meyer, Marguerite Long, Kathleen Ferrier? Can you see any of them allowing themselves to be photographed in the style of “lads’ mags”? I can’t, which raises the inevitable question: what exactly has changed in the last say 70 years? The short answer is, just about everything. Concert organisers and impresarios, who used to be in the business because they loved music first and wanted to make a living second, now care about nothing but money. Critics, who used to have discernment and taste, now have nothing but greed and lust for popularity. The public… well, don’t get me started on that. The circle is vicious: because tasteless ignoramuses use every available medium to build up musical nonentities, nonentities is all we get. And because the musical nonentities have no artistic qualities to write about, the writing nonentities have to concentrate on the more jutting attractions, using a vocabulary typically found in “lads’ mags”. The adage “sex sells” used to be applied first to B-movies, then to B-novels, and now to real music. From “sex sells” it’s but a short distance to “only sex sells”. This distance has already been travelled - and we are all being sold short.
It is difficult to speak about this concerto N°2 for piano and orchestra fromS. Rachmaninoff. It is a concerto I have listened to all my life. Khatia is like a diamond shining and she plays the concerto in way, that my soul sings it with her, because it is with me. Thank you Khatia.
É verdade Elisabeth! Não há o que dizer , apenas ouvir, ver e rever a emoção que provoca em todos nós , o talento e a sensualidade da Khatia Buniatishvili, nesta maravilhosa obra de Serguei Rachmaninoff. Também, o sentimento e a energia , do Maestro e a sonoridade que nos traz a Orquestra!
I enjoy listening to recordings of great musical pieces but there is nothing better than watching a live performance by a great orchestra, especially if Khatia is performing. She is truly stunning.
Hey people, some of the comments are way to far over the top. Sure, she's sexy, beautiful, and to me, adorable. But she's all that not because she looks attractive, it's because her fingers and the keys draw you in. I'm 61, dying Army Vet, big rock fan, but when I listen to Rachmaninoff, and knowing Rachmaninoff's story, then I listen to the work in it's perfection, I cry. This Concerto is one of the most difficult to play, and mastered by so few. And when I watch Khatia, Yuga, or Martha hit the keys, it's the finest moments I willl ever know. And by the way, all of these FREE moments we get on RU-vid to hear her, are released by Khatia. She doesn't make a dime so you can find peace and solitude if not for just some brief moments. Sometimes when I listen, I think that when I finally pass on I will find immunity for my past indiscretions. (P.S., it is said that before this Concerto was composed, Rachmaninoff sold his soul to the devil and this, plus "The Theme" are solid proof. It is also said that perfection of this work be an artist is true absolution for their sins. Really, "no shit")
I don´t know about music techniques and terminology. I see and feel passion, energy, beauty, compromise and sensitivity. I only can see a brilliant performance and a full concert hall clapping and cheering. This is enough for me. Thanks Khatia!
+Juan Pablo Valdivia Meyan Yes, they are asleep. Europeans are like that often when some performance of anything is very, very good. This lady has magic fingers and Rach 2PC is probably the most alive piece of music ever written as I see it.
