Khatia & Gvantsa Buniatishvili & Concerto Budapest

Khatia Buniatishvili has for some time been a regularly returning and most celebrated guest artist at Concerto Budapest concerts, although this time we have the chance to meet not only her but her equally enormously gifted sister Gvantsa Buniatishvili as well. “One year separates us. We were like twins: there was always harmony between us,” Khatia has said in an interview, and in this concert the Georgian pianist siblings prove the existence of this remarkable harmony in two 18th century concertos, not to mention between the artist pair and the orchestra conducted by András Keller. Prior to the two-piano compositions by Bach and Mozart, one of the stars performs in chamber configuration with Keller Quartet, what’s more, playing one of the most sublime of Romantic piano quintets. César Franck’s Quintet in F minor was written in 1879 and dedicated to his colleague, and at the same time pianist at the world premiere, Camille Saint-Saëns. If we can believe the widely-shared anecdote, at the end of the concert Saint-Saëns walked off the stage without taking the sheet music with him. If this was really meant to be a mark of distain, then the pianist’s caustic verdict has long been refuted by the unbroken popularity of the work ever since.