Khatia Buniatishvili - Rhapsody in Blue

[@chickenman9059]

Orchestre National de Lyon Leonard Slatkin (Conductor) Khatia Buniatishvili (Piano) February 11, 2017

[@alanwarburton8362]

Mowjhawke

[@alanwarburton8362]

Mowhaw

[@georgescancan7503]

What words, dear "bloodgrss", how many emotions! Did I step on your foot, respected businessman who sells half-naked, barefoot, busty whiskey drinkers who call themselves "pianists"?! Owning a piano keyboard is not yet an art, it is a craft! Therefore, your "pianists" attract the attention of an uneducated audience with their half-naked body, bare feet and other tricks. As their bodies age, these "pianists" will disappear! Together with them, you will disappear, dear "bloodgrss"! And we will all say goodbye to you: Ciao, baby!!! With your propaganda of the "attractive young half-naked body" you block the way to the stage for really talented people. Your place is the garbage pit of history!

[@Vodichka9]

@Georges Can can You're the proverbial swine gazing at pearls. One wonders how little shame you have in publicly exposing yourself.

[@georgescancan7503]

@@Vodichka9 You are deeply mistaken if you think classical music is meant to boost testosterone levels in your aging body! This "lady" shamelessly sells her body, she successfully sells her body in her other videos. It is precisely such "lovers of classical music" as you, dear sir, who destroy classical music by writing sweet comments. It is these "lovers of classical music" who drool and snot at the sight of the "fresh body" of a pianist! kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHO9mYNplrWUhLc

[@rexmundi1812]

This is where KZbin demonstrates its value.

[@jonhardt6243]

Amen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@sylviajones4907]

Thinking same. How fortunate I am to hear & see this performance.

[@Dave.Mustaine.Is.Genius]

​@@sylviajones4907especially "to see" 😂😂😂😂😂

[@castlebound2010]

When all we have to do is choose wisely from all the 'infinite' options out there...

[@Dave.Mustaine.Is.Genius]

@@castlebound2010 I choose this woman's body over many videos on Yetube

[@RonCook-ny3lo]

I am 88 years old. I have heard this composition many many times. I have never heard it performed this well by a performer who seems to totally enjoy it. I am sure if George were listening to this particular performance, he would say "Ah. This is what I heard when I composed it."

[@UKOnation]

I didn´t read many answers ( exaktly it´s only yours at the moment), but I´m shure, this is the best comparison and also compliment to her, which can be given. I agree 100 %.

[@AlcibiadesMD]

May you have many, many more years of listening pleasure in the company of great composers. I'm 64, been listening to it since I was a kid, best music in the world.

[@dawhike]

This type music keeps us ALL ALIVE! I hope I'm still kicking at 88! 😎

[@t.s.t.4085]

Thank you for erudite/sweet, comments. I'm 55+: Sang, played clarinet, sang again, acted, and (Yuch....) Sang, and sang, and sang.......

[@t.s.t.4085]

Tell us so much more about yourself, 88-year old. We (U.S.) want(s) to learn.

[@randybenjamin5685]

Today, February 12th 2024, is the 100th Anniversary of the first performance of "Rhapsody in Blue" . This performance is magnificent.

[@shaunweaver2107]

I love how Ms. Buniatishvili not only enjoys playing, but seems to thoroughly enjoy listening to the orchestra as well. Her phrasing is so clear, precise and full of expression. What a joy! What a great recording. Bravo to all!

[@patrickrussell1888]

Well, my Leonard Berstein version of the 60s was due for modernization...and this version did just that! 😊

[@James-un8rr]

Truely real angels ,,!,❤❤❤

[@marckemp9955]

Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob es ihr Spaß macht. Es scheint, als wäre es eher eine Performance.

[@DanielDaniel1]

Nobody mentioning how masterfully this was recorded and mixed. Huge shout out to the sound team

[@MariusRiley]

💯

[@pierre-gabrieljobin9450]

Indeed the sound of this colourful piece is very rich and very well mixed.

[@IsraelChaffin]

No doubt! And the camera angles with shot duration and switching was engaging-it pulled me further in and gave me the joy of seeing key players as they expressed the beauty within their soul.

[@williamherndon4873]

Improving on perfection….you just wit nessed it

[@LucBoeren]

Absolutely

[@DecoWorks4u]

That clarinet intro almost squeezed the life out of me. Sensational performance

[@YewtBoot]

He was masterful at it, and Khatia certainly made good note of it.

[@spikespa5208]

Her expression at his little embellishment at 0:47. Priceless. And again at 5:12, if she had given me that look, I wouldn't have been able to continue playing.

[@jakerazmataz852]

Flawless.

[@FreeCandle]

Came to say this!

[@craigcarlson4022]

Yes, indeed!

[@301rs]

What a privilege! Without modern technology and KZbin, I probably would have never seen this wonderful performance. The artistry of Khatia and the accompanying orchestra are pure magic!

[@kevinburnson]

One wonderful piece of music!! You can see the pride, the passion, the pleasure in the faces of these musicians!! BRAVO!! This is what you get when great orchestras and great music come together. What a treat for body and soul.

[@tomskimcdouglegaming806]

And those tiddies. Spectacular.

[@DiZastur]

First time I heard this was in 2000. My friend and I bought an ex cab to go skiing for a week in Nelson BC, Canada. We bought the car, an old 1990 chevy caprice classic, not realizing the stereo system was worth twice what we paid for the car. My friend flipped this CD in...OMFG...I will never forget, going up the switchback outside Osoyoos BC first thing in the morning, fresh snowfall, at the apex you see the mountain peaks for hundreds of miles...and this song was playing. My only thought was...it just doesn't get any better than this. Most majestic moment I've ever experienced.

[@fazzaz31]

@@DiZastur Glad you enjoyed the performance. The orchestrsa was damn good and cudos to the clarinet. Sadly, Khatia's piano woefully underperformed. I couldn't tell what it was, but it sounded like an upright beerhall relic to me. Steinway or go home.

[@FuckFeminists]

Are you seriously going to credit "modern technology" for learning of Rhapsody in Blue? What a bizarre place to lay your gratitude. That same modern technology has destroyed the recording industry.

[@terrybrowning5143]

the clarinetist stole the show...certainly my heart!.....that ascension...flawless!

[@rnashrock]

The best I've ever heard!!!

[@frankcoverjr.-jz3ne]

With just the right amount of swing!😊

[@acropolis4032]

it’s not Swing in the opening passage. It’s pure Klezmer!

[@claudegagnon999]

Beautiful instrument!

[@claudegagnon999]

@@acropolis4032 Yep!

[@davidhankins7776]

I am a 65-year-old CPA, taking a break from doing tax returns. I was so overwhelmed by this video that I had to respond. It was mesmerizing! First of all, I am blown away by her passion. She literally absorbs and becomes the music. It is almost like watching a great athlete perform. She is so physically powerful and yet graceful. Her strength, not only in her hands is extraordinary. I recall watching Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin play guitar in the movie The Song Remains the Same, and how his hands move so incredibly fast, and the power that came out of that thin man. Again, like watching a great athlete. Khatia is similar. She attacks the piano, like she is trying to squeeze every last note and sound out of it. Yet, she is graceful as well. What a combination! Khatia reminds me of Judy Garland. Ms. Garland would just belt out her songs, singing as loudly and powerfully as possible. A literal wall of sound. It didn't matter what the song was. She gave it her complete effort. She could make the song Mary had a Little Lamb sound like the greatest piece of music ever. Khatia also has incredible focus and concentration. She is in "the zone", a place of total consciousness and mindfulness, like an out of body experience. A place where only the greats can go and experience. I think perhaps the best way to describe her performance and playing is breathtaking! She literally takes your breath away. I found this video while watching an old clip of Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire dancing to Boogie with Stu by Led Zeppelin. It is amazing watching her dance. Breathtaking! You can't take your eyes off of her. Again, like Khatia. Like Ms. Hayworth dancing among dozens of other dancers, Khatia demands full attention. The consummate entertainer. She is playing amongst some of the best musicians in the world, and yet she is the central focus. And yet as others have shared, she is humble and shares the spotlight with the orchestra. Frankly, I don't usually get this moved or touched to respond to a KZbin video. But I can see that I'm not the only one! I am so blessed to have discovered Khatia and her music. Some people are just extraordinarily talented and special. She is definitely one. Thanks for letting me share. Back to tax returns!