MILANO 06.11.2014 6 novembre 2014 Per la Società del Quartetto si è esibita la pianista georgiana con pagine di Musorgskij, Chopin, Ravel e Stravinskij di Luca Chierici LA PIANISTA GEORGIANA Khatia Buniatishvili, classe 1987, si è esibita l’altro ieri sera per la Società del Quartetto e per la prima volta a Milano in un recital tutto suo, dedicato a pagine di Musorgskij, Chopin, Ravel e Stravinskij. Conoscevamo già il suo approccio alla tastiera grazie all’ascolto di numerosi “live” trasmessi dai satelliti di tutta Europa negli ultimi anni e alla sua partecipazione a una serata scaligera dello scorso anno, quando si era prodotta nel secondo concerto di Rachmaninov con Gianandrea Noseda, senza riscuotere particolari consensi. La Buniatishvili appartiene a quella razza di esecutori che conquistano un posto di spicco nei programmi concertistici (e nella graduatoria dei cachet) senza avere mai vinto un primo premio nei concorsi più prestigiosi o senza mai essere passata al vaglio di un esame critico almeno in base a una consistente produzione discografica. L’ascolto in sala avrebbe dunque dovuto chiarire quale fosse la vera natura di una solista che si presentava al pubblico milanese attraverso un programma di notevole difficoltà quanto piuttosto generico nell’impaginazione. Il pubblico, che non affollava certo la sala anche a causa di un nubifragio occorso giusto nel momento in cui ci si preparava a uscire di casa e ad affrontare il traffico cittadino per raggiungere il Conservatorio, ha tributato convinti applausi alla Buniatishvili al termine di ogni pezzo in programma, complice anche la particolare avvenenza della pianista, che sa vendere molto bene la propria immagine, come del resto fanno molti personaggi del mondo musicale odierno. Giudicata secondo gli standard, ossia in base alle qualità che un artista dovrebbe dimostrare di possedere partendo da una lettura corretta del testo, la Buniatishivili è assai deludente. Anzi, induce a pensare che la maggior parte del pubblico non abbia proprio idea di quali siano le garanzie minime che un esecutore deve essere in grado di assicurare una volta che si presenti in sala. Ciò che più disturba nella Buniatishvili è l’assoluto disprezzo per il segno, che viene stravolto solamente per soddisfare un proprio inspiegabile narcisismo e per coprire le proprie incapacità o la mancanza di studio adeguato. La Buniatishvili sembra non conoscere cosa sia il tactus, quali siano le richieste del compositore in termini di dinamica, di colore, di fraseggio e soprattutto si pone nei confronti dello spartito con un atteggiamento arrogante che la autorizza a praticare forti sconti sulla resa di quanto indicato sulla pagina e ad immergere ogni suono in un fastidioso alone di pedale. I Quadri di Musorgskij erano da questo punto di vista emblematici, con un inizio sottovoce, come se la Passeggiata fosse condotta in uno stato di sonnambulismo; uno Gnomus irriconoscibile, confuso, ritmicamente traballante; un Castello per il quale valeva quella famosa definizione coniata da un critico poco entusiasta e citata da Dallapiccola, secondo la quale il medesimo maniero… «non trovava acquirenti». Tutta la parte finale, da Baba Jaga alla trionfale conclusione era suonata con una approssimazione tale e con uno stravolgimento del senso musicale mai uditi prima d’ora. Gli stessi eccessi e le stesse perdite di controllo si notavano anche nel secondo scherzo di Chopin, nella versione per pianoforte solo de La valse di Ravel e soprattutto nello stravinskiano Petruška. Forse il pubblico odierno non sa quante vecchie e nuove generazioni di pianisti abbiano dedicato ore, giorni, mesi, anni a queste pagine, allo scopo di restituirne il messaggio attraverso esecuzioni rispettose del testo e di ciò che esso richiede in termini di analisi, di studio, di fatica. Il pianismo appariscente quanto poco preciso della Buniatishvili, non ci interessa punto, non fa avanzare di un centimetro la conoscenza della musica classica e non rispetta il lavoro e la dedizione di tanti colleghi che si dedicano seriamente, forse oggi troppo seriamente e ingenuamente, all’Arte.
Así es. Hay mucha gente por aquí que se pasa la vida (triste vida esa...) criticando, no dejándose llevar por las cosas bonitas, como este concienrto con esta gran pianista, que tiene la vida.
We are so very blessed to be living in a time such as this. Let's not forget that RU-vid makes this possible and I am so very appreciative to RU-vid. I'm grateful to Khatia's Mother for gifting the world with this lovely woman and to Michael Sogny for his gift of teaching the world's pianist. Most of all, I'm so proud of this lovely lady and her devotion to music. Thanks, Khatia !
thank you Khatia for bringing us such excellence, Rachmaninov and you lift the soul so much. This is my favorite performance of this lovely concerto. You have "it" all, a true shining star of mankind.
