Rudolf Buchbinder, 2017

The Viennese pianist Rudolf Buchbinder is firmly established as one of the world’s foremost musicians. He frequently performs with major orchestras and conductors around the world. His comprehensive repertoire encompasses music from Bach to the present day and can be heard in over 100 recordings, many of them award-winning.

Notable recordings to his credit include Haydn’s complete works for piano (Warner Classics) which was honoured with the Grand Prix du Disque as well as his live recording of Beethoven sonatas from the Semperoper in Dresden (Sony/RCA Red Seal) for which he was awarded the 2012 Echo Klassik Award in the category “Instrumentalist of the year”, as well as the Choc de l’Année 2012. Other projects include live recordings of works by Mozart, the five Beethoven concertos and the upcoming recording of both Brahms piano concertos with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Rudolf Buchbinder’s interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven’s works are considered benchmarks. He continues to set standards with his performances of the complete 32 sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven in more than 45 cities, among them Vienna, Berlin, Beijing, Buenos Aires, St Petersburg, Milan, Munich, Dresden, Istanbul and Zurich. In 2014 he performed the complete Beethoven sonatas over a course of seven recitals at the Salzburg Festival, as the first pianist in the history of the Festival to do so. All seven concerts were filmed by Unitel. In 2015 Rudolf Buchbinder performed his sonata cycle at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Over the next years Rudolf Buchbinder will continue to focus on the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. He presents his 50th Beethoven sonata cycle at the Musikverein Wien in the 2015-16 season. As he recently said, ‘you can never know where your career will lead. It would be wonderful to experience the summit of my career as a pianist at the end of my life. But it would then be a pity that I would never know how it might have continued.’

Rudolf Buchbinder’s interpretations are based on the meticulous study of original sources and he has a passion for collecting historical scores. His collection includes 38 complete editions of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, an extensive collection of first editions and original documents, as well as the autograph scores and the piano parts of both Brahms piano concertos.

Rudolf Buchbinder is the founding artistic director of the Grafenegg Festival which has become one of the leading orchestral festivals in Europe under his leadership since its foundation in 2007. In his biography “Da Capo”, introduced by Joachim Kaiser, Rudolf Buchbinder offers insights into his life and his many artistic experiences. His second book “Mein Beethoven – Leben mit dem Meister” was recently published by Residenz Verlag.

"Rudolf Buchbinder, a noted interpreter of the Austro-German canon."

- The boston musical intelligencer

"One of today’s most important and competent Beethoven performers."

- Frankfurter Allgemeine

"The Viennese oracle on the core literature of Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms."

- The Philadelphia Inquirer