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As Pablo Casals once did before, Khatia Buniatishvili places the human being at the centre of her art. The fundamental values handed down from the Enlightenment are not up for discussion. Were there a fire and a choice to be made between child and painting, she would not hesitate for a second. Yet, once she had pulled the child from the blaze, she would take it to the Museum of Fine Arts so that it might become a painter. No need to save “the fire” (as Cocteau replied) because it already burns her eyes, rages in her fingers and warms her heart.
Khatia, born in Batumi, Georgia, by the Black Sea, on the longest day of 1987, knows the price of freedom and independence, and understands the energy needed to stand tall in life. The example set by her parents did not go unheeded. During the chaotic period her country went through, Khatia’s parents had to display great resourcefulness to keep poverty at bay. Her mother, who introduced her to music, sewed together magnificent dresses for both her daughters from bits of cloth that she scavenged here and there. The sisters saw before their very eyes a model of creativity for smiling in the face of adversity.
The piano, however, has never posed a problem for Khatia. She has been blessed with impressive ability, giving her first concert at the age of six. For fun, her mother would leave a new musical score each day on her piano and, hungry, Khatia’s long, octopus-like arms would devour them. As she has never had to struggle with her instrument, she has always considered pianos from the whole world as friends from whom she must draw the best, respecting the oddities of their characters and sampling the charms of their personalities; while at the same time never looking to change them or make them her martyrs. Her sister Gvantsa is an excellent pianist too. Together they make a quite complementary duo as one has her feet on the ground and the other is supersonic.
Khatia’s great career has come quite naturally, without a struggle. The sun has no need to move mountains to exist for it rises and shines for all. And these are the words that spring to mind when one sees her bursting onto the stage or in life: her hair flowing, her fine figure quite the Parisian, her lips smiling, her light sylph-like steps and her feline body. But the rose will show its thorns if it feels what it holds dear to be threatened. She won’t be made to give up a humanitarian project. She won’t be prevented from helping the country in which she was born and raised. She won’t be forced to play in a land that pours scorn on her values. She won’t have playing partners forced upon her who do not inspire human respect and great artistic admiration in equal measure. For that matter, nothing can be imposed on this young lady of the air whose wing-beats pollinate works and who sprinkles a musical cloud of golden powder to the four winds.
Franz Liszt is one of her heroes. He was the one with whom she wanted to venture first into the world of discography. Liszt is constantly pushing back the boundaries of what is possible. He innovates and is generous, bringing together popular and academic styles, the profane and sacred, nature and poetry – he transcends whatever he touches.
Khatia Buniatishvili avoids representation and self-intellectualisation. She could very well make her own the motto of her friend Martha Agerich, “Live and let live” – she too is a Gemini. She likes the complexity of things, not complication; paradoxes, not rigid oppositions that often prove to be sterile. She is at ease creating and less interested in reaction. Stimulated by the dialogue between the arts, she breathes the oxygen of imagination and finds balance in musing.
When it comes down to it, she remains this child fascinated with life and with beings who was already reading Dostoevsky and Chekhov at the age of nine, and for whom it was already quite clear that beauty would save the world. With no distinctions made: whatever is just will sound just and will make its own mark.
It is in just such a way that she approaches all styles from Baroque to modern in her CD “Motherland”, to demonstrate that true music has no need of barriers and that all styles fade into the one true all-linking, all-revealing style that can be summed up in Mozart’s words: “Love, love, love, therein lies the soul of genius.”
Khatia Buniatishvili, shining pianist at the height of her abilities, came into this world in a shower of light during the summer solstice. On a human level, she is attracted more to equinoxes, being smitten by justice and seeking day and night in equal share. By lifting one’s eyes skywards one might notice her playing hide-and-seek with either Venus or Mercury. The cosmos is her garden and it is in its movement that she feels alive, astride a comet.
Welsh pianist Llŷr Williams is widely admired for his profound musical intelligence, and for the expressive and communicative nature of his interpretations. An acclaimed performer of Beethoven, he has several complete sonata cycles under his belt, including at Wigmore Hall and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, while in May 2020 a planned full cycle at the Festival Cultural de Mayo in Guadalajara, Mexico was recorded as live by Signum Records from his home in Wrexham and broadcast by the Festival.
Nobuko Imai studied at the famous Toho School of Music in Tokyo and then at Yale University and the Juilliard School.
