Khatia Buniatishvili to play her tunes in Abu Dhabi

One of the world's most acclaimed young pianists, the future is bright for Khatia Buniatishvili. Ahead of her performance she tells us she yearns for the past, when individuality and personality were valued as highly as technical skill.

The charismatic Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili is already known for distinctive performances that delight audiences – and sometimes divide critics. Boris Horvat / AFP

Khatia Buniatishvili is one of the most highly rated young pianists in the world, but she still feels herself to be a person out of time.

The 27-year-old Georgian, who makes her Abu Dhabi debut at Manarat Al Saadiyat on January 7, describes herself as a “20th-century person”, harking back to a time when she feels the world of classical music had more scope for idiosyncrasy.

“Individuality and personality was much more important for 20th-century performers than today,” she says. “Today, I think promoters don’t request very original or unique personalities, they mostly want artists who are technically very good but no more than that.

“My favourite musicians from the past had no stylistic similarity at all, even though they’re from the same period. The 20th century was a time when the technical element and the very important human details were still not divided.

“I am still there. I cannot make a sterilisation of myself as a 21st-century person just yet.”

This struggle to assert a musical personality is at the core of Buniatishvili’s career. She is already known for distinctive performances that delight audiences – and sometimes divide critics. Her youth and undeniable charisma – one German newspaper called her the “classical Katy Perry” – has also helped create a star in the making.

Buniatishvili nonetheless seems determined to avoid becoming a cookie-cutter classic. On her recent album Motherland, from which she will draw for tomorrow's concert, she set out to record a deeply personal collection that mixed Ravel, Chopin with little-known Georgian folk tunes and unusual choices such as György Ligeti.

This sort of personal statement might be a tough sell if her playing was not so phenomenal. Her delicacy and passion bring a novel-like consistency to an album meant to celebrate not her Georgian homeland as such, but a feminine creative impulse.

And talking to Buniatishvili in person – she’s direct, charming and ever-so-slightly intense – it seems she’s been ploughing her own furrow all her life.

Despite giving her first concert at the age of 6, she rebelled against early pressure from teachers – though not her supportive parents – to become a juvenile wunderkind.

“I was in a foundation as a child that was oriented directly towards making child prodigies and making money from that,” she says. “I have this impression that I was part of some kind of troupe of trained monkeys.

“It was against my psychological view of what an artist means.”

Perhaps surprisingly, given this insistence on personality, Buniatishvili actually views concerts as a way of escaping herself.

“The wonderful thing about performance is to forget your own self,” she says. “First of all I forget about the public – just because you cannot show your emotions if you are aware of other people’s presence.

“It’s still important to get applause but yet more important is the sense that you really shared something without thinking about it. For me it’s impossible to lie. If you start to lie, you lose the moment.”

A career made up of a string of such moments interspersed with constant travel must be an unusual one. Doesn’t such a life make her feel lonely at times?

“It does – but that’s the main value of our profession,” she admits. “The loneliness of performance is a part of me. We musicians just develop this part because we need to share this moment of loneliness with others.

“But this is not something bad. The piano has huge potential, because it doesn’t need to be played with any other instruments. It gives you both a melancholic feeling but also great freedom. This is why I think the piano is a truly wonderful instrument but also, at times, lonely.”

• January 7 at 8pm, from Dh100, Manarat Al Saadiyat Auditorium. Tickets available at www.ticketmaster.ae