Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili plays with the NCPA Orchestra in Beijing. (Photo: China Daily/Gan Yuan)
"Freshness" and "colorfulness" are two frequently used words by Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili during an interview she did recently at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
She was in the capital performing Sibelius' Tapiola and Symphony No 5 in E-flat Major, and Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor in collaboration with the NCPA Orchestra under the baton of Lu Jia.
The 28-year-old pianist says that the young orchestra gives her a feeling of freshness.
"I like their attitude to music. It is very inspiring," she says.
This is the second time she is performing in China. Two years ago, Buniatishvili performed at the NCPA during the Fourth China Orchestra Festival, collaborating with the China Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Xia Xiaotang.
"Both the audience here and musicians are prepared. They are keen to understand classical music. And that is close to my personality," she says.
Describing herself as a risk-taker, she recalls her spontaneous collaboration with Chinese pianist Wang Yujia on Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dance No 1 in G Minor at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland in 2011. They didn't have time to do a rehearsal but the two pianists had lots of fun onstage.
"It's about telling the truth you feel in that moment," Buniatishvili says.
She will also perform in Shanghai on March 18, where she will play pieces from her latest album, Kaleidoscope.
Released on Feb 5, the album comprises three parts: Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Ravel's La Valse and Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka.
Since all these pieces have orchestral versions, the pianist brings out a larger palette of colors on a single instrument.
"I performed from my own point of view. I didn't listen to others' interpretations and created my own drama," the pianist says. "It's like the composers wrote the music for me. It's risky but I don't care about criticism."
The idea of the new album came after a collaboration between the pianist and British pop-rock band Coldplay, who invited her to perform on their seventh album, A Head Full of Dreams, which was released in December 2015.
Buniatishvili worked on one of their songs, Kaleidoscope, which was inspired by the work The Guest House of Rumi and the poet Coleman Barks.
"The wealth of colors in this music reminds me of a kaleidoscope. Yet, behind the colors, there sometimes lies a tragic background and a somber story. It's a human reflex to transform a scene from real life into imagination, so as to integrate it into your own universe," she says.
Born in Tbilisi, Buniatishvili was introduced to music at a very early age by her mother, a music fan. She started learning the piano at about 4 and performed with the Chamber Orchestra in Tbilisi at 6.
Her mother once told her that the first step to being successful is to be seen by people. This led Buniatishvili to participate in the 12th Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition in 2008 and she won the third prize. She was also picked as the best performer of a Chopin piece and as the audience's favorite.
The competition was broadcast by BBC worldwide, and this brought Buniatishvili opportunities to give solo recitals and play chamber music concerts at renowned venues, including London's Wigmore Hall, the Musikverein in Vienna and Carnegie Hall in the United States. She also regularly collaborated with BBC orchestras as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist for 2009-2011.
She attributes her achievements to her personality of "not being afraid of breaking the rules" and "enjoying the fantasy of art".
In 2011, she released her debut album on Sony Classical Records marking Liszt's 200th anniversary. A year later, she released a Chopin album.
Based in Paris, Buniatishvili longs for home and she expresses this feeling in her third album, Motherland, in 2014. It comprises 17 tracks and has works by Bach, Debussy and Dvorak.
She dedicated the album to her mother, who, not only introduced her to music, but now helps as her stylist, buying and even designing clothes for her.
Buniatishvili's elder sister Gvantsa is also a pianist and they have performed duets at home since childhood.
Buniatishvili plans to bring her sister to China next year to play "four hands".
"We have different personalities and different approaches when it comes to musical expression. I am more like air and my sister is like earth. But we know each other very well and people usually think of our performance as that which comes from one person," says Buniatishvili.
