Winter warmer: Khatia wins London residency

Winter warmer: Khatia wins London residency

News

norman lebrecht

April 10, 2024

The Barbican autumn-winter seasons, announced this morning, contains a James Macmillan world premiere conducted by Antonio Pappano, a visit by Gustavo Dudamel with his Simon Bolivar orchestra  of Venezuela (all friends now) and a surprising spotlight residency.

From Tbilisi via Paris, put your palms together for Khatia Buniatishvili.

 

 

Comments

  • Jonathan says:

    Your ‘palns’ so stuck together already you can’t type with excitement? Sun journalism at its best!

  • Chet says:

    London engaged Khatia, NY engaged Yuja.

    And they say orchestra management doesn’t know how to reach out to the masses.

  • Sam McElroy says:

    “(all friends now)”

    This is nothing short of scandalous. As I write, Putin’s friend and ally Nicolás Maduro – whose regime top brass Gustavo Dudamel counts among his personal friends – is preventing opposition front-runner Maria Corina Machado from running for president, knowing she would win by a landslide. She is the Navalny of Venezuela, poison and death aside. While the progressive world quite rightly ejects Putin’s thugs from the cultural space, it welcomes Dudamel and his regime-owned propaganda machine masquerading as an orchestra. And in New York, where GD is now king, homeless Venezuelan migrants line the streets, dispossessed by the very same tyranny that will deliver the Simon Bolivar Orchestra to the braying Barbican audience. To Venezuelans, the ironies are profound, bitter and demoralizing. They understand the fundamental reality that music transforms nothing as long as it serves tyranny.

  • Been Here Before says:

    Another one to be avoided.

  • Anonymous says:

    Alright. Since no one else will say it, I’ll say it. Va-va-voom!

  • zandonai says:

    So she will be commuting from her Paris house to London?
    Wonder why no American orchestra has engaged her yet, only her violinist sister.

    • M2N2K says:

      Actually, Khatia Buniatishvili has performed with at least one US orchestra (LA Phil) and her sister (Gvantsa) is a pianist, not a violinist. If you are thinking of Lisa Batiashvili (rather common error), she is a fabulous violinist indeed, but is not related to KB at all.

  • Alasdair Munro says:

    She is clearly popular but she does have her knockers.

  • Save the MET says:

    The series will be known as “Boobs at the Barbican”.

  • Gabriel Parra Blessing says:

    Don’t know why she gets so much hate. She can actually play and play well, even if some of her interpretive decisions are controversial (her Schubert D. 960 is quite something, and actually quite compelling in its way). She’s certainly a far more interesting artist and interpreter than Yuja. I wish people looked beyond the obvious, shall we say, assets, and actually listened with an open mind.

    • M2N2K says:

      Yes she certainly can play the notes and she usually does so while exaggerating much in her typically self-indulgent manner of interpretation that often crosses the line into poor taste – in other words, a full level below the brilliant Yuja Wang.

      • zandonai says:

        You are describing Lang Lang to a tee, not Khatia. Her “Pictures at an Exhibition” on youtube is great!

        • M2N2K says:

          In terms of self-indulgent exaggerations of her interpretations, KB is pretty close to LL, but she does not have his very beautiful tone.

  • Piers Tebbit says:

    Once again the editor falls into the comfort zone of click bait journalism. Everything about this screams anachronism.

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