Where’s Khatia?
mainContinuing our popular midsummer series….
The effervescent Georgian-French pianist Khatia Buniatishvili is
… teaching class in San Sebastian, Spain.
No cancellations.
Good for her.
Comments
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Raising funds for Ukrainian Azov-Battalion stormtroopers again.
Zero evidence of any association between Buniatishvili and the Azov Battalion, let alone that she has “fundraised” for it. The only relevant Google results are a handful of unsourced comments on this very blog.
Didn’t look very hard, did you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsUPVc78awk
Your little heroine is famous for her support for right-wing thugs.
What an eye opener!
Khatia actually states in the video that her concert is a charitable one for the Azov Battalion, in particular the wounded.
“The U.S. Congress passed legislation in 2018 blocking military aid to Azov on the grounds of its white supremacist ideology.” Wikipedia.
Interesting question: could Khatia be subject to US sanctions for her backing of Azov?
The things you learn on SD!
I watched the video again. Khatia did not directly say what I attributed to her. My apologies to her.
She said she wanted to support the victims of the Anti-Terrorist operation. The video title (in Russian but posted by a Ukrainian TV channel) is “Khatia Buniatishvili: the concert in Kiev will be in honour of the ATO fighters”. She did not say that in the video itself.
I watched this. Couldn’t understand a word of it. Anyone else?
Even in the comments of that video, you read a Russian clarification that the title is misleading:
Title: “Khatia Buniatishvili: a concert in Kiev will be dedicated to ATO fighters.” In reality, Khatia did not say anything like this in an interview, she said “about helping the victims in the anti-terrorist operation zone”, and this is not the same thing. … It could be limited to mentioning that Khatia supports the Maidan, modern transformations in Ukraine – and then the news would look great. But the idiots in the headline of the news attributed to her what she did not say”
Third time lucky I hope (and in response to Paul above)!
This is what Khatia Buniatishvili actually said (modulo translation errors):-
“(The concert) is in honour of those wounded in the ATO zone. These people are heroes because they have a bravery that I probably could not find in myself (although who knows what people can do in a situation they find themselves). Those people who do things I cannot do are heroes for me. Apart from that, they need rehabilitation, moral support and financial help because of the war in the country”.
Thus in effect commenter 8VA is correct in what (s)he says but Azov is not mentioned explicitly, as stated by commenter Peter.
I again need to apologise to Khatia Buniatishvili in that she referred to ‘wounded’ rather than ‘victims’, changing the meaning of her statement. I now consider the title of the video to be appropriate, but only as a summary of what she said.
I also noted the comment attached to the video to which Paul refers. That comment makes the unfortunate replacement (as I did in my second comment) of ‘wounded’ by ‘victim’. It is clear from the following words she is referring to the combatants, and ‘wounded’ rather than ‘victim’ is the correct translation.
Apologies to SD for introducing the above multiple confusions! The famous molecular biologist Sydney Brenner when asked if he had any weaknesses, responded by saying, “I don’t always get things right first time, but on second thoughts, I consider that to be a strength rather than a weakness”. This is the only trait I share with Brenner!
To sum it up:
She didn’t say it and now you are reading too much into it.
Congratulations to 8VA, for making you jump through his hoops and planting his theories.
Something always sticks, right?
Seeing this article scared me. I though she might have been decapitated!
In masterclass Khatia dressed vulgar, provocative next to casual dressed musically inspired young pianist.
Let’s hope they were duly inspired.
“In masterclass Khatia dressed vulgar, provocative next to casual dressed musically inspired young pianist.”
I googled you and I so don’t want to comment on what I saw.
and heard…
==Khatia dressed vulgar, provocative
Look at the awful way she dressed for Zubin Mehta.
Yuja Wang NEVER looked that way
I did and, although I admit it did not enhance the music in any way, I liked what I saw. Katia is a pretty woman who plays the piano very well. For the rest, she’s Georgian and obviously has had Russia-hatred instilled in her from an early age. Her refusal to have anything to do with Valeri Gergiev and her uncritical support for Ukrainian thuggery bear this out.
“Ukrainian thuggery” would be RussianSpeak for Ukrainian independence from Russia?
Khatia has made it plain that her beef is with Putin and his authoritarian government.
So, she showed some cleavage. I’m not offended by cleavage. Actually, it looks pretty good to me; not vulgar.
…for obvious reasons
Provocative? A black ruffled shirt? Hmm.
I wonder, does Ms. Buniatishvili speak Spanish? Or were they conducting the class in English?
Ah, but the shoulders, Brian, the shoulders!
Isn’t the Azov group a nationalist group whose aim is to oust Russians who occupied Ukraine in 2014? Khatia’s homeland of Georgia has been trying to get rid of Russians occupiers for decades.
Teaching??? TEACHING??? She should be taking lessons herself!!! She needs them badly.
Who’s criteria we using here, Liberace?
She’s sky high above that terrible Valentina Lisitsa.
You’re nuts. Lisitsa is ten times the musician that Buniatishvili is.
Her playing and dresses in awful taste.
Why all the venom toward young women who don’t dress for the convent?
It is not at all surprising but somewhat ironic that when Georgians and Ukrainians who are united exclusively by their adversarial relationship with Russia want to talk to each other, the only language in which they can communicate happens to be none other that Russian.
It has been said numerous times that Khatia’s beef is with the authoritarian Putin government, not with the Russian people.
Friend of yours, Norman?