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Rudolf Buchbinder

About this Artist

Pianist RUDOLF BUCHBINDER has been called “the Viennese oracle on the core literature of Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms” by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Firmly established as one of the most important pianists on the international scene, Buchbinder is a regular guest of such renowned orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the London Philharmonic, the National Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has collaborated with the world’s most distinguished conductors including Abbado, Dohnányi, Frühbeck de Burgos, Giulini, Harnoncourt, Maazel, Macal, Masur, Mehta, Saraste, and Sawallisch, and he is a regular guest at the Salzburg Festival and other major festivals around the world.

Buchbinder has over 100 recordings to his credit, covering an enormous range of repertoire, including the complete cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas, the complete Beethoven piano concertos, the complete Mozart piano concertos, all of Haydn’s works for piano, and both Brahms piano concertos. The 18-disc set of Haydn’s works earned him the Grand Prix du Disque. Buchbinder’s latest CDs are live recordings – the Brahms piano concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Nikolaus Harnoncourt and all five Beethoven piano concertos with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra as soloist and conductor. In 2006, in celebration of his 60th birthday, he performed twelve Mozart piano concertos with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Vienna Festwochen, the live DVD recording of which has recently been released by EuroArts.

Rudolf Buchbinder is the founding artistic director of the Grafenegg Music Festival, a major international music festival near Vienna, which launched in August 2007. Other recent highlights include the Jubilee Concert for the 50th Anniversary of the Grosser Musikvereinssaal in Vienna (where Buchbinder made his debut at age 11 in 1958); a performance with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala at Teatro alla Scala; Beethoven sonata cycles in Warsaw and Berkeley, and at the Vienna Musikverein; and performances of all five of Beethoven’s piano concertos over three days, with the Dresden Philharmonic.

In May 2008, Buchbinder appeared at the Musikverein in a recital of works by Schubert and Schumann; he repeated the program in Munich later that month. In June, he presented recitals in Milan and in Prague. In the summer, he performed with the Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Christoph Eschenbach, and the NDR Symphony Orchestra under Peter Ruzicka. In September, he toured with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Fabio Luisi. He will visit Munich several times throughout the season, performing the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas. In October and November, Buchbinder performed with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, led by Sir Roger Norrington.

Buchbinder attaches considerable importance to the meticulous study of musical sources. He owns more than 18 complete editions of Beethoven’s sonatas and has an extensive collection of autograph scores, first editions, and original documents. He was admitted to the Vienna Musik Hochschule at age five, and remains the youngest student to gain entrance in the school’s history.