Khatia Buniatishvili – Labyrinth (2xLP)

Recorded in the Grande Salle Pierre Boulez at the Philharmonie de Paris, it creates its own almost unreal space by using the richly pictorial tonal language of composers from Scarlatti to Morricone, from Bach to Glass.

The labyrinth, says the French-Georgian pianist, is fate and creation, impasse and redemption - a polyphony of life, of the senses, of reminiscent dreams, of the neglected present; unexpected or expected turns of the spoken or unspoken ... the labyrinth of our minds.

With "Labyrinth", Khatia Buniatishvili presents her most colourful and varied selection of music to date. With her typical lack of compromise, she puts her extraordinary piano playing at the service of the imagination and describes - with all its joys and sorrows - a woman's dance with life.

The album includes film music by Philip Glass (The Hours) and the recently deceased Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in America), about whom Khatia Buniatishvili says "he deserves his place among the greats." Also included are piano pictures by Erik Satie and Serge Gainsbourg, a Latin American dance by Heitor Villa-Lobos, an Estonian prayer by Arvo Pärt, a Hungarian etude by György Ligeti, John Cage's infamous presentation of musical silence, and works by Scarlatti, Brahms, Bach, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Couperin and Liszt.

For the album, Khatia Buniatishvili also arranged some pieces herself, such as Bach's Badinerie for piano four hands and his Sicilienne BWV 596 after Vivaldi's D minor Concerto RV 565.

Khatia Buniatishvili is a unique phenomenon in classical music: the delicacy of her touch is incomparable, and with the flair of a film director she manages to tell stories and put them in the right light. The pianist works closely with top musicians such as Zubin Mehta, Paavo Järvi and Gidon Kremer, with whom she has also recorded several CDs.