[@derkmanley3220]

Dear D: Thank you for Your Text. You are an excellent writer! I confess. I have never had a CPA as a friend or Colleague 😅. I commend you on your ability to describe Khatia. You left out one other thing about Her: She has to be the sexiest Pianist on the Planet 🌏. If you are still with us , I. E, please respond to my Comments. Faithfully Yours, The Rev. Derrill B. Manley , Jr., Ph.D

[@derkmanley3220]

Khatia! You are A Force of Nature!

[@James-un8rr]

❤extectcey

[@mixerD1-]

Slightly disturbing 🤔

[@FuckFeminists]

This is a copied and mildly edited comment that I saw on another artist's video. Wow that's weird.

[@skopp888]

The genius of Rhapsody in Blue is how it invokes such a feeling of well being, of familiarity, of nostalgia. Of a time gone by, of good times, of better times. Of good times still to come

[@timford3599]

Beautifully stated Rishie.

[@Jacquiejo2012]

This was magnificently and masterfully preformed!

[@cpalmer5033]

N​@@Jacquiejo2012

[@kirbyculp3449]

After listening many many times I have finally felt that this music describes the feelings of a man that is going on a date for dancing with his beautiful future wife.

[@joeherald7319]

You are so correct. It's like a 20 minute walk through the 20th century. Good and bad happy and sad fast and slow yet always joyous and hopeful.

[@valeriecoopet9897]

I am not a musician, but I am pretty sure most musicians are magical creatures put on earth to create beauty.

[@rickhunter7]

Here's a secret: being a musician is more about hard work than talent. Sure being talented helps but most of it is just practice, so, in reality anyone can be a musician with enough effort.

[@MusicLife-xy4ph]

@@rickhunter7 Not "anyone". You're right, talent is not enough to be a musician. Hard work isn't either.

[@rickhunter7]

@@MusicLife-xy4ph I agree, some people are born without a musical ear and it seems no matter how hard they try they can't overcome that. They can still enjoy music as much as the next person.

[@donmcmillan261]

A class lady at the piano. As she finishes she acknowledges the Conductor, the concert mistress, the orchestra, and then she takes her bow to receive audience recognition. Such a beautiful piece of music. thanks, Khatia!

[@789armstrong]

If Gershwin had seen this performance he would write another rhapsody just for Khatia.

[@dominiquedesbarres7433]

Gershwin sees and hears her.

[@christopherczajasager9030]

Indeed. "Rhapdody for Boobs"?

[@jaewok5G]

maybe for Cyan … ya know, to give it some contemporaneousness

[@oldblckmajic]

I agree totally.

[@rafaelventura-rosa4688]

@@christopherczajasager9030 play nice Chris

[@joeherald7319]

Just one guy's opinion but, I think is the most moving piece of music ever written. It's got some of the musical stylings of the best of 20th century America. There's: classical, jazz, big band, stride piano, banjo, march tempo, blues, concerto and more. And in this performance Khatia totally "gets it". And the way she is dressed adds an extra 1940's swanky night club aura to this beautiful presentation. PS- I could watch this every day and get chills every time.

[@renendell]

You’re not alone. It’s one of my favorites

[@wa1-marketing955]

I wholeheartedly agree ..

[@mikeaubrey1310]

i just sent a half dozen texts suggesting that this is the finest music ever written. 100 yrs old. this version is the best of the best. you are correct. at 9min 35 seconds is proof

[@charlotteb.derrick5117]

Spot on you are! One of my all time favorites….I must add you are very observant….on all points….💜💜💜

[@jazluvr99]

Agreed... on all counts!! 😀

[@nortledorfus]

This is THE MOST MOVING MUSIC I'VE EVER HEARD...and I'm 73 years old. Her performance and that of the orchestra was absolutely OUTSTANDING. Brought me to tears.

[@noeliafernandez9478]

Excelente interpretación !pianista y orquesta

[@lukebradley3193]

The classic American symphony in my opinion. It was composed a couple years before the great depression, but it seems to define the spirit that carried America through that, and into the Looney Tunes act of involving itself in WWII. Just this beautiful chaos to the piece, all these distractions and victories. The pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, was apparently born in the Soviet Union, and it's something to think that with her semitic features she may not have even been born to play the piece had America not found that strength to involve itself in world affairs when very poor. All the pieces just come together in this performance, to make this incredible thing. Music is such a universal language, there really isn't anything anyone needs to say if one can really listen, and YOU sir, can obviously really listen...

[@bennywyman1]

😅

[@semajtee]

Me too!

[@ofdrumsandchords]

Great performance, indeed. Happy man, with so many masterpieces to discover. Musicians have a say. Mozart is a man talking to God, Bach is God talking to men.

[@HanWijman]

Rhapsody in Blue was played at the funeral of my late Father. Afterwards we got so many compliments about the beautiful music. A lot of new fans.

[@johnhenke6475]

When I was a kid, about 10 or 11, I road my bike to downtown in Casa Grande Arizona and discovered the Salvation Army store. It was a musty smelling place with lots of old uniforms from the Second World war and all kinds of interesting junk nobody wanted anymore. There was these old 78 RPM records for ten cents each. They were only 20 years or so old at that time. I bought Rhapsody in Blue, I don't know why. I took it home and set our record player on 78 RPM and flipped over the needle and played it. I cried listening to it. It was so beautiful. I didn't know music could be so beautiful. You just made me cry again. Thank you.

[@haroldbrown6630]

Well written comment . . . I can smell the place.

[@petervrabcak5597]

The man was a genius, so is the lady!

[@alexdevon2588]

Your wonderful true story made me cry. Emotionally and sentimentally, beautiful! I adore this piece also and when Khatia plays it, she really feels it and transmits this feeling to us. The best of Worlds.

[@georgescancan7503]

