Lunchtime concert Buniatishvili plays Chopin & Ravel

[Guest]

Live from Wigmore Hall at lunchtime today Georgian pianist and former BBC New Generation Artist Khatia Buniatishvili played:

Chopin: Piano Sonata No 2 in B flat minor Op 35
Chopin: Scherzo No 2 in B flat minor Op 31
Chopin: Scherzo No 3 in C sharp minor Op 39
Ravel: La Valse for piano solo

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qkw2h

Did anyone listen to this 'live' or on the iPlayer?

[teamsaint]

Live from Wigmore Hall at lunchtime today Georgian pianist and former BBC New Generation Artist Khatia Buniatishvili played:

Chopin: Piano Sonata No 2 in B flat minor Op 35
Chopin: Scherzo No 2 in B flat minor Op 31
Chopin: Scherzo No 3 in C sharp minor Op 39
Ravel: La Valse for piano solo

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qkw2h

Did anyone listen to this 'live' or on the iPlayer?

yup, well heard the Chopin at least, on the car radio.

[pastoralguy]

[EdgeleyRob]

Oh yes

[teamsaint]

What sort of radios do you guys have?!

[Alison]

I didn't enjoy it very much. She seemed to be trying too hard, charging ahead the whole time and losing coherence.

Give me Ben Grosvenor any day !

[EdgeleyRob]

If only she would learn some Alkan.

[pastoralguy]

I didn't enjoy it very much. She seemed to be trying too hard, charging ahead the whole time and losing coherence.

Give me Ben Grosvenor any day !

Never heard of him. Does he play the piano as well?

[Alison]

You'd think Alkan would be well suited to KB's technique.

[EdgeleyRob]

You'd think Alkan would be well suited to KB's technique.

I was in fantasy dream land when I posted that Alison but I agree.
I haven't listened to this particular recital,and I know nothing about piano playing technique, but from what I've heard and seen on you tube she does seem to be quite aggressive (?) in the louder and faster music.
I am sure this would be appropriate in some of Alkans wilder pieces.

[Hornspieler]

I didn't enjoy it very much. She seemed to be trying too hard, charging ahead the whole time and losing coherence.

Give me Ben Grosvenor any day !

I'd settle for Imogen Cooper.


HS

[amateur51]

I've only listened to the Chopin sonata so far and it is a grave disappointment. She seems to have no personal conception of the piece and changes tempo frequently or adopts tempos that are frankly perverse, in the hope of wringing something fresh and original out of the music, perhaps?

Just listen to the sonata's final movement - it's fiendishly difficult to play well (Pollini, Michelangeli, Rachmaninov, Cortot) but instead once again I am not clear about what she wants to do and so we get a gabble.

[teamsaint]

I've only listened to the Chopin sonata so far and it is a grave disappointment. She seems to have no personal conception of the piece and changes tempo frequently or adopts tempos that are frankly perverse, in the hope of wringing something fresh and original out of the music, perhaps?

Just listen to the sonata's final movement - it's fiendishly difficult to play well (Pollini, Michelangeli, Rachmaninov, Cortot) but instead once again I am not clear about what she wants to do and so we get a gabble.

i also wasn't that impressed, but was listening in less than ideal circumstances.
In a way, it is a pretty tough ask to find omething that han't been done before with this music, I guess. More thoughtful programming might help. Plenty of seldom heard piano music out there, I would think....

[gradus]

I heard the recital and I enjoyed the three Chopin pieces, to me the sonata seemed quite restrained, although she did seem to gather momentum as the scherzos progressed till arriving at something like her style in the previous broadcast recitals. In the Ravel I thought she was in her element and although I wouldn't want to hear the arrangement too often - it sounds fiendishly difficult - she delivered.
I'd like to hear her in the Debussy Preludes, I bet Feux d'Artifice would make quite a show!
There was an odd and abrupt return to BH at the end regrettably preventing us from hearing any encores she may have offered.