Lang Lang would have called it Piano Book. But Cartier’s new muse decided to add a touch of mystery. Once again surfing on the wave of neo-classical-ambient piano initiated by the likes of Nils Frahm and Alexis Ffrench, one of the most famous personalities in the classical world has decided to bring her audience a collection of inescapable pieces. The works have a subtle feel and a gently melancholic character, captured in an acoustic recording (in the Grande Salle Pierre Boulez at the Philharmonie de Paris) where the recording’s fluffy character has deliberately been enhanced. Labyrinth is a playlist of some of the classical repertoire’s greatest hits. We find the likes of Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1, J.S. Bach's Badinerie, Rachmaninov’s Prelude No. 4 Vocalise, Couperin’s Les barricades mystérieuses and Liszt’s Consolation No. 3.
Throughout the 18 pieces, which include at least two lesser-known pieces (Villa-Lobos’ Valsa da dor and Pärt’s Pari intervallo), Khatia Buniatishvili doesn’t force contrasts. Instead, she plunges the listener into another dimension. Style is no longer the Georgian pianist’s concern. Emotion becomes abstract. There is only one spirit; that of her travelling soul.
Nothing - and no one - will be able to compete with the profoundly philosophical character of this new concept album. “The labyrinth”, says the artist “is our fate and creation; our impasse and deliverance; the polyphony of life, senses, reawakened dreams and the neglected present; unexpected and expected turnings of the said or unsaid... The labyrinth of our mind.” © Pierre-Yves Lascar/Qobuz