Thank you Khatia. Your performance is just sublime! You’re a French citizen since 2017, a gift of yourself to the French people. I am so proud to have you. Vous êtes magnifique et votre musique... Je n’ai pas des mots pour la décrire. Merci.
Kathia is just unbelievable! I have no idea how often I have watched this fantastic Piano Concerto No.2 from S. Rachmaninov. The music is just most beautyful!
Hands down, the most beautiful performance of the Rachmaninov 2nd I have ever heard. Not to be missed. The nuances, tone and color of her performance were magic.
6 лет назад
I agree completely and also don't forget the magnificent performance from the orchestra together with a fantastic conductor. It wouldn't have been the same without them. Pure perfection this performance!
Khatia is an incredible talent and she is such a gift to all those that are fortunate to hear her play. This woman is not timid at all, is aggressive with the piano and has total control of the piano and the music she is playing. When she is playing, I feel it comes from her heart, from her soul and every fiber of her body. She is playing wonderful music that we are all familiar with, but listen, watch her perform and the music sounds different and such a pleasure to witness it. She can play difficult cords at a speed that very few can match and most has to slow down. Khatia Buniatishvili is a world class pianist and can play anywhere in the world that she would choose. Fortunate for us, she will only get better. This is a very beautiful woman and I am sure she is intimidating to other women as I have heard comments. I am in love with her and her exceptional talent and she has improved my life.
I am a het cis woman, and I agree with you 100%! We are so fortunate to be living in the same time as this brilliant musician/ force of nature. Respect to her mother for nurturing both of her girls' musical gifts.
Stravinsky called Rachmaninoff 'an awesome man', and in the hands of a really exceptional artist, even a work as familiar and popular as Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto can disclose new wonders. this woman is a wonder
It's so interesting hearing Lang Lang's version and then Khatia...it's like listening to a different piece of music. I like the drama of Lang Lang, but he just can't play pianissimo from the soul, it is taught! Khatia plays with her soul, and her pianissimo is truly the most beautiful i've heard apart from Horowitz! I still think the timing of some of the dramatic sequences I have heard played better, but that is just comparing one pianist to another. Khatia is a genius, like any other that can play this piece with credibility. I would love to have heard Argerich play the No 2, because she combines drama and pianissimo beautifully. How lucky are we to have these geniuses, each interpreting slightly differently.
Arguerich n’a pas le génie de Kathia B. Il y a d’autres œuvres sur RU-vid qui sont jouées par les deux et Kathia B EST la musique. La première au monde à n’être pas jouer verticalement mais à ÊTRE le piano
Khatia plays with a softness like no other. You are on a journey with her. If you close your eyes, she is with you. We are fortunate to live in her time.
This artist makes me stop and shut out the rest of the world. She has such talent! I hope to hear her playing for many years to come. She is a real game changer. Thank you for infusing beauty back into the world.
Una interpretación increíblemente apasionada, es una pianista irreal. Me saco el sombrero mil veces ante su interpretación, gracias Kathia por devolver tanto deseo de vida.
I feel sorry for the people that think they know too much, and can´t seat an enjoy a superb artist, because they are looking for mistakes in everything...I hope they are not as harsh with they´re own lives as they are with their comments about the greatness of Khatia...
WHAT'S SO DIFFERENT ABOUT HER IS SHE IS A STAR. HER PRESENTATION. HER MUSIC AS GOOD AS ANYONE'S BUT SHE WILL BE THE MOST FAMOUS AS SHE HAS THE PRESENCE. HER MOVES, GESTURES, LOOKS, BODY LANGUAGE, APPEARANCE, ....SHE IS PROMOTING HERSELF THAT WAY AND IT ALL SAYS "THIS IS A STAR."
I have a "long-play" very old with the Concerto # 2 of Rachmaninov performed by a Mexican pianist named Jesus Maria Samora, fabulous. Katia Buniatishvili managed to innovate and give a very special interpretation, magnificent. Rachmaninov's happy.
I fall in love every time I hear Rach 2. The second movement is raw emotion. I love the piece and I love the way Khatia plays it. She is so into it... at 5:23 she looks at the orchestra as if to confirm that they are having as much fun as she. I love this!!!!