@@alexdevon2588 Alexander Boot Writer, critic, polemicist Sex sells - all of us short The other day I listened to something or other on KZbin, and a link to Chopin’s Fourth Ballade performed by the Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili came up. The link was accompanied by a close-up publicity photo of the musician: sloe bedroom eyes, sensual semi-open lips suggesting a delight that’s still illegal in Alabama, naked shoulders hinting at the similarly nude rest of her body regrettably out of shot… Let me see where my wife is… Good, she isn’t looking over my shoulder, so I can admit to you that the picture got me excited in ways one doesn’t normally associate with Chopin’s Fourth Ballade or for that matter any other classical composition this side of Wagner or perhaps Ravel’s Bolero. Searching for a more traditional musical rapture I clicked on the actual clip and alas found it anticlimactic, as it were. Khatia’s playing, though competent, is as undeniably so-what as her voluptuous figure undeniably isn’t. (Yes, I know the photograph I mentioned doesn’t show much of her figure apart from the luscious shoulders but, the prurient side of my nature piqued, I did a bit of a web crawl.) Just for the hell of it I looked at the publicity shots of other currently active female musicians, such as Yuja Wang, Joanna MacGregor, Nicola Bendetti, Alison Balsom (nicknamed ‘crumpet with a trumpet’, her promos more often suggest ‘a strumpet with a trumpet’ instead), Anne-Sophie Mutter and a few others. They didn’t disappoint the Peeping Tom lurking under my aging surface. Just about all the photographs showed the ladies in various stages of undress, in bed, lying in suggestive poses on top of the piano, playing in frocks (if any) open to the coccyx in the back and/or to the navel up front. This is one thing these musicians have in common. The other is that none of them is all that good at her day job and some, such as Wang, are truly awful. Yet this doesn’t really matter either to them or to the public or, most important, to those who form the public tastes by writing about music and musicians. Thus, for example, a tabloid pundit expressing his heartfelt regret that Nicola Benedetti “won’t be posing for the lads’ mags anytime soon. Pity, because she looks fit as a fiddle…” Geddit? She’s a violinist, which is to say fiddler - well, you do get it. “But Nicola doesn’t always take the bonniest photo,” continues the writer, “she’s beaky in pics sometimes, which is weird because in the flesh she’s an absolute knock-out. “The classical musician is wearing skinny jeans which show off her long legs. She’s also busty with a washboard flat tummy, tottering around 5ft 10in in her Dune platform wedges.” How well does she play the violin though? No one cares. Not even critics writing for our broadsheets, who don’t mind talking about musicians in terms normally reserved for pole dancers. Thus for instance runs a review of a piano recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall, one of London’s top concert venues: “She is the most photogenic of players: young, pretty, bare-footed; and, with her long dark hair and exquisite strapless dress of dazzling white, not only seemed to imply that sexuality itself can make you a profound musician, but was a perfect visual complement to the sleek monochrome of a concert grand… [but] there’s more to her than meets the eye.” The male reader is clearly expected to get a stiffie trying to imagine what that might be. To help his imagination along, the piece is accompanied by a photo of the young lady in question reclining on her instrument in a pre-coital position with an unmistakable ‘come and get it’ expression on her face. The ‘monochrome’ piano is actually bright-red, a colour usually found not in concert halls but in dens of iniquity. Nowhere does the review mention the fact obvious to anyone with any taste for musical performance: the girl is so bad that she should indeed be playing in a brothel, rather than on the concert platform. Can you, in the wildest flight of fancy, imagine a reviewer talking in such terms about sublime women artists of the past, such as Myra Hess, Maria Yudina, Maria Grinberg, Clara Haskil, Marcelle Meyer, Marguerite Long, Kathleen Ferrier? Can you see any of them allowing themselves to be photographed in the style of “lads’ mags”? I can’t, which raises the inevitable question: what exactly has changed in the last say 70 years? The short answer is, just about everything. Concert organisers and impresarios, who used to be in the business because they loved music first and wanted to make a living second, now care about nothing but money. Critics, who used to have discernment and taste, now have nothing but greed and lust for popularity. The public… well, don’t get me started on that. The circle is vicious: because tasteless ignoramuses use every available medium to build up musical nonentities, nonentities is all we get. And because the musical nonentities have no artistic qualities to write about, the writing nonentities have to concentrate on the more jutting attractions, using a vocabulary typically found in “lads’ mags”. The adage “sex sells” used to be applied first to B-movies, then to B-novels, and now to real music. From “sex sells” it’s but a short distance to “only sex sells”. This distance has already been travelled - and we are all being sold short.

[@imbok]

When I heard this performance, I ugly cried - hard. This stuff is magic.

[@TheRealBrook1968]

Flawless clarinet solo. One of my favorite pieces and is the best opening I have ever heard in a live performance.

[@sosenpott5445]

Der Klarinettist ist wirklich großartig, ganz im Gegensatz zu Khatia Buniatshili. Da gibt es niemanden, der oder die großartiger ist, als Yuja Wang. Ich bin verliebt in sie. The clarinettist is really great, in contrast to Khatia Buniatshili. There is no one more magnificent than Yuja Wang. I am in love with her.

[@IsraelChaffin]

Yes!!! Mmmmm. ^_^

[@randyzaucha8745]

I abandoned clarinet to play keyboards.

[@nattersting976]

If this doesn't make your neck hair quiver, you aren't alive.

[@IsraelChaffin]

@@randyzaucha8745 how's that experience been?

[@SCRClasses]

That is the best R in B I've heard in a long, long time. Perhaps EVER! Her playing is both spectacularly clean and brilliantly free. There is not a MOMENT where she hasn't made a strong, beautiful, thoughtful intensely MUSICAL choice.

[@JohnCollins-th8hm]

Ive said it before, and I’ll say it again, but watching a great performer onstage completely enjoying themselves is just the best. She is so fun to watch. And hairdo is just perfect!

[@Fatdog-Dakind]

...all this and she never missed a note and had the entire piece set to memory O M G !!! That is truly amazing! Piano Power! Band too!

[@paladin1726]

She is as beautiful as beautiful gets. Yes, that hair when she’s playing is perfect

[@davidphillips3925]

Yes, it is quite evident when this lady plays the piano it is all about her.

[@observer3232]

Not only is her piano playing superb, but her appearance and performing style is sexy and erotic.

[@lucashankins9425]

George never imagined this being played so well.

[@johnalcorn8079]

George Gershwin wrote classics from Summertime to Rhapsody in Blue.He kept changing direction in music.He died at 38yrs old,who knows what he would have written.A Genius!

[@IbanezArtist85]

And Summertime was even recorded by the Zombies (and done very well by them).

[@sondrasmith2691]

He WAS true genius. I agree with you.

[@invisibleink2644]

And Ira, too.

[@robotaverage]

If he'd lived long enough to get a Fender Strat in his hands he would have slayed like Hendrix.

[@_..-.._..-.._]

He’d have been a rap superstar, and lived large.

[@patricksirmon6555]

The look she would give to the individuals during their solos was almost if they were performing it directly to her. ❤❤❤

[@kcmichaelm]

This was my favorite part!! It seemed a heartfelt acknowledgment of the back-and-forth which makes the piece so wonderful. It felt like each part playing off each other. This was the first time I’ve ever seen Bernstein’s production topped.

[@Dave.Mustaine.Is.Genius]

@@kcmichaelm me favourite part is her whole body :))

[@lucashankins9425]

She is a temptress. I love the enthusiasm she brings to the orchestra. She makes eye contact to confirm the next movement is ready.

[@lucashankins9425]

@@user-yl9fs8mj9q Is it a demand or flirt? Maybe both…

[@N_Loco_Parenthesis]

Sometimes the next movement isn't ready, needs another five minutes. 🤣

[@bobsmachine618]

The look on her face seems to say "This is what all the hard work was for, and it was worth it.". All the musicians in this performance are exceptional.

[@Frankincensedjb123]

It seems to say I'm a total histrionic

[@haroldsmith8969]

Agree 100 percent

[@pauljohnlongua4093]

Or...My farts don't stink. 😜

[@sailorgeer]

What a fantastic performance! I love how Ms. Buniatishvili watches the other soloists and conductor so intently, truly playing with them as opposed to treating the orchestra as mere accompaniment. Bravo!

[@MrPetrie]

Yes!

[@chickencrapoperator]

Well put.

[@georgescancan7503]

Buniatishvili est vulgaire dans tout, dans son comportement sur la scène, dans son habillement dans la scène, dans son pianisme! C'est un produit pour divertir sexuellement la foule et gagner de l'argent pour le manager! Tout ce qu'elle dit est préparé et rendu par la grande équipe derrière elle! En France et en Europe, il existe des dizaines de pianistes de la plus haute classe, mais ils ne montreront pas leurs seins et d'autres parties du corps sur scène. Par conséquent, la route vers la scène est fermée pour eux! Nous pouvons dire avec une certitude absolue: dans le secteur du concert, la mafia est active et cette vidéo en est la preuve!

[@gearsofsounds]

@@georgescancan7503 mort de rire à l’idée qu’une vraie personne en 2022 puisse encore faire un commentaire de vieux schnock de 1964. Si en plus vous trouvez que cette robe montre une poitrine indécemment c’est que vous avez un sacré problème, il faut rapidement consulter…

[@celsodorneles484]

@@georgescancan7503 caro tenho que concordar convosco em partes, pois a música não precisa de tal postura apelativa. Mas também não se pode deixar de reconhecer o talento da moça.

