Khatia Buniatishvili & Friends Digital Programme
For the finale to Khatia Buniatishvili’s Barbican residency, the pianist invites friends from the performing world to join her for an intimate evening of music and words.
The event will feature violinist Nicola Benedetti, celebrated countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński and mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel, who made such an impression opening the Olympics in Paris last year, as well as pianists Sodi Braide, Hélène Mercier and Khatia’s sister, Gvantsa Buniatishvili. Together, they will weave a programme of poetry and music with the participation of actor Amira Casar.
The Georgian pianist (and Barbican regular) likes to shake things up. For The Evening Standard, ‘Buniatishvili’s individuality’ is ‘evident throughout the jaw-dropping, heart-breaking, hair-raising performance’. When she appeared here in 2022 one critic observed that this was ‘music-making for now, with her brand of emotional engagement often at the point of meltdown’.
Details
Programme and Performers
Programme
Amira Casar Love among the Ruins by Robert Browning
Johann Sebastian Bach arr Alexander Siloti Prelude in B minor, BWV 855a Arr. by Alexander Siloti
Jules Massenet Méditation from ‘Thais’
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (arr JYLee) The Nutcracker: Overture, Op 71a for 8 hands
Antonín Dvořák Slavonic Dance in E Minor, Op 72/2: Dumka Allegretto grazioso for 4 hands
Johannes Brahms Sixteen Waltzes Op 39: no 3, 5 and 6 for 4 hands
César Franck Violin Sonata in A major: movements 3 and 4
Antonio Vivaldi Sovente il sole
Francis Poulenc Le travail du peintre FP 161: I. Pablo Picasso
Samuel Barber Sure on this shining night
Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons: Winter – II. Largo for 4 hands
Vedrò Con Mio Diletto
Arvo Pärt Pari intervallo for 4 hands
Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons: Winter – I. Allegro non molto for 4 hands
Astor Piazzolla Oblivion
Sofia Gubaidulina Musical Toys: 6. Song of the fisherman
Amira Casar How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Marcello-Bach Adagio from Concerto in D Minor, BWV 974
Gioachino Rossini Overture from ‘William Tell’ for 8 hands
George Frideric Händel Coronato il crin d'alloro from ‘Agrippina’
Astor Piazzolla arr. Khatia Buniatishvili Libertango for 4 hands
Performers
Khatia Buniatishvili piano
Amira Casar actor
Jakub Józef Orliński countertenor
Axelle Saint-Cirel mezzo-soprano
Nicola Benedetti violin
Sodi Braide piano
Hélène Mercier piano
Gvantsa Buniatishvili piano
Artist Biographies
French-Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili is one of the most prominent classical artists of today. She has been blessed with impressive ability and discovered the piano at the age of three thanks to her mother, who used to leave a new musical score on her piano each day for her to devour. She gave her first concert with the Chamber Orchestra of Tbilisi at the age of six. She studied with Tengiz Amiredjibi in Tbilisi and went on to work with Oleg Maisenberg in Vienna.
She is a fixture at the most prestigious venues around the world, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berliner Philharmonie, Royal Festival Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Philharmonie de Paris, and Suntory Hall, as well as at the Salzburg, Verbier, BBC Proms, Progetto Martha Argerich and Hollywood Bowl festivals. Notable collaborations include performances with the Israel, Los Angeles and Munich Philharmonic orchestras, London, NHK and San Francisco Symphony orchestras, Philadelphia Orchestra and Orchestre National de Paris, and working with prominent conductors, among them Zubin Mehta, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Paavo Järvi, Jaap Van Zweden, Gianandrea Noseda, Myung-Whun Chung and Leonard Slatkin.
The audience she inspires with her artistry is not limited to traditional classical music lovers. Her charisma attracts a younger generation and those who would not usually listen to classical music. Her deeply humanistic qualities, piercing intellect, mastery of five languages, involvement in diverse areas of art and in several cultures, mixture of traditional classical musical training and very personal interpretations of composers’ scores give her performances depth, intensity and grace.
She is the recipient of two ECHO Klassik Awards, and her recordings range from music by Chopin, Rachmaninov, Brahms, Liszt, Bach and Schubert, to Satie, Morricone, Gainsbourg, Pärt and Cage. In addition to her solo albums, she has recorded with Gidon Kremer, Paavo Järvi and the band Coldplay.
A committed humanitarian, Khatia Buniatishvili has participated in benefit concerts for causes close to her heart: the plight of refugees, the United Nations, human rights and music education.
The versatile, multilingual European actress Amira Casar trained at the Paris Conservatoire. She has over 80 acclaimed films to her name, alongside TV productions, theatre and musical productions, podcasts and radio plays, as well as appearing in leading national theatres, stages and festivals around the world.