She is the only violist to have won the highest prizes at both the Munich and Geneva International Viola Competitions, and she was formerly a member of the esteemed Vermeer Quartet. Miss Imai is now established as a distinguished international soloist, and as well as appearing regularly in the Netherlands, where she now lives, her career takes her to major cities in Europe, the USA and Japan.
She has worked with major orchestras all over the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC orchestras, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra. Nobuko Imai is a regular guest at the Marlboro Festival and has also appeared at the Lockenhaus, Casals, Aldeburgh and South Bank Summer Music Festivals, the International Viola Congress in Houston and the BBC Proms.
Nobuko Imai has been awarded many prizes, including the Avon Arts Award (1993), the Education Minister’s Art Prize of Music by the Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs (1994) and the Mobil Prize of Japan (1995). In 1996 she received Japan’s most prestigious music prize, the Suntory Hall Prize, awarded to her by a unanimous jury. She is Professor at the College of Music in Detmold, Germany.
Having collaborated with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, Sir András Schiff now focuses primarily on solo recitals, play-directing and conducting. Since 2004 he has performed the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas in over 20 cities, including Zurich where the cycle was recorded live for ECM. In recent years, his Bach has become an annual highlight of the BBC Proms. Schiff founded the chamber orchestra Cappella Andrea Barca in 1999, and enjoys a close relationship with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Orchestra of the Age Enlightenment—becoming an Associate Artist of the latter in 2018. He regularly performs at the Verbier Festival.
Mikhail Pletnev is recognised as one of the finest artists of our time. He won the Gold Medal and First Prize in the 1978 International Tchaikovsky Competition at the age of 21, which brought him early recognition throughout the world. In 1990 he founded the Russian National Orchestra, joined by the best artists, and later founded the Mikhail Pletnev Fund, which supports major national cultural projects. A member of the Russian Cultural Council, in 2007 he received the President’s Award for his contribution to the country’s artistic life. The cumulative roles of pianist, conductor and composer are all important aspects of his life as an artist. However, he has the humility to always consider himself as a simple musician.
Mäkelä’s third season as Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic features eleven contrasting programmes, with repertoire ranging from Jean Baptiste Lully and Pietro Locatelli to Alban Berg and Mahler to Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Julia Perry. In Autumn 2022, Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic embark on their second European tour with performances in Germany, Belgium and Austria with soloist Sol Gabetta.
For his second season as Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, Klaus Mäkelä has chosen to spotlightcomposers Pascal Dusapin, Betsy Jolas, Jimmy López Bellido, Magnus Lindberg and Kaija Saariaho, the latter featured with three different works. There is also a focus on the Ballets Russes, with two key Diaghilev scores: Stravinsky’s The Firebird and Rite of Spring. In Spring 2023, Mäkelä and Orchestre de Paris tour throughout Europe with Janine Jansen as soloist.
With the Concertgebouworkest Klaus Mäkelä embarks on a long-term collaboration, joining the orchestra as Artistic Partner with effect from the 2022-23 season and as its next Chief Conductor in 2027. For their first season together, they perform six programmes including Mahler Symphony No. 6, the Mozart Requiem and Strauss Alpine Symphony as well premieres by López Bellido, Sauli Zinovjev, Alexander Raskatov and Sally Beamish. On tour they performed the opening concert of the Musikfest Berlin and at the Koln Philharmonie.
As a guest conductor in the 2022/23 season Klaus Mäkelä makes his first appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester and Wiener Symphoniker and returns to the USA to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Mäkelä studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula and cello with Marko Ylönen, Timo Hanhinen and Hannu Kiiski. As a soloist, he has performed with several Finnish orchestras and as a chamber musician at the Verbier Festival, as well as with members of the Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
[ahb-drah-ZAH-koff] has established himself as one of opera’s most sought-after basses. Since making his La Scala debut in 2001 at 25, the Russian singer has become a mainstay at leading houses worldwide, including New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera, and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. His powerful yet refined voice coupled with his compelling stage presence have prompted critics to hail him as a “sensational bass…who has just about everything – imposing sound, beautiful legato, oodles of finesse” (The Independent). Also an active concert artist, he has performed at London’s BBC Proms and at New York’s Carnegie Hall, as well as with leading international orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony and Vienna Philharmonic.