[@danoneill8751]

Holy crap. Statistically speaking, no one will ever do anything so well as that pianist in that performance.

[@castlebound2010]

Talent, effort and motivation since the times of Mozart and even before so...

[@user-vm8zm5nb3p]

❤ 3:57

[@jasonstarr6419]

As a performer - professional for a period of my life - I know how important it is to be recognized for my/your contribution in a performance. Her attention to the principals and conductor for quite some time prior to taking her own bow shows that she not only has tremendous talent, but also has enough humility and appreciation for others that she recognized them first. Brilliant performance, tremendous humanity.

[@mariodisarli1022]

@vibratingstring International Association of Theatre Critics (Hong Kong) 31.03.2016 ..... One may say that it is important for musicians to have a unique musical style and personality, but is it even acceptable to interpret the pieces like what Buniatishvili did? Buniatishvili is intoxicated by being virtuosic and often forgets what is behind the music. One should have faith in his or her own interpretation, but he or she should also re-think whether he or she is doing justice to the music or not. In addition, technique is much more than playing the notes accurately and rapidly. Technique refers to the total mastery of the keyboard. Yet, at times Buniatishvili’s playing lost control, no matter use of pedal, or tone production. Virtuosity does not necessarily mean speed and volume. In order to become a mature artist with individuality, Buniatishvili has to reflect on her musical approach and attitude towards music making.

[@georgescancan7503]

What words, dear "bloodgrss", how many emotions! Did I step on your foot, respected businessman who sells half-naked, barefoot, busty whiskey drinkers who call themselves "pianists"?! Owning a piano keyboard is not yet an art, it is a craft! Therefore, your "pianists" attract the attention of an uneducated audience with their half-naked body, bare feet and other tricks. As their bodies age, these "pianists" will disappear! Together with them, you will disappear, dear "bloodgrss"! And we will all say goodbye to you: Ciao, baby!!! With your propaganda of the "attractive young half-naked body" you block the way to the stage for really talented people. Your place is the garbage pit of history!

[@mariodisarli1022]

@vibratingstring Dear, you have a flat mind! You are here because they give you a young vigorous body, classical music does not play any role for you.

[@Vodichka9]

@vibratingstring The hatred is insane and Talibanesque.

[@georgescancan7503]

@@Vodichka9 Fake Appellation Fake Appellation vor 4 Stunden @Georges Can can You're the proverbial swine gazing at pearls. One wonders how little shame you have in publicly exposing yourself. Georges Cancan Georges Cancan vor 3 Minuten (bearbeitet) @Fake Appellation You are deeply mistaken if you think classical music is meant to boost testosterone levels in your aging body! This "lady" shamelessly sells her body, she successfully sells her body in her other videos. It is precisely such "lovers of classical music" as you, dear sir, who destroy classical music by writing sweet comments. It is these "lovers of classical music" who drool and snot at the sight of the "fresh body" of a pianist! kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHO9mYNplrWUhLc

[@fporretto]

“Rhapsody in Blue” is the clearest, highest, strongest shout of joy in American music. It’s impossible to play it decently unless you love it - and Khatia Buniatishvili clearly does. This performance combines exuberance and precision in perfect proportion. Bravo!

[@bruceatkinson5357]

Quite decently!

[@SchwarzeWitwe2]

I saw a youtube comment years ago that called it a "brilliant piece of British music." Excuse me?!

[@fporretto]

@@SchwarzeWitwe2 *_HUH??_*

[@SchwarzeWitwe2]

@@fporretto some fool thought it was British, which blew my mind.

[@fporretto]

@@SchwarzeWitwe2 Well, it blew mine, too! I suppose I should just relax and chuckle over the mistake -- but can you imagine if some American were to refer to the marches of Elgar as _American_ music? It would be the War of 1812 all over again! The British would invade and burn down Washington D.C. again...though come to think of it, that doesn't sound so bad just now...😉

[@toms2494]

Just think the Orchestra is reading the music and Khatia is playing by memory, she is fantastic.

[@jimwalker5412]

I'm 75 yoa my Father passed away when I was 12 yoa RIB was his favorite piece of music, this just brought me to tears, Love you Dad

[@unclemarkmark]

Khatia obviously dropped down from heaven to play this.

[@vacancywithin]

She could have dropped by to see me, but she chose this instead. 😢

[@mysterj1]

Whew. Stunning performance by a stunning woman.

[@hanszimmer8801]

This is the greatest performance of Rhapsody in Blue I've ever heard. Absolutely formidable and overwhelming. I love it 💙

[@thomassicard3733]

All the fast notes are SO FAST that you can't even hear them!! WONDERFUL!! Right??????

[@wchambers3849]

You should listen to Leonard Bernstein’s performance. The best I’ve ever heard!

[@kevinmalone3210]

​@@wchambers3849I agree, Bernstein performance was unmatched. She's very good, but her style isn't on par with the way he played it.

[@Dbean48]

Totally agree, Gershwin would approve of this performance..above and beyond any before..😎🇺🇸

[@craighill1882]

Bernstein was an overrated pretty boy, loved by the critics and no one else.

[@jazluvr99]

To say that I am blown away by this performance would be a gross understatement. Beauty, style, elegance, God-given talent, flawless technique - and that extra special flair for the dramatic - Khatia is beyond compare. Oh, I almost forgot that incredible orchestra! 😉 Wonderful performance of this timeless classic.

[@user-yl9fs8mj9q]

I know very well who you are !!!!!

[@manyplanets]

Playing with Khatia is like playing with the composer of all her pieces. She represents them. She embodies the soul of every piece she plays and she can play anything. And she revives these pieces for the audience and her fellow players who I can imagine love playing with her more than anything. She is a performer but also a channeler.

[@dxdxdkino1583]

Khatia Buniatishvili, the orchestra, the conductor, the sound team, the camerawork... Everything is on point. Beautiful performance

[@mitchmatthews6713]

Those little eye flirts she does with clarinetist shows that she is truly enjoying this. She is also incredibly talented!

[@derkmanley3220]

Valerie you are absolutely right!! Well put. I have a terrible time going to sleep every night. Classical Music, especially the Way in which Khatia plays it, blesses me every night!!

[@nnaHume]

Эта девушка восхитительна!!!!! Просто глаз не оторвать от игры и ее эмоций!!!❤

[@user-yl9fs8mj9q]

I don't agree with you

[@melvynemanuel4396]

Her timing is impeccable. Brings a lump to my throat. Watching her is like a beautiful, beautiful dream. I am emotionally overcome. I'm so glad I'm alive to here her play.

[@warbuzzard7167]

To see such people so connected to the music is a great inspiration!

[@comfyathome]

Spell-check "here"!

[@melvynemanuel4396]

a typo no doubt.@@comfyathome

[@dariuszm.d.4360]

Probably the best 17 minutes of my life.... again and again and again.

[@raquelcastro457]

Super magnífico, super magistral y super hermosísimooooooo

[@gregs2466]

I have always loved this piece but I have never heard it played so well. The pianist blew my socks off and her emotions playing perfectly were something I will never forgot. The entire orchestra and the individual musicians were perfect. Wow!!

[@lucashankins9425]

In my opinion, the best interpretation of RIB. The tone and tempo of the conductor multiplied by the passion on the piano. The best I have ever seen. It’s a definite standing ovation.

[@mariajosesanpaiosousafonse2904]

1 22

[@mariajosesanpaiosousafonse2904]

The best interpretation I have heard of RIB

[@larumpole]

I grew up with Leonard Bernstein’s 1976 performance of Rhapsody in Blue at the Royal Albert Hall in 1976 (search for it on KZbin), and that was, to me, the definitive rendition - I could neither appreciate nor enjoy the slightest deviation from Bernstein’s authoritative cadence and his orchestration. Khatia Buniatishvili’s spirited and sympathetic performance now challenges my mindset; I am open to two fantastic renditions of Gershwin’s masterpiece. Bravo Ms. Buniatishvili! Gershwin would adore your interpretation and style, and Leonard would truly respect and appreciate the competition.