Her musical work includes the title-role in Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher at the Barbican with Marin Alsop and the London Symphony Orchestra (2011), Medea in Cherubini’s Médée at the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic (2019), and in Purcell’s The Indian Queen with Teodor Currentzis and Peter Sellars (2023), the latter of which she has toured this season to Paris, Antwerp and Berlin. Next season she will narrate Honegger’s Le Roi David with the Choeur de Radio France at the Maison de la Radio in Paris.
On stage, she has performed iconic roles such as Petra in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Hedda in Hedda Gabler and Mindy in Aunt Dan and Lemon at the Almeida Theatre. At Paris’s Odéon Theatre, she starred in Les Enfants de Saturne and as Olga in Three Sisters. Her portrayal of Goneril in King Lear at the 2015 Festival d’Avignon was widely praised, and she returned to the festival last year to portray the Spanish mystical saint Teresa of Avila.
Her film credits include The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes by the Quay Brothers, Catherine Breillat’s Anatomie de l’enfer and Thomas Gilou’s trilogy La Vérité si je mens!, which earned her a César nomination.
On the television screen Amira Casar has appeared as Edith Frank in A Small Light (2023), Perle Foster in La Maison (2024), Kristina in 40 (2003) and as Daria in Rebecca Zlotowski’s series Les sauvages. Her podcasts include Batman Autopsie and L’Amie Prodigieuse. In 2015 she was awarded the Académie Charles Cros Prize for best actress for her audiobook recording of Nobel prize-winner Alice Munro’s novel Too much happiness and was honoured with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2016.
One of the most beloved and celebrated opera stars of this decade, Jakub Józef Orliński has established himself as one of the world’s leading artists. His sold-out concerts and recitals throughout Europe and America have attracted new followers to the art form. He is an exclusive artist on the Warner Classics/Erato label; his recent recording, Farewell, earned him an OPUS Klassik award for Male Singer of the Year (2023); he followed this with the album Beyond.
He has a global fanbase with hundreds of thousands of social media followers and has worked as a model and influencer with international brands including Netflix, Louis Vuitton, Levi’s, Nike, BMW, Lacoste and MAC Cosmetics. He is also an accomplished breakdancer.
Previous season highlights include European and American tours of his album Beyond with Il Pomo d’Oro; he also returned to the operatic stage at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, in Jean-Christophe Spinosi’s new production of Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade; and collaborated with pianist Michał Biel for recitals throughout Europe.
This season he has continued to tour extensively with Il Pomo d’Oro, including appearances at the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival, Peterskirche Basel, Wigmore Hall, NTGent Schouwburg Ghent, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and in Asia. His new project #LetsBaRock with Aleksander Dębicz was launched at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, as well as being performed in Berlin. He has also sung the role of Ottone (Agrippina) at Zurich Opera House and performed oratorios by Pergolesi and Handel.
Jakub Józef Orliński’s discography continues to expand to new horizons, with Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice marking his directorial debut, while his newest album reimagines Baroque music with pop instruments including drums and bass guitar.
Sodi Braide is a cosmopolitan artist, influenced by numerous cultures. Currently living in Paris, he performs recitals and chamber concerts in France, the UK, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Spain, Luxemburg, Romania and the US (notably in the Ravinia ‘Rising Stars’ and the ‘Dame Myra Hess’ concert series). He was invited to perform in South Africa in 1994, becoming one of the first black African pianists to perform there after the end of apartheid, and has also toured extensively in Latin America).
Born in the UK to Nigerian parents, he started playing the piano at the age of 3 and continuing his studies back in Nigeria, where he came to the attention of French pianist Eric Heidsieck during a competition organised by the Musical Society of Nigeria. This led to further studies in France, at the Paris Conservatoire, and later in Madrid. He participated in masterclasses by leading figures including Leon Fleisher, Fou Ts’ong, Andreas Staier, Alicia de Larrocha and Charles Rosen. He has won numerous prizes and awards, including at international competitions such as Pretoria, South Africa, Leeds and Van Cliburn.
Sodi Braide is an avid chamber music performer. He has also appeared with orchestras such as the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Paris International Philharmonic Orchestra, Toulouse Capitole Orchestra and Caracas National Philharmonic Orchestra. He took part in the 2003 DVD recording of Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals, narrated by Pierre Arditi, and has also released an album of solo piano music by Franck. He teaches piano at the Geneva Conservatory of Music.
Mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel captured global attention with her rendition of La Marseillaise during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
She is a graduate of the Paris Conservatoire and has been selected as one of 14 participants for the prestigious Salzburg Young Singers Project this summer and will perform as part of this year’s Salzburg Festival.
