Sony Classical signs Georgian pianistSony Classical signs Georgian pianist
20th Jul 2010
Gig news staff
Category: Soundboard
Khatia Buniatishvili has signed an exclusive long-term contract with Sony Classical. The 23-year-old Georgian pianist, who made her concert debut at the age of six, has already been selected as a BBC New Generation Artist this year, and received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust award, worth £20,000 (€22,800), in April.
Her debut album for the label, scheduled for release in the spring of 2011, will commemorate the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt. It will include Liebestraum No 3, La Campanella, Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 and the Mephisto Waltz, as well as the Piano Sonata in B minor.
Buniatishvili is influenced by Rachmaninov, Sviatoslav Richter and Glenn Gould, and has a particular admiration for Martha Argerich. Although her repertoire centres on the works of Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, Schumann and Tchaikovsky, critics have identified the influence of Georgian folk music on her mature, melancholy style.
Buniatishvili studied at the Tbilisi State Conservatory, Georgia, before being persuaded to transfer to Vienna’s Academy for Music and the Performing Arts by Oleg Maisenberg. She has been a concert pianist since the age of 10, and her touring schedule has so far taken her to Switzerland, Georgia, France, Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Russia, Ukraine, Israel and the US.
She has performed with the Israel Philharmonic, the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, while her upcoming engagements include concerts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris under Paavo Järvi.