[@semajtee]

I agree with you 100%

[@katz7life]

I also have that one performance in 1979 as THE one. Then I listened to this one. My life is infinitely better and richer, with no exaggeration.

[@TheMorphrick]

I still prefer the Bernstein one, but this is my second favorite

[@robertcraven1771]

I’d never have thought anyone would give Bernstein a run for his money. I stand corrected.

[@guybo07]

I so want to find it on KZbin & see & hear it!! 😮

[@hlpimcnfsdl9715]

khatia is everywhere. Speaking language after language. Relatively young. At the top of her game. Playing globally. The world at her feet. The comment section full of praise. Can you imagine how that must feel? And yet, watching her I get the feelng she's holding it all together. With style, with grace, and with a whole lot of passion and talent. She is a gem.

[@francescolaface192]

Katia.e' una pianista.versatile e irraggiungibile. Complimenti.

[@MusicAdmirer]

I love that she's acknowledging the orchestral musicians.

[@sosenpott5445]

Please listen to and watch Yuja Wang. Everything you say about Khatia applies to her.

[@hlpimcnfsdl9715]

Yuja wang is a force of nature. I have watched her. She's an experience all to herself.

[@user-jw5tw2gs6d]

Это чудно, великолепно! Все великолепны: и оркестр и Хатия шикарна во всём: в исполнении, в эмоциях!!!! А какое вступление !!! Как красиво!!!! Не хватает слов, чтоб выразить насколь ко это гениал ьно!!!

[@MrWphilips]

Khatia is a superstar! Incredible musicianship and brilliant personality! She brings this masterpiece to emotional life! Wonderful!

[@Bustafunny]

That was the jazziest, bluesiest arrangement of Rhapsody In Blue I've ever heard. Music at it's absolute finest!

[@ellenmarch3095]

Well, it was the arrangement Gershwin wrote, so... Not knocking anyone's talent, this was a great performance to be sure, but I've only ever heard one arrangement, both playing in orchestra and a piano solo version that had all parts on the same keyboard. Every note is in order, the only thing you can really play with is tempo.

[@ellenmarch3095]

Just saying Gershwin is a genius.

[@MottiShneor]

No it isn't. Sorry.

[@silvergirl7810]

I agree- that intro - wow- the sexiest intro to this song I’ve ever heard!

[@davidelongo6438]

Your statement clearly proves you know literally nothing about Jazz and Blues, of course. Please, do you a favour, and go to listen to the Rhapsody as conducted by Maurice Peress in 1987.

[@TTony-tu6dm]

Possibly the greatest piece of American music ever composed. And she blows it away. Bravo!

[@godly74]

100 years of Rhapsody in Blue! It's still as good as the first time I heard it.

[@larrycurrid8626]

Oh my God! Astounding. What a magnificent performance. No one writes music like this anymore.

[@Dave.Mustaine.Is.Genius]

Peter Gundry, Adrian Von Ziegler, Hans Zimmer, Ye Banished Privateers. Pyrolysis, Stormfrun, Burzum, Sleep Dealer, Steve Wilson, Joe Satriani, Death and Megadeth does.

[@vernacular1483]

Maybe you’re just looking in the wrong places 😊

[@Dave.Mustaine.Is.Genius]

@@vernacular1483 :D Whole bodies of women are great and hof

[@werideatdusk]

Megadeth???

[@lalva5798]

If you’re not blown away by this version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, then you probably don’t have a pulse. Sometimes it’s difficult to articulate into words how something can make you feel. The emotions that it provokes, and what the creator of such a masterpiece was thinking at the time. Absolutely Keeping this video in my favourites file 🥰

[@stevensaunders1580]

Agreed, I play this at least weekly.

[@lescobrandon3047]

I’m 82 years old in Manhattan and this version is the best I’ve heard. Khatia is the difference.

[@lalva5798]

@@joeybloey3631 true, or no taste at all

[@lalva5798]

@@joeybloey3631 I’ve been teaching music theory and music appreciation at the University level for 21 years. I’d beg to differ if you’ve ever seen my music library which spans the globe. Please place your nose elsewhere

[@c.a.savage5689]

Enough already. Anyone who doesn't like Gershwin is hardly likely to have searched out the video. Much less leave equivocal comments about who has taste and who doesn't. I would heartily agree with L Alva that this particular piece played by this pianist with this orchestra is UNIVERSAL in its appeal.

[@dontheshark]

Love watching her enjoyment of performing and her respect for the orchestra while they were playing. Her smiling throughout was wonderful.

[@rickandosca8262]

YES!

[@bradzoltick6465]

The best performance of Rhapsody in Blue - ever! Wonderful playing. Just beautiful.

[@KnoxBronson]

Best performance of Rhapsody In Blue I've ever heard.

[@007JHS]

Love that opening clarinet.

[@TheMarpalm]

This is the original kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHLYhaKrd82Ba80

[@007JHS]

@@TheMarpalm Many thanks...I'd seen that too... For 1945 was it....The sound recording was great... as was the Art Deco style set and photography

[@DonnaMcMasterRiver]

That is a really tough solo! And he did it perfectly. 😍

[@Kamadev888]

Called a "glissando", the clarinetist has to stretch a single low note from the bottom of his low register up and into a high note in his highest register. takes YEARS of practice. (thank you Jennifer)

[@m.f.912]

Clarinet in the jewish music culture is a super classic. Gershwin as a jew had huge influences from hassidic jewish music from eastern europe. KLEIZMER music, if you love clarinet, may amaze you.

[@meteor2012able]

I am 91 yo, I first heard this in a movie when I was a teenager. I was smitten by the composition and never stopped being amazed ...😢 at how impactful it is. Great performance!!!❤❤❤

[@RandysFiftySevenChevy]

United Airlines used it their advertising, and that's where I first was exposed to this beautiful tune.

[@TKn-dq8kp]

I am 91 as well and saw this movie after we were liberated in The Netherlands. This movie music never left me until now, unfortunately there was no Kathia then. What an artist! What a beauty!. Great experience whenever I play it and great memories. Thank you!

[@1867DJP]

What movie?

[@TKn-dq8kp]

@@1867DJP As far as I can remember the name of themovie had something to do with the rhapsody but even as I remembered the music I am not sure about the movie's name, it is almost 75 years ago

[@1867DJP]

@@TKn-dq8kp Maybe an American in Paris

[@Chicken_Consumer]

A part of my soul disintegrates every time an unskipable ad interrupts this performance

[@paulychannel7914]

Then pay for an ad free subscription ! ..... You won't regret that ......

[@johndymond1605]

This must be one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written❤

[@debracarnow9475]

I agree.

[@user-hz2kn3nv3z]

I've watched this video 10 times, it never gets old! Khatia is just fantastic! So talented, no sheet music, so fast her fingers blur! She crosses her hands, how do you do that! Her expressions are just as interesting to watch, you can tell she is enjoying herself performing RIB, and she cues the rest of the orchestra with just a look. The orchestra is fantastic, and I agree the sound and video people captured the performance perfectly. What a blessing to run across this on U-tube.

[@user-yl9fs8mj9q]

?????????

[@chinet95]

At 81 years old, I've seen and heard a lot of great renditions of "Rhapsody." This ranks with the greats.

[@BradWieland]

@vibratingstring :: Do you know who the clarinetist is? Fantastic indeed...

[@kennetw42]

I'm 85 this month so I say "Ditto"

[@odilecadiou18]

@@kennetw42 I am 78 ! Sublime she is !!!!

[@odilecadiou18]

He is fabulous ! what a joy !!!