Next season she makes debuts at the Wexford Festival singing Watawa in Delius’s The Magic Fountain, at Opéra national de Bordeaux singing Second Lady in The Magic Flute and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in the role of Maria in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. She also appears as a recitalist at Opéra national de Bordeaux, Festival des heures musicales de Biot and Festival International de Musique Saint-Georges as well as, under the auspices of Opera for Peace, with the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra.
Performance experience so far includes roles in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges under the direction of Kazuki Yamada at Opéra de Monte-Carlo; a trilogy of Bernstein’s musicals Trouble in Tahiti, West Side Story and Wonderful Town; the title-role in Carmen at Opéra d’Avignon; and Nicklausse in The Tales of’Hoffmann.
Axelle Saint-Cirel represented France at Opera for Peace’s 2023 Academy and was named an Emerging Artist for the 2024–25 season. She has won the international Gordes Melody, the Nuits Lyriques de Marmande and Voix des Outre-mer competitions and was a finalist of the 2023 Génération Opéra programme.
She has attended masterclasses given by Anne Sofie von Otter, Barbara Frittoli, Stéphane Fuget, Brian Jagde, Sumi Jo and Sophie Koch and, by special invitation of Sabine Devieilhe, joined her for a programme of Mozart concert arias at Salle Gaveau.
Axelle Saint-Cirel has experience in both jazz and musical theatre alongside her core opera training.
Nicola Benedetti is one of the most sought-after violinists of her generation. Her ability to captivate audiences and her wide appeal as an advocate for classical music has made her one of the most influential artists of today.
She began this season with a performance of Marsalis’s Violin Concerto with the Belgian National Orchestra; she also returned to the London Symphony Orchestra for Sir James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto with Gianandrea Noseda and closes the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s season with the Brahms Violin Concerto conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev.
She won a Grammy Award in 2020 and two Classical Brit awards (2012 and 2013) and records exclusively for Decca, for whom her latest release is the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Other recent recordings include violin concertos by Elgar and Marsalis. In 2021 she was named Personality of the Year by BBC Music Magazine for her online support of young musicians during the pandemic.
She has always been a dedicated, passionate ambassador and leader in music education and in 2019 she established the Benedetti Foundation, which aims to provide transformative experiences through mass music events, uniting those who believe music is integral to life’s education. In its first four years, the foundation worked with close to 70,000 participants of all ages and levels, instrumentalists and non-instrumentalists alike, across 105 countries.
Nicola Benedetti was appointed a CBE in 2019, awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music (2017), and an MBE in 2013. In addition, she holds the positions of Vice President (National Children’s Orchestras), Big Sister (Sistema Scotland), Patron (National Youth Orchestras of Scotland’s Junior Orchestra, Music in Secondary Schools Trust and Junior Conservatoire at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). In October 2022 she became Director of the Edinburgh International Festival, the first Scottish and first female Director since the festival began in 1947.
Hélène Mercier was born in Montreal and began the piano aged six. After initial lessons in Quebec, she furthered her studies in Vienna, the Juilliard School in New York and the Paris Conservatoire.
She is much in demand at leading festivals, both in France and internationally. She regularly appears as a soloist and chamber musician in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Théâtre du Châtelet, Salle Pleyel and Salle Gaveau; here in London at Wigmore Hall and the Southbank Centre; in Germany at the Berlin Konzerthaus and Leipzig Gewandhaus; at the Prague Rudolfinum; in Milan, Siena, Ferrara, Pisa and Turin, as well as in Geneva, Monte-Carlo, Madrid, Moscow, Warsaw, Sofia, Bergen, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, DC and New York.
She has appeared with leading orchestras and conductors the world over, among them Semyon Bychkov, Charles Dutoit, Edward Gardner, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Trevor Pinnock and Long Yu.
She has recorded widely, and her award-winning discography includes six highly acclaimed duo recordings with pianist Louis Lortie, ranging from Mozart, via Schubert to Saint-Saëns, Rachmaninov and Ravel. She has also released an album of Chausson with violinist Vladimir Spivakov, a disc of Schumann and Brahms with Cyprien Katsaris and an album of works by Mathieu with Alain Lefèvre.
Hélène Mercier is the recipient of a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Pianist Gvantsa Buniatishvili is the elder sister of Khatia. It was her mother, an amateur pianist, who introduced her to the piano at an early age. She graduated from the Tbilisi State Conservatory of Music, where she studied with the renowned pedagogue and pianist Tengiz Amirejibi.
She started performing in public at an early age, giving solo recitals, four-hand duets with Khatia, and with orchestra, both at home and internationally. She has since appeared at many prestigious venues in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Italy, as well as at leading European festivals.
Gvantsa Buniatishvili has recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums as a four-hand duo with her sister.
