Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Our prize winner in the category
Young Artist of the Year
has been playing the piano for 22 years,
which is remarkable when you consider
that she's only 29 years old.
Do the math and you'll realize
that she started playing at the age of 3.
But if there's one term I can't stand,
it's child prodigy.
The idea of virtuosity for virtuosity's sake
doesn't mean anything to her.
Anyone who listens attentively to her
will understand
why Khatia Buniatishvili's playing
contains a closeness to her native Georgia
in Eastern Europe -
warm, soulful and filled with melancolie.
For her the piano is the blackest instrument,
a symbol of musical solitude.
Why musical solitude?
Because as Khatia says,
I have to be psychologically strong,
and forget the hall,
if I'm to share my art with the audience.
Not only the presses of enthusiasm,
the great pianist, Martha Argerich,
she describes her as an outstanding talent
and our jury entirely agrees.
Almost meditatively, she finds a balance
between pianist’s expression and youthful ecstasy,
which reflects her natural musicality so convincingly
that she deserves a prize as best young artist
of 2012 in the Piano category.