I have heard this concerto in every version and pianist that have recorded it and even not recorded one. She is fantastically the best she make it alive and powerfully beautiful. The conductor gave its heart and the orchestra performed at their highest but she shined tremendously. The conductor knew that it was going to be a tough concert and make her the star. Bravo!
I had the great pleasure of sitting in the front row center seat to watch and listen to Khatia Buniatishvili play a concert at Koerner Hall in Toronto in December 2017. My wife and I sat amongst a number of elderly (we are both in our 60's) people who obviously were familiar enough with each other that, after the performance, they asked each other what they thought of the performance. One old curmudgeon, derisively remarked that he had to attend the concert even though he'd rather be somewhere else. I was shocked and dismayed at what he said. I'm not a musician, nor am I an expert regarding classical music, but I was in awe of her performance and captivated by her touch on the piano which made it come alive like I've never heard before in my life. Fortunately, all of the other people shrugged the critic off with both gestures and their own commentary which matched my thoughts that I had just witnessed greatness. It reminded me of the fact that no matter how great one is, they will always have critics. Khatia, if you are reading this, you were great!
I just like her .... Khatia is such a breath of fresh air in an often times stuffy medium. I like her story ... I like how she is with children and the elderly ... I consider her to be a genius ...Her Mother is obviously and justifiably very proud of both daughters. I am grateful for the wonder of it all.
This is truly my girl crush. My mother and father both were able to play the piano, it is my favorite musical instrument. I took lessons but was unable to catch on, to my mother's dismay. She wanted me to master it so desperately, that is why I love this video so much, her passion and talent is overwhelming. You can feel ever key caressing your psyche ( I guess I spelled that correctly ). It amazes me how blessed and gifted some people are. God Bless
I as a child heard the master Arthur Rubenstein play this amazing concerto. Khatia my favorite modern performer would have made Rachmaninoff proud. She is beautiful and plays to match.
KHATIA ! Il faut aussi exprimer toute notre admiration pour la direction d'orchestre et les musiciens. Ils ont réalisé un chef d'oeuvre. C'est comme un avant-goût du Ciel ! un Magnificat exceptionnel. Quel bonheur !
Absolutely stunning! My favorite piece of music since I was 21. My mom was a classical pianist, and at 21 I asked her to tell me what was the best piece of classical music to start appreciating it was, and she said Rach 2 and Tchaikovsky No. 1. I liked the latter, but fell deeply and forever in love with Rach 2. Im now 58 and it is still my all time favorite. So very glad I found Kathia and her interpretation of it. She’s fabulous!! PS Although it’s common to have a person cough once in a while during a live recorded performance, the woman who could not stop, should have taken a water break. It was hard to focus on the music.
I was very impressed by an interview she gave in French that I looked at this evening. She is an altogether impressive woman. This was a brilliant performance. I dont know of a young performer who performs more concerti that her. So much prowess and a very poetic sense of touch too
I think I saw that same video. She performs at the last right? Too bad there weren't English subtitles. I am always eager to know what she's saying and how she thinks. She did quite a bit of laughing though so she had fun in that interview.
Khatia is a world class pianist and can execute difficult pieces with such force speed beauty of interpretation like coming from her soul so expressive her face when playing. I love when she attacks difficult passages quite easily. Like when she accompanied Zubin Mehta in one of her concerts! Bravo
I happily drowned in the music. What a pianist. What an artist. What a Goddess! Her skill is extraordinary. More than that, her interpretation and performance simply leaves you entranced. From whatever heaven I am in, I do not wish to return....😍
Khatia what a huge privilege to be able to witness you perform! Had I been in that audience, I would have jumped up, and (hopefully) got everybody else to do so also. This deserves a standing ovation. Your encore piece made me cry...
Эта поистине великая женщина-пианист поражает также умом, интеллектом, волей и заражает тем высоким наслаждением, которое испытывает при конгениальном исполнении сама!!!
