Rudolf Buchbinder

Hailed by critics and revered by music lovers worldwide, Rudolf Buchbinder is one of the great pianists of our time. His interpretations arise from the unique combination of spiritual understanding with intellectual rigor and spontaneity with technical control. Tireless study and a lifelong passion for the masterpieces of piano literature continue to enhance his artistic abilities. Buchbinder is guided by what the music tells him, not by the demands of fashion or the pursuit of personal fame. The influential critic Joachim Kaiser called him "the greatest natural piano talent I have ever encountered in my life" and praised his ability to reveal new ideas in the moment of performance. "I strive to experience the peak of my pianistic career at the end of my life," Buchbinder says in his autobiography. "Of course, I don't know when that will be... A pity, really! In my profession, you never truly achieve anything – there are always further improvements to be made." Rudolf Buchbinder began the latest chapter in his more than 60-year career in April 2019, when he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Praised also for his Haydn and Mozart recordings, his name is primarily associated with Beethoven's piano works. Rudolf Buchbinder has performed the complete cycle of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas more than 60 times, often on seven consecutive days. "I'm never finished with this music," he told The Guardian (London) a few years ago. "I learn something new every time. It's a challenge every time." Thus, his first projects with the yellow label were released as part of the "Beethoven 2020" celebrations marking the composer's 250th birthday. His first release centered on Beethoven's Diabelli Variations. Buchbinder presented a new series of reactions to Diabelli's theme, commissioned from eleven leading contemporary composers. He also recorded the original waltz theme, Beethoven's monumental set of variations, and a selection of the other variations Diabelli had requested at the time. The Diabelli Project was released in March 2020, almost simultaneously with the recital at the Vienna Musikverein, where Buchbinder premiered the eleven specially commissioned pieces. His second DG recording, from October 2020, coupled Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Variations on an Original Theme in F major, Op. 34. The concerto is a live recording from a 2016 performance with the Berlin Philharmonic and Christian Thielemann, while the Variations Op. 34 were recorded in August 2019 alongside the Diabelli Variations. Beethoven: Piano Concertos, released in September 2021, documented Buchbinder's historically significant cycle at the Vienna Musikverein with five of the world's best orchestras and conductors. He recorded Concerto No. 2 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, which was the conductor's last concert recording before his death in late 2019. Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig opened the cycle with Piano Concerto No. 1, while Concertos No. 3, 4, and 5 were recorded with the Munich Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev, the Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann, and the Vienna Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti, respectively. In fact, only four of the concerts could be performed at the Musikverein as originally planned; the final event with Concerto No. 4 took place in Dresden in October 2020 between two lockdowns. At the same time, Buchbinder's (third to date) recording of the Complete Beethoven Sonatas was released, stemming from seven concerts the pianist gave at the Salzburg Festival in 2014. This marked the first time the entire cycle was performed by a single artist during a Salzburg season. In November 2022, the album Soirée de Vienne was released. Featuring music by Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, and Strauss, it captures the lost world of salons and pays homage to the rich cultural life of 19th-century Vienna. For his latest release, Buchbinder brings his expertise and artistic insight to a neglected area of the German-Austrian repertoire – Max Reger's sensitive transcriptions for solo piano of 28 songs by Johannes Brahms (including Liebestreu, Wiegenlied, Nachtigall, and Ständchen). "I wish my listeners the leisure and curiosity to immerse themselves in each individual song and experience the intensity of these artworks – entirely without words." Brahms · Reger – Song Transcriptions, recorded last year for Reger's 150th birthday, was released on March 22, 2024. Buchbinder's calendar is as full as ever. He will perform all five Beethoven piano concertos at the Budapest Müpa (April 6/7), Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 at the Tonhalle Zurich (April 10/11), Beethoven's Concerto No. 5 at Munich's Isarphilharmonie, the Vienna Musikverein, and the NDR Landesfunkhaus in Hanover (April 13/17 and May 16/17), and in between, he will tour China in late April and early May. Further highlights of this season include performances of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 at Suntory Hall in Tokyo (May 22/23), Mozart's Concerto No. 20 in Tel Aviv and Haifa (June 2-8), and another Beethoven concerto cycle at the Seoul Arts Center (June 26/30). Rudolf Buchbinder was born on December 1, 1946, in Leimeritz, a market town in what was then Czechoslovakia. He made such progress on his parents' piano that at the age of five he was admitted as the youngest student ever to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Five years later, he played at the Musikverein before the Austrian Chancellor. At 12, he was accepted into Bruno Seidlhofer's master class. As a teenager, Buchbinder completed a recital tour of North and South America, returning to the USA in 1966, where he won a special prize at the 2nd Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In the 1970s, his recordings of all of Haydn's piano sonatas and other piano works achieved international success. His reputation as an artist of the highest integrity and discernment soon grew with the release of the first of his three complete recordings of Beethoven's piano sonatas. Over the past 50 years, he has performed with leading international orchestras and many of the greatest conductors, and has regularly appeared in concerts, chamber music, and recitals on five continents. He has been the Artistic Director of the Grafenegg Festival in Lower Austria since its founding in 2007, establishing it as a significant fixture in the classical music calendar. Buchbinder is an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and was the first soloist to receive the Golden Badge of Honor from the Staatskapelle Dresden. In October 2020, he was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK for "Lifetime Achievement." Musical freedom is at the heart of Rudolf Buchbinder's artistic credo. He has studied countless handwritten sources, early editions, and later revisions to gain the deepest possible understanding of the particular expression primarily valued by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, or their contemporaries. The more one knows about their work, Buchbinder believes, the more spontaneous one can be in performance. 3/2024