Watch: Khatia goes jogging (and mother comes, too)

Watch: Khatia goes jogging (and mother comes, too)

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norman lebrecht

October 10, 2016

This new French TV doc is the most revealing coverage yet of the Buniatishvili phenomenon, with her mother-manager very much in evidence. It’s a fascinating anatomy of self-reinvention with an insight into her involvement in Georgian politics.

She’s 29, older than her years.

And this is Khatia last night at the Echp awards:
khatia buniatishvili

Comments

  • Steven Holloway says:

    I don’t get the “older than her years” bit, but never mind. She certainly is the ‘Beyonce of the Piano’, though she doesn’t quite outdo Vanessa-Mae when she was the ‘Madonna of the Violin’. She is in her performances what Anne-Sophie Mutter once rather oddly claimed to be, an ‘extremist’. Every aspect of the music is pushed to extremes, particularly tempi, except for those she actually cannot master in the first place, such as rhythm. This is why I find it appalling that she is giving masterclasses.

  • Assimilate This says:

    Much less “coverage” than usual being “revealed” here. Unfortunate, because there is less diversion from the sounds being emitted.

  • Brian says:

    Too bad they wouldn’t add English subtitles. Lots to look at though. I wonder how many pianists have a manicurist working on their hands before a concert?

    • Steven Holloway says:

      Not many, I should think. Unless a female pianist has a Horowitzian, i.e., flat-fingered, hand position, there wouldn’t be enough nail to work on. In any case, Buniatishvili plays everything so fast, it would be hard for a camera to detect anything except a blur.

  • Oresta Cybriwsky says:

    I agree. I saw her for the first time on the Echo Klassik Awards on TV playing a rendition of Pictures at an Exhibition. I do not like her playing, I don’t like the hair in the face although it’s beautiful hair. It’s a gimmick and not worthy of getting huge prizes unless it’s really only for the entertainment industry. This is not what I consider art.

  • Stephen says:

    If she had been plain and not especially gifted she would have been spared the catty remarks.

    • Bruce says:

      Argerich gets the same criticisms about playing too fast, undisciplined, hair in the face, especially now in her 70’s — can you imagine can you imagine the criticism she would have faced if she appeared on the scene today? (The Chopin competition has gone to the dogs, awarding 1st place to flashy technique, etc. etc. — and don’t forget Martha was quite the sex bomb when she was younger…)

      • Peter says:

        But Argerich did not regularly appear in a dress like that, putting her body in the foreground, using it as a marketing asset, like Buniatishvili does. All the difference in the world.
        Same goes for Yuja Wang, but Wang is at least a devil on the piano. Buniatishvili is pale in that comparison. When Wang starts to play, one often forgets about the porn outfit. When Buniatishvili plays, it stays in the foreground.

        • Wai kit leung says:

          I was at Yuja Wang’s professional debut. She was still a student then, and dressed conservatively.

        • Bruce says:

          Peter – I played some of the Echo Awards video and liked it. I was listening mostly with my ears though. When I watched, I noticed bare arms, flying hair, etc., but none of it was as distracting as the annoying lighting — reminiscent of those hard-to-watch Solti videos from the Schleswig-Holstein festival and Tilson Thomas’s “Concerto!” shows. Ugh. I mainly liked what I heard, though. Possibly I don’t have very good taste.

          I notice a harder, more metallic sound from Wang and don’t enjoy that as much. Seems like Wang has gotten more media attention about her choice of concert wear than Buniatishvili has (except on this site).

  • Wai kit leung says:

    Looks to me the ampleness runs in the family …

  • John King says:

    Since the original link is gone, here is a new one to that French documentary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-y7qu4U0Q&t=86s

  • John King says:

    Since the original link is gone, here is the proper new one to that French documentary. https:ééwww.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-y7qu4lJ0Q&t=86s

  • John King says:

    Here is the new proper link, since the old one is gone: https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-y7qu4lJU0Q&t=86s

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