[@georgescancan7503]

Alexander Boot Writer, critic, polemicist Sex sells - all of us short The other day I listened to something or other on KZbin, and a link to Chopin’s Fourth Ballade performed by the Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili came up. The link was accompanied by a close-up publicity photo of the musician: sloe bedroom eyes, sensual semi-open lips suggesting a delight that’s still illegal in Alabama, naked shoulders hinting at the similarly nude rest of her body regrettably out of shot… Let me see where my wife is… Good, she isn’t looking over my shoulder, so I can admit to you that the picture got me excited in ways one doesn’t normally associate with Chopin’s Fourth Ballade or for that matter any other classical composition this side of Wagner or perhaps Ravel’s Bolero. Searching for a more traditional musical rapture I clicked on the actual clip and alas found it anticlimactic, as it were. Khatia’s playing, though competent, is as undeniably so-what as her voluptuous figure undeniably isn’t. (Yes, I know the photograph I mentioned doesn’t show much of her figure apart from the luscious shoulders but, the prurient side of my nature piqued, I did a bit of a web crawl.) Just for the hell of it I looked at the publicity shots of other currently active female musicians, such as Yuja Wang, Joanna MacGregor, Nicola Bendetti, Alison Balsom (nicknamed ‘crumpet with a trumpet’, her promos more often suggest ‘a strumpet with a trumpet’ instead), Anne-Sophie Mutter and a few others. They didn’t disappoint the Peeping Tom lurking under my aging surface. Just about all the photographs showed the ladies in various stages of undress, in bed, lying in suggestive poses on top of the piano, playing in frocks (if any) open to the coccyx in the back and/or to the navel up front. This is one thing these musicians have in common. The other is that none of them is all that good at her day job and some, such as Wang, are truly awful. Yet this doesn’t really matter either to them or to the public or, most important, to those who form the public tastes by writing about music and musicians. Thus, for example, a tabloid pundit expressing his heartfelt regret that Nicola Benedetti “won’t be posing for the lads’ mags anytime soon. Pity, because she looks fit as a fiddle…” Geddit? She’s a violinist, which is to say fiddler - well, you do get it. “But Nicola doesn’t always take the bonniest photo,” continues the writer, “she’s beaky in pics sometimes, which is weird because in the flesh she’s an absolute knock-out. “The classical musician is wearing skinny jeans which show off her long legs. She’s also busty with a washboard flat tummy, tottering around 5ft 10in in her Dune platform wedges.” How well does she play the violin though? No one cares. Not even critics writing for our broadsheets, who don’t mind talking about musicians in terms normally reserved for pole dancers. Thus for instance runs a review of a piano recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall, one of London’s top concert venues: “She is the most photogenic of players: young, pretty, bare-footed; and, with her long dark hair and exquisite strapless dress of dazzling white, not only seemed to imply that sexuality itself can make you a profound musician, but was a perfect visual complement to the sleek monochrome of a concert grand… [but] there’s more to her than meets the eye.” The male reader is clearly expected to get a stiffie trying to imagine what that might be. To help his imagination along, the piece is accompanied by a photo of the young lady in question reclining on her instrument in a pre-coital position with an unmistakable ‘come and get it’ expression on her face. The ‘monochrome’ piano is actually bright-red, a colour usually found not in concert halls but in dens of iniquity. Nowhere does the review mention the fact obvious to anyone with any taste for musical performance: the girl is so bad that she should indeed be playing in a brothel, rather than on the concert platform. Can you, in the wildest flight of fancy, imagine a reviewer talking in such terms about sublime women artists of the past, such as Myra Hess, Maria Yudina, Maria Grinberg, Clara Haskil, Marcelle Meyer, Marguerite Long, Kathleen Ferrier? Can you see any of them allowing themselves to be photographed in the style of “lads’ mags”? I can’t, which raises the inevitable question: what exactly has changed in the last say 70 years? The short answer is, just about everything. Concert organisers and impresarios, who used to be in the business becau ...

[@ShockzG5]

The best clarinet solo I’ve heard of this piece. Laid back af man just how it was meant to be

[@silvergirl7810]

Right? That was THE sexiest intro to this song I’ve ever heard- I was happily hanging on every note

[@juligrlee556]

Thank you Khatia for everything you have invested in your music. It's heavenly.

[@par72golfer]

Khatia is a rhapsody in and of herself. No one can play this incredible music like she does.

[@dawnnoele]

I love love love how she thanked the conductor and the orchestra before she took her bows. That shows incredible humility and respect. This is the first time I've watched her play, but I'm definitely gonna look for more. She's incredible. 💕💕💕

[@paulware4701]

Likewise!

[@kevinmeachem2138]

Also noted the way she listened to and showed appreciation for the clarinet solo before giving her tremendous performance. Team effort.

[@leastcoast5606]

​@@user-yl9fs8mj9qJerk.

[@walterweckers771]

Artistry aside, what fascinates me in this is how Khatia enjoys the interaction with the orchestra. She's having FUN.

[@juanrabanales4933]

Man of culture, we meet again. 🥸

[@krisc.2478]

This has been my favorite musical piece for 60 years

[@Qplus-tc5hh]

47 years for me. Found it in the 5th grade at 10 years old.

[@billsimpson604]

If people are still around in a hundred thousand years, they will still be listening to that piece. And it won't be better than that performance. Gershwin attained immortality with that work. Khatia played it perfectly.

[@liberalwithguns5265]

Well said sir! And so true

[@timford3599]

Thank you, Bill. We are of the same mind in appreciation of this wonderful performance of ALL involved.

[@djecoed]

I never comment on KZbin videos. I always feel like it’s an exercise in self indulgence (no offense; we all want to be heard). But I feel that this performance and this recording compels comment. This is astonishing. The composition is amazing. The performances superlative. This is the first video I’ve seen of Ms Buniatishvilli And it is… A revelation. Her technical skill, her characterizations, her expressions, the way she engages the orchestra… Even her hair is perfect. And lest we forget, the camera work, the editing, hours of behind-the-seens* toil that we dismiss or ignore or simply never consider but are yet critical to this end…. There are times I witness something that leave me stunned at what my brethren and sestren** can accomplish and this is one of them. If you have read this far, thank you for hearing me. I’m an old man. Please do not judge me harshly. *no I don’t didn’t misspell that ** = sisters; I crafted this word. You are invited to use it with attribution. How’s THAT for self indulgence?

[@etiennecfourie777]

Thank you kindly Sir. I shall use it on the very best next occasion with due credit. Lol!!

[@djecoed]

@@etiennecfourie777 Haa ha ha ha ha ha haaaa I am flattered, sir.

[@S0ulinth3machin3]

you should comment more often. It was worth reading.

[@djecoed]

@@S0ulinth3machin3 I am very flattered

[@radkokosoTT]

Well written!!

[@blissbombseventeen8114]

This retired dancer/ choreographer just wants to get back up again listening and watching the pure mastery and magic weaved by Khatia! Love the orchestra, conductor and gosh those rhythms!

[@tjmcguire9417]

People forget. A piano, played with verve vigour and talent is an entire orchestra in and of itself. I have played this. In my day I was Royal Conservatory ARTCM. So wonderful to see talented young folks like her carry on. I watch closely. She has superb right hand articulation. From allegro to sotto voce; she is quite accomplished. She knows the voices. Plainly. Lovely artist. Sometimes... her pace is too fast. Not by much. Just her adrenalin speaking I expect. Just the fact it can be seen by a worldwide audience on KZbin is important. Carry on Khatia. You do all dedicated pianists proud. We all know the dedication it takes.

[@TheMorphrick]

Exactly my thoughts. In some parts might be slightly rushed, but the passion she expresses, compenses by far any technicality. Awesome performance!

[@pymarathon]

To be fair, if you go by the Piano Rolls Gershwin made of this isn't basically everyone just dragging compared to him? I remember those sounding WAY more rushed.

[@kezilkka]

Who would not love Khatia?

[@randysandford4033]

Not only was the music SUPERB but watching her facials as she played without a single note in front of her, just straight from the heart, is what made this particular "Rhapsody" soar above all the others. BRAVO!