This is one of the top pianist to play with traditional and modern piano concerto. it is almost touch the soul and heart on high, to the limit of our humanity.
I fell in love with this piece of music when I was a teenager. It takes me into another dimension. This performance has brought tears to my eyes and given me goosebumps. Katia is an amazing pianist and plays with such passion and emotion. The orchestra is outstanding too. Wow.
I heard this wonderful concerto any number of times by many pianists, yet I keep coming back to Khatia Buniatishvili's artistic work that seems to make my days and nights so very romantic. And thus proving that romanticism is so very much alive especially when Ms Buniatishvili performs it.
I'm so glad I stumbled across this version! This is absolutely outstanding!! It's 40 minutes.. and it took my about 2 hours to get through because I had to keep rewinding all my favorite cadences. I probably spent an hour just on the second movement alone! FANTASTIC!!! (I recommend listening to this with headphones)
Such a performance comes along once in a long while. The audience was obviously spell-bound by Khatia's performance. Words simply fail to describe what she created in this performance. A magic that exceeds the piano, the performer, and the music. I can only imagine what it might have been to have heard and seen this live. She embodied Rachmaninov's verve in this masterpiece performance like no other. Magnificent!!
Magnífica interpretación de una de las mejores pianistas de nuestra época. Su sensibilidad, personalidad y belleza son dones que acompañan su talento y acabado profesionalismo. Agradezco este video que tiene un registro perfecto de todos los artistas con sorprendente perfección.
I don't play the piano but do love to listen to such a beautiful concerto as this, played with such skill and feeling by such an incredibly skilled pianist like Khatia Buniatishvili. I found this performance utterly captivating .......... bravo Khatia! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I wanted to write something about Khatia's interpretation, and then- between tears-, I realized that there are no words to express how I feel while listening to this piece of music so masterfully played. I just remembered that, at one point of my life music saved me. Thank you khatia, for reviving this memory.
I can listen to Khatia Buniatshvili non-stop. Her interpretation and technique is second to none. We are blessed to have pianists of her calibre. Simply beautiful.
I love her easy, facile, approach with her hands. She makes it look very easy. It helps the appearance of magic happening. The conductor looks like he is working very hard. Big contrast in styles.
Another great performance! The conductor and musicians of the orchestra are perfect. Khatia is in my opinion the best pianist in the past century, with the most awesome performances of the Grieg, Schumann, Rachmaninoff , Liszt and others.. Thank you so much, love you..John Rapp..Eastover N.C.
Jamás escuché algo tan maravilloso. Virtuosismo y elegancia asoman en cada interpretación de Khatia. Grandiosa la orquesta, rendida a las manos de la genial estrella de la música.
Best concerto ever written! Khatia plays it exquisitely! Passion, emotion, beautiful dynamics throughout. I love watching her hands, and how she connects with the orchestra. Beautiful! The second movement was awesome! Great conducting! Thank you Khatia
Ce mouvement musical est sublime!!! Je n’ai pas de mots pour exprimer tout ce que je ressent. Le jeu de Khatia est une merveille…, elle respire de la musique!
