Georgian pianist returns to thrill with Chinese orchestra

Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili plays with the NCPA Orchestra in Beijing. [Photo by Gan Yuan/For China Daily]

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.