[@robbyrtg1147]

I cannot express how upset I am that I wasn't able to see this performance live. Don't let them release time machines! Favorite composition ever, favorite performance ever. Nothing compares to this level of musicianship. Anyone can play what's on the score but these people made it way much more than what was on the paper. Hearing them/Khatia play live is now on my bucket list!

[@DavidBFreedman]

I doubt that we could see all her facial expressions sitting in the audience. This might be better?

[@stephenburnage7687]

Gosh, if we had a time machine, to visit the best performances of all time....that would be a long list..

[@victorvillatoro7241]

This is brilliant. From the expressiveness of the orchestra, to the sound production, to the camera work. Bravo.

[@rortlieb]

This is one of the greatest compositions in history and this is the best performance I’ve heard. BRAVISSIMO!!!

[@jimrosenthal1228]

Hers is one of the best interpretations of Rhapsody that I have ever heard- clear, articulate, and it even SWINGS!!! People forget how much Gershwin was influenced by jazz artists, and the high regard that some of them had for Gershwin (Art Tatum, for one) This was a delight to hear, from beginning to end. And a shout out to the sound engineers who recorded this performance- they did an outstanding job.

[@stevedoe1630]

Sounds good even on _my_ headphones… high quality orchestra, pianist, recording, audio engineers… the whole kit and kaboodle.

[@sebastian-benedictflore]

Indeed, a change from the audio of the most recent van cliburn first round or chopin competition, for example

[@mike97525]

All from memory😉😉

[@agneslefevre1656]

exactement, j'ai vu un film, les personnages, tour à tour danser, les musiciens eux même semblaient danser. Puis la romance doucement se dessine, les émotions montent jusqu'à l'explosion, explosion des sens, la montée en puissance n'est pas sans évoquer le Sacre du printemps, le tout très jazzy. On my opinion

[@petergals4451]

For me it is clear she enjoys to the bones that so "jazzy" sections of this master pieces. Eyes totally closed at the most part of her interpretation, simply power and masterful!!

[@derinmenekse6774]

She is AMAZING, the orchestra is AMAZING everything is fabulous about this video ❤️🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🧿

[@user-mr8br7tx2f]

I am 61 years old Brazilian Professor and love this Gershwin composition! Fantastic interpretation!

[@diegoforesti4726]

Sono passati quasi cento anni dalla prima esecuzione di questo capolavoro e risentendolo oggi è più fresco e vitale che mai!!! Caposaldo del Novecento di un genio assoluto che ci ha lasciato troppo presto. Chissà cosa avrebbe potuto scrivere ancora se fosse vissuto più a lungo. Grazie George!!!!

[@davelester1985]

That piano had great tone, most wonderful sound, and when loud in upper register ....such warmth.

[@bartram33]

From someone who doesn’t have a musical note in his body, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, musicians are born not made. That was breathtaking, both Khatia and the orchestra!

[@charlesfoleysr6610]

The first time I remember hearing this melody, I was about 5 years old. It was night and we were coming home from a long tiring, but satisfying Sunday afternoon car ride. It was 1955. Only my dad and I were awake watching the blacktop unwind in the headlights. The rest of the family slumbered peacefully. Dad had the radio station tuned to big band music. The Rhapsody in Blue, the clarinet opening. As the music unfolded, I was entranced. My dad only spoke to explain the picture each section of this symphony was painting in it's melodic flow. I was swept away. My 5 year old imagination sketching the crowds, cars and trucks in the orchestrated into the panoramic portrait as it of this huge dirty busting metropolis. The music let me see it all unfolding as the highway rolled away beneath us. That car ride with just my father and I awake, fondly comes back to my mind every time I hear this melody is played. Beautifully memories, just beautiful. A better time for sure. ❤

[@NyteNArmor]

This Gershwin piece and this performance of it has it all. It's blusey, jazzy, classical and sexy. I've watched it several times. It's simple amazing.

[@johnnyxmusic]

I mean at times it’s corny, and hackneyed, and over the top and a bit cartoony… But it never stops being brilliant. I adore it. ❤❤❤

[@aneyeinthesky7193]

Fantastique!! She does not play the music, SHE IS THE MUSIC!! her hands do not touch the piano, they joyfully dance with a piano full of sounds coming out. All the musicians are outstanding and she is the soloist.

[@manleyhall5368]

This one of my best loved music compositions. This lady has to be one if the greatest performers of RHAPSODY IN BLUE,!!

[@franciscojunqueira]

I'm AMAZED how she talks and swings with the orchestra.... she is INCREDIBLE and they are FANTASTIC!

[@ratking_c24]

Her playing is gorgeous but can we also mention the cinematography!! The cuts and angles make you feel as if you’re in a busy city and it fits sooo good with the music!!

[@redskindan78]

Yes! It feels like Manhattan, and I can imagine people in the 1930s, wearing tuxedos and drinking champagne.

[@reddyandre]

Amazing camera work, AND amazing EDITING.

[@valerie_handani_pianist]

I couldn't agree more. I drown in admiration while watching this amazing music video!

[@stephaniestanley8041]

Yes the editing made this a living, breathing performance!

[@bruceatkinson5357]

Hearing is enough for me.

[@DariusSarrafi]

She totally gets jazz. It's always nice to hear someone of her caliber and passion play this piece!

[@MarceloCanelas-mc1my]

Khatia is indeed the best pianists today. Exceptional performance.

[@DanielDaniel1]

My absolute favorite section is song E, the romance theme from 11:04 to about 14:00. It’s just achingly beautiful. The French horn medley being traded to Khatia, and the big band effect overall is just incredible

[@Siddiquemilan]

Mine too.

[@GT-bz9nc]

You are so right - total bliss on this section.

[@edvett7596]

Yes, sublime!

[@steveburke3923]

This is a lady with mischief in her heart! Her looks to the musicians as they answer her magnificent playing bring a smile to my face. And her playing...OHH..her playing...is as breathtaking as her beauty!

[@dxwallace55]

Our band teacher in high school once told me "You like the sound of the band more than your own instrument". I think some people like the "whole" more than the "parts"

[@philipdavidson8420]

Both good-looking and talented, yes. I believe the scientific term is " hot chick" 😉

[@Remshmuck]

@@philipdavidson8420 super duper

[@philipdavidson8420]

@@Remshmuck YESSS 😃

[@rossdennis5694]

I never grew up with Classical Music - parents were into the crooners (Bing, Val Doonican, Sinatra) with one exception, my father could play Rhapsody in Blue on piano in full and occasionally did at home, despite him having no association with orchestra's or other in his working/social life since I grew up - Used to be the 'piano man'' at dance halls/clubs in his youth playing all the latest hit songs. But I did tear up, listening to Khatia's rendition of this, as it so strongly reminds me of my father who passed away in 1986. She is brilliant and it is a magical composition !

[@georgescancan7503]

I shed tears reading your biography of a "true connoisseur of classical music"! But I burst out laughing. Reveal to us the secrets of your delight, what exactly is in this work, what part of it do you like. Listen to this work performed by two more oriental women, their names are Lola Astanova and Yuya Wang. I am sure that you will lose your peace forever! kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKHWnKhnidyEbac

[@rossdennis5694]

@@jennifer86010 I happily stand corrected on the musical genre...but the emotional resonance remains.

