For eighty minutes and eighteen pieces, Khatia Buniatishvili mixes things up nicely – no barriers and nothing obvious – her first four choices are respectively by Morricone, Satie, Chopin and Ligeti, varieties of slowness, each distinctive. Lively (ex-flute) steps from J. S. Bach follow, and there is also a certain strung-up Air of his, while he and Vivaldi, and then Marcello, team-up later. Rachmaninov and (jazzy) Gainsbourg rub shoulders as do Villa-Lobos and Couperin. Maybe Brahms’s A-major Intermezzo (from Opus 118) is the highlight, so sensitive and tearfully expressive over seven captivating minutes – this and Muti’s Vienna Emperor Waltz offer so much embrace – then another Khatia quartet finds Arvo Pärt, (cake-making) Philip Glass, Domenico Scarlatti and (consolatory) Franz Liszt as bedfellows. There is also John Cage’s 4’33” – exact to the second and I have not heard a finer performance of it. Sony Classical 19439795772.
https://www.sonyclassical.com/news/news-details/khatia-buniatishvili-2
John also showcased Cage’s 4’33” back about 10 years, in a recital for the ISM demonstrating the possibilities of the piano repertoire. That was also a very fine performance, and exact to the second (he checked his watch)….