Khatia Buniatishvili - Franz Liszt (2011) {2016, Blu-Spec CD2, Japanese Limited Edition, Remastered}

Because Khatia Buniatishvili always wanted her debut recording to be a portrait of Franz Liszt, it is fortuitous that this album was released in time for the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth. This CD/DVD combo introduces the Georgian pianist in a manner that seems half a fulfillment of a fantasy and half a kitschy marketing ploy for Sony, overdone in its packaging, photography, and booklet. But the window-dressing should take nothing away from Buniatishvili's playing, which is wholly convincing in its power, incisiveness, fluidity, and clarity. It is evident that she is committed to Liszt with passionate intensity, and her playing lacks nothing in the necessary expressive range, from the dreamy delicacy of the Liebesträum in A flat major to the towering grandeur of the Sonata in B minor, with every nuanced possibility in between. The program is quite accessible, with these famous pieces and others, such as the Mephisto Waltz No. 1, La lugubre gondola, and the Prelude & Fugue in A minor (after Bach). Buniatishvili clearly understands that Liszt's music was about a lot more than flashy runs and clangorous octaves, and that there is a subtle creative aspect of his work that influenced a century of Romantic music and is still being felt today. Having Buniatishvili as an interpreter is certainly good for the Liszt revival, and it, in turn, should be quite helpful for her career, despite the label's gilding of the lily.