[@georgescancan7503]

@@jennifer86010 Who is Yuja? Product PR and show industry! Absolutely ordinary pianist, pulled onto the stage by mafia structures for the sexual entertainment of snotty youths and old libertines! Her videos and interviews multiply at the rate of cholera spread! She filled the entire Internet with her "art" consisting of a half-naked body. We must finally say: enough !!! The Classical Review Wang’s powerful virtuosity stronger on flash than depth in Boston recital May 13, 2018 By Aaron Keebaugh Yuja Wang performed Friday night at Jordan Hall for the Celebrity Series. Photo: Robert Torres ... There is no doubting Yuja Wang’s technique at the keyboard. The Chinese-born pianist is capable of unleashing torrents of octave runs, and her left-hand figures supply an almost orchestral sense of depth and gravity to her sound. She clearly shapes every phrase, and her notes resonate with a ping. ... Still, there were times Friday night when one wondered if Wang only saw some of this music as just showpieces for her mesmerizing technical skill. Her selections of Rachmaninoff Preludes and Études-tableaux, though played deftly, didn’t always flower with the vocal quality so integral to the composer’s style. Wang takes a full-bodied approach to Rachmaninoff, and she renders his textures in multi-dimensional shapes. In the Prelude in G minor, Op. 23, No. 5, her strong left hand figures tethered the march rhythms to the ground. The Prelude in B minor, Op. 32, No. 10 unfolded in Debussyian washes of color. In the Étude-tableau in E-flat minor, Op. 39, No. 5, Wang’s harmonies and bass lines crashed together in blistering clusters. But in each, Rachmaninoff sense of sweeping grandeur went largely unexplored. Three of Ligeti’s Etudes, which filled out the program, were similarly muscular but lacking in probing musicality. Wang’s running chromatic figures blurred into a fog in Etude No. 9, “Vertige,” and in Etude No. 1, “Désordre,” churning Bartókian rhythms propelled the music ever forward. In Etude No. 3, “Touches bloquées,” Wang’s performance needed more of the intimacy that this music requires. Though Wang played the work quickly-as marked-the Etude’s halo-like harmonics, caused by the pianist keeping some of the keys depressed with the left hand while punching out syncopated figures with the right, failed to shimmer. Ligeti incorporated difficult passages into these works not as vehicles for showboating but to create ethereal musical tapestries. And throughout, it seemed as if Wang was playing Ligeti’s notes, not Ligeti’s music. ... The program will be repeated 8 p.m. Thursday night at Carnegie Hall in New York.

[@georgescancan7503]

@@jennifer86010 Alexander Boot Writer, critic, polemicist Sex sells - all of us short The other day I listened to something or other on KZbin, and a link to Chopin’s Fourth Ballade performed by the Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili came up. The link was accompanied by a close-up publicity photo of the musician: sloe bedroom eyes, sensual semi-open lips suggesting a delight that’s still illegal in Alabama, naked shoulders hinting at the similarly nude rest of her body regrettably out of shot… Let me see where my wife is… Good, she isn’t looking over my shoulder, so I can admit to you that the picture got me excited in ways one doesn’t normally associate with Chopin’s Fourth Ballade or for that matter any other classical composition this side of Wagner or perhaps Ravel’s Bolero. Searching for a more traditional musical rapture I clicked on the actual clip and alas found it anticlimactic, as it were. Khatia’s playing, though competent, is as undeniably so-what as her voluptuous figure undeniably isn’t. (Yes, I know the photograph I mentioned doesn’t show much of her figure apart from the luscious shoulders but, the prurient side of my nature piqued, I did a bit of a web crawl.) Just for the hell of it I looked at the publicity shots of other currently active female musicians, such as Yuja Wang, Joanna MacGregor, Nicola Bendetti, Alison Balsom (nicknamed ‘crumpet with a trumpet’, her promos more often suggest ‘a strumpet with a trumpet’ instead), Anne-Sophie Mutter and a few others. They didn’t disappoint the Peeping Tom lurking under my aging surface. Just about all the photographs showed the ladies in various stages of undress, in bed, lying in suggestive poses on top of the piano, playing in frocks (if any) open to the coccyx in the back and/or to the navel up front. This is one thing these musicians have in common. The other is that none of them is all that good at her day job and some, such as Wang, are truly awful. Yet this doesn’t really matter either to them or to the public or, most important, to those who form the public tastes by writing about music and musicians. Thus, for example, a tabloid pundit expressing his heartfelt regret that Nicola Benedetti “won’t be posing for the lads’ mags anytime soon. Pity, because she looks fit as a fiddle…” Geddit? She’s a violinist, which is to say fiddler - well, you do get it. “But Nicola doesn’t always take the bonniest photo,” continues the writer, “she’s beaky in pics sometimes, which is weird because in the flesh she’s an absolute knock-out. “The classical musician is wearing skinny jeans which show off her long legs. She’s also busty with a washboard flat tummy, tottering around 5ft 10in in her Dune platform wedges.” How well does she play the violin though? No one cares. Not even critics writing for our broadsheets, who don’t mind talking about musicians in terms normally reserved for pole dancers. Thus for instance runs a review of a piano recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall, one of London’s top concert venues: “She is the most photogenic of players: young, pretty, bare-footed; and, with her long dark hair and exquisite strapless dress of dazzling white, not only seemed to imply that sexuality itself can make you a profound musician, but was a perfect visual complement to the sleek monochrome of a concert grand… [but] there’s more to her than meets the eye.” The male reader is clearly expected to get a stiffie trying to imagine what that might be. To help his imagination along, the piece is accompanied by a photo of the young lady in question reclining on her instrument in a pre-coital position with an unmistakable ‘come and get it’ expression on her face. The ‘monochrome’ piano is actually bright-red, a colour usually found not in concert halls but in dens of iniquity. Nowhere does the review mention the fact obvious to anyone with any taste for musical performance: the girl is so bad that she should indeed be playing in a brothel, rather than on the concert platform. Can you, in the wildest flight of fancy, imagine a reviewer talking in such terms about sublime women artists of the past, such as Myra Hess, Maria Yudina, Maria Grinberg, Clara Haskil, Marcelle Meyer, Marguerite Long, Kathleen Ferrier? Can you see any of them allowing themselves to be photographed in the style of “lads’ mags”? I can’t, which raises the inevitable question: what exactly has changed in the last say 70 years? The short answer is, just about everything. Concert organisers and impresarios, who used to be in the business because they loved music first and wanted to make a living second, now care about nothing but money. Critics, who used to have discernment and taste, now have nothing but greed and lust for popularity. The public… well, don’t get me started on that. The circle is vicious: because tasteless ignoramuses use every available medium to build up musical nonentities, nonentities is all we get. And because the musical nonentities have no artistic qualities to write about, the writing nonentities have to concentrate on the more jutting attractions, using a vocabulary typically found in “lads’ mags”. The adage “sex sells” used to be applied first to B-movies, then to B-novels, and now to real music. From “sex sells” it’s but a short distance to “only sex sells”. This distance has already been travelled - and we are all being sold short.

[@carolmikofsky4976]

@@jennifer86010 aside from jazzy passages, there is the SOUND OF THE CITY

[@mauriceedwards4298]

This song hits it's 100th birthday this year; it's still got the magic! 'Course, Khatia brings her own bit to it 🙂

[@MidwestMike100]

Bravissimo! Rhapsody In Blue is a very intense piece. Most pianists are so involved and concentrating on the timing, and their solo performance and such that, at times they seem a separate or detached part of the orchestra. No disrespect...I have been playing over thirty years and still can not play this magnificent piece. Khatai becomes the piece, is the piece. She plays with, to, and for the orchestra. At times she seems to musically flirt and coy with the musicians. Her expressions bring more life to the score. And, notice after the conclusion, she first embraces Slatkin, shakes hands with the principle, salutes the orchestra, and only then, turns to the audience for her bows. Class!

[@snatchbloock]

I'm 78 and have loved this music since my teens, but I have never witnessed such intense focus and total concentration as Ms. Khatia demonstrated today. What a beautiful performance...bravo

[@andrewbrown7789]

Very well put

[@oldflorida2003]

Not even Tyrone powers?

[@snatchbloock]

@@oldflorida2003 what the hell are you talking about?

[@CurtRowley]

AND….she does it so effortlessly! Bravo! 🎉

[@alexdevon2588]

She embraces the piano, and the piano embraces her. Rapsody in Blue, as it has never been played before! What a love story.!!!

[@rbsinger]

Mind blowing! The performance captures the time and exuberance of the music. Gershwin would love it!