Rudolf Buchbinder
One of today’s legendary performers, Rudolf Buchbinder has appeared in concert all over the world with renowned orchestras and conductors for more than 50 years. For his 70th birthday in the 2016/2017 season, he was celebrated in such venues as the Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Musikverein in Vienna and the Berlin Philharmonie. Other highlights of this anniversary season were concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra led by Christian Thielemann and tours with the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. At the invitation of Mariss Jansons, Rudolf Buchbinder served as Artist in Residence with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra named him an Honorary Member.
Mr. Buchbinder’s repertoire ranges from Bach to contemporary music. He has documented this broad artistic range with more than 100 recordings, many of which have won awards. His readings of the works of Beethoven, in particular, have set new standards. With his cyclic performances of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas, he has contributed significantly to the development of the performance history of these works.
To date, he has performed this cycle more than 50 times in cities including Berlin, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Dresden, Istanbul, Milan, Munich, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Vienna, and Zurich. In 2014, he became the first pianist to perform all Beethoven sonatas during one summer season at the Salzburg Festival. The Salzburg cycle was recorded live and released on DVD. A live recording of Brahms’ two piano concertos with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Zubin Mehta was released on DVD and CD in 2016.
Mr. Buchbinder’s readings are based on meticulous study of source material. An avid collector of historic scores, he owns 39 complete editions of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. Furthermore, his library contains an extensive collection of first prints, original editions and copies of Brahms’ two original piano concerto scores.
Rudolf Buchbinder has been the artistic director of the Grafenegg Festival since its founding in 2007. Under his leadership, it has developed into one of Europe’s foremost festivals for orchestral music.