Born to Armenian parents in Lyon on April 9, 1957, André Manoukian learned to play the piano and the violin and went to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1977. A classically trained pianist, he became interested in jazz and formed a big band when, in 1983, he discovered the singer Liane Foly, and became her accompanist, songwriter, producer and companion until 1995. His experience as a session musician in song and jazz, alongside Michel Petrucciani, Richard Galliano, Charles Aznavour, Gilbert Bécaud, Diane Dufresne, Nicole Croisille, Dick Rivers, Camille Bazbaz and Malia, led to a place as a juror on the popular TV talent show Nouvelle star (2003-2012), which brought him to the attention of the general public. He founded his own label Va Savoir, under which the instrumental album Inkala (2008) was released, and appeared on television as a presenter and actor. In 2010, the album So in Love brings together jazz standards performed by Anaïs, Camélia Jordana, Helena Noguerra, Emily Loizeau, Cocoon, China Moses and Tété. André Manoukian is a television presenter on La France a un incroyable talent, La Vie secrète des chansons and the Eurovision Song Contest, a radio commentator and founder of the Cosmojazz festival in 2010. He also composes for the cinema and produced the albums Melanchology (2011), Apatride (2017) and Les Pianos de Gainsbourg (2021), which features Melody Gardot, Isabelle Adjani, Rosemary Standley, Élodie Frégé, Camille Lellouche and Camélia Jordana.
“Who do Miles Davis, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock and an extensive list of rock icons have in common? Bill Evans, that’s who.
Evans is a world class saxophonist and producer who made his debut on the international music scene in the 1980’s with Miles Davis (at the age of 21) and recorded 6 records with Davis. This led to touring and recording with the likes of John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock and Mick Jagger to name a few. Today, with 26 solo albums to date, Grammy nods, and countless collaborations and tours, Evans has continued to explore a dazzling variety of adventurous musical settings as a pioneering bandleader, consistently winning fans in the worldwide arena.
Recent highlights include touring and/or performing with his own Bill Evans Band, Robben Ford (Soulgrass meets Blues), Phil Lesh & Friends, The Mike Stern/Bill Evans Band, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Zen Amadeus – the group Bill and drum icon Simon Phillips put together. There were countless sit-ins with The Allman Brothers Band, Warren Haynes, and a collage of others. Evans spent much of 2016 and 2017 touring the world with the Bill Evans Band in support of his album “Rise Above”.
Bill toured extensively with the Randy Brecker/Bill Evans Soulbop band (formed in 2003) for over 15 years, which incorporated the many influences they both have had in their careers in the Jazz arena. This cooperation produced a live recording called the “Soulbop Band Live“.
Deeply intrigued and ultimately inspired by Jazz, as well as American roots music, Evans wrote, produced and recorded “Soulgrass” in 2005, garnering a Grammy nod in the process. Soulgrass was a breakaway new fusion of jazz and American roots music, blending the banjo, fiddle, mandolin and Dobro, combining the best musicians from Jazz and Americana together. According to Bill “the music and soundscape change, but it’s still me and my saxophone!“ Three more CDs followed in the Soulgrass genre, “The Other Side of Something”, “Dragonfly”, and the 2014 release of “Live in Moscow” recorded during the first of two sold out U.S. State Dept sponsored tours of Russia. Each subsequent release found Bill pushing the musical boundaries of Jazz and Improvisational groove. Says Evans “Miles always told me to write and play what inspires me. I’ve kept true to his advice from the very beginning regardless of the challenges they may create. Miles gave me the confidence to believe in myself as a player and a composer.“
After 10 years of touring and breaking new ground with Soulgrass, in 2015 Bill introduced the “Bill Evans Band”, a hard hitting montage of Contemporary Jazz. The “Bill Evans Band” featured Bill on saxophone/vocals as well as drummer/singer Josh Dion. This band represented a seamless blend of Jazz and groove. Evans was also seen singing on stage for the first time. “People really relate to this band. The Bill Evans Band takes people on a musical journey. For me, that’s the definition of jazz – improvisation and exploration that people can still relate to. It doesn’t have to be mass confusion. I like to connect with the audience and inspire people with new kinds of music you can feel as well as hear.”
“RISE ABOVE” was Bills 2016 release, and his most accessible release to date. On this, his 24th solo offering, Evans explores rich and haunting vocals from special guest singers, including legend Gregg Allman, Warren Haynes, JJ Grey, Anders Osborne, Murali Coryell, and Josh Dion. Says Bill, “This recording was an epic journey for me. My vision from the beginning was to record with some of my favorite singers, and co-write music with each one of them. The goal was to still make a cohesive and solid performance out of all this music. It went far beyond my expectations. A sheer pleasure from start to finish!”