Alexander Boot Writer, critic, polemicist Sex sells - all of us short The other day I listened to something or other on RU-vid, and a link to Chopin’s Fourth Ballade performed by the Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili came up. The link was accompanied by a close-up publicity photo of the musician: sloe bedroom eyes, sensual semi-open lips suggesting a delight that’s still illegal in Alabama, naked shoulders hinting at the similarly nude rest of her body regrettably out of shot… Let me see where my wife is… Good, she isn’t looking over my shoulder, so I can admit to you that the picture got me excited in ways one doesn’t normally associate with Chopin’s Fourth Ballade or for that matter any other classical composition this side of Wagner or perhaps Ravel’s Bolero. Searching for a more traditional musical rapture I clicked on the actual clip and alas found it anticlimactic, as it were. Khatia’s playing, though competent, is as undeniably so-what as her voluptuous figure undeniably isn’t. (Yes, I know the photograph I mentioned doesn’t show much of her figure apart from the luscious shoulders but, the prurient side of my nature piqued, I did a bit of a web crawl.) Just for the hell of it I looked at the publicity shots of other currently active female musicians, such as Yuja Wang, Joanna MacGregor, Nicola Bendetti, Alison Balsom (nicknamed ‘crumpet with a trumpet’, her promos more often suggest ‘a strumpet with a trumpet’ instead), Anne-Sophie Mutter and a few others. They didn’t disappoint the Peeping Tom lurking under my aging surface. Just about all the photographs showed the ladies in various stages of undress, in bed, lying in suggestive poses on top of the piano, playing in frocks (if any) open to the coccyx in the back and/or to the navel up front. This is one thing these musicians have in common. The other is that none of them is all that good at her day job and some, such as Wang, are truly awful. Yet this doesn’t really matter either to them or to the public or, most important, to those who form the public tastes by writing about music and musicians. Thus, for example, a tabloid pundit expressing his heartfelt regret that Nicola Benedetti “won’t be posing for the lads’ mags anytime soon. Pity, because she looks fit as a fiddle…” Geddit? She’s a violinist, which is to say fiddler - well, you do get it. “But Nicola doesn’t always take the bonniest photo,” continues the writer, “she’s beaky in pics sometimes, which is weird because in the flesh she’s an absolute knock-out. “The classical musician is wearing skinny jeans which show off her long legs. She’s also busty with a washboard flat tummy, tottering around 5ft 10in in her Dune platform wedges.” How well does she play the violin though? No one cares. Not even critics writing for our broadsheets, who don’t mind talking about musicians in terms normally reserved for pole dancers. Thus for instance runs a review of a piano recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall, one of London’s top concert venues: “She is the most photogenic of players: young, pretty, bare-footed; and, with her long dark hair and exquisite strapless dress of dazzling white, not only seemed to imply that sexuality itself can make you a profound musician, but was a perfect visual complement to the sleek monochrome of a concert grand… [but] there’s more to her than meets the eye.” The male reader is clearly expected to get a stiffie trying to imagine what that might be. To help his imagination along, the piece is accompanied by a photo of the young lady in question reclining on her instrument in a pre-coital position with an unmistakable ‘come and get it’ expression on her face. The ‘monochrome’ piano is actually bright-red, a colour usually found not in concert halls but in dens of iniquity. Nowhere does the review mention the fact obvious to anyone with any taste for musical performance: the girl is so bad that she should indeed be playing in a brothel, rather than on the concert platform. Can you, in the wildest flight of fancy, imagine a reviewer talking in such terms about sublime women artists of the past, such as Myra Hess, Maria Yudina, Maria Grinberg, Clara Haskil, Marcelle Meyer, Marguerite Long, Kathleen Ferrier? Can you see any of them allowing themselves to be photographed in the style of “lads’ mags”? I can’t, which raises the inevitable question: what exactly has changed in the last say 70 years? The short answer is, just about everything. Concert organisers and impresarios, who used to be in the business because they loved music first and wanted to make a living second, now care about nothing but money. Critics, who used to have discernment and taste, now have nothing but greed and lust for popularity. The public… well, don’t get me started on that. The circle is vicious: because tasteless ignoramuses use every available medium to build up musical nonentities, nonentities is all we get. And because the musical nonentities have no artistic qualities to write about, the writing nonentities have to concentrate on the more jutting attractions, using a vocabulary typically found in “lads’ mags”. The adage “sex sells” used to be applied first to B-movies, then to B-novels, and now to real music. From “sex sells” it’s but a short distance to “only sex sells”. This distance has already been travelled - and we are all being sold short.
Here I am, back again just to watch and listen to this masterpiece so beautifully given to us by Khatia and Maestro. Soothes and moves. Thank you to the genius of Rachmaninoff as well.
Fine musicians interpret their music from their souls! Khatia Buniatishvili interprets her music from her soul! How privileged we are to have her in our lifetime 👏👏🌹❤️... ... ... 🎶🎺 So exquisite! 🌹... .. ... 🎶🎺
