Over to Rome this week for a concert by the RAI Symphony, conducted by Juaj Valcuha and featuring Khatia Buniatashvili, piano in the Grieg Piano concerto. The concert was recorded in Turin on June 22, 2012.
The concert begins with the Overture to Smetana’s Bartered Bride – followed by the Grieg concerto and concluding with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
No earth shattering rarities or surprises – meat and potatoes music this week.
Khatia Buniatishvili began studying piano under her mother at the age of three. She gave her first concert with the Chamber Orchestra in Tbilisi at the age of six. From the age of ten she gave concerts in Europe, Ukraine, Armenia, Israel and the USA. She graduated from the Tbilisi Central Music School, then entered the Tbilisi State Conservatory in 2004.
Buniatishvili, who has described the piano as a “symbol of musical solitude”, chose the piano over the violin despite her perfect pitch. She and her (older) sister Gvantsa learned the piano together and performed duets at home. She speaks five languages fluently: Georgian, French, English, German and Russian.
Buniatishvili has played with, among other orchestras, the Orchestre de Paris under Paavo Järvi, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France under Daniele Gatti and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. She has also performed chamber music with musicians including Gidon Kremer and Renaud Capuçon.
In 2010 she received the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and was included in the BBC series New Generation Artists. The Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus nominated her as Rising Star for the 2011–12 season, and in 2012 she was awarded Best Newcomer of the Year in the Echo Klassik awards.
Juaj Valcuha first guest-conducted the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in 2005. He became the orchestra’s principal conductor in the 2009–10 season. He concluded his RAI tenure in 2016. In July 2016, the Teatro di San Carlo announced the appointment of Valčuha as its music director, a post he held through 31 December 2022. Valčuha is principal guest conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin as of the 2017–18 season, following his initial guest-conducting appearance with the orchestra in the 2014–15 season, and his subsequent return guest-conducting engagement two years later.
In the US, Valčuha first guest-conducted the Houston Symphony Orchestra in 2011. He returned as a guest conductor with the Houston Symphony for two subsequent engagements, in April 2018 and in March 2021. In July 2021, the Houston Symphony announced the appointment of Valčuha as its next music director, effective with the 2022–2023 season.
Valčuha makes his home in France and Houston.
On to the concert.
