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Rudolf Buchbinder (born 1 December 1946,Litoměřice, Czechoslovakia) is an Austrian classical pianist.
Buchbinder studied withBruno Seidlhofer at theVienna Academy of Music. In 1965, he made a tour of North and South Americas. In 1966 he won a special prize awarded at theVan Cliburn International Piano Competition. Subsequently he has toured with theVienna Philharmonic and appeared as soloist around the world.
He has also taught piano at the Basel Academy of Music.
For theTeldec label he has recorded thecomplete keyboard music of Haydn, allMozart's major works for piano, all theBeethoven piano sonatas and variations,[1] and bothBrahms piano concertos withHarnoncourt and theRoyal Concertgebouw Orchestra ofAmsterdam. WithJános Starker, he recorded memorable performances of works for cello and piano by Beethoven and Brahms. He has twice recorded the Beethoven piano concertos conducting from the keyboard, first with theVienna Symphony Orchestra for the Preiser label in 2007, and then with theVienna Philharmonic for the Sony label in 2011; this cycle was recorded live in concert and released on both CD and DVD.[2]
He is one of the few pianists to have ever recorded the entire Part II ofVaterländischer Künstlerverein, which consists of 50 variations by 50 different composers on a waltz byAnton Diabelli.[3] He has also recorded Beethoven'sDiabelli Variations, which originally comprised Part I of that anthology. He is a life-long interpreter ofMozart's piano concertos and sonatas, displaying a mastery and sensitivity of these great works, conducting usually from the keyboard. Indeed Mozart's music is at the heart of his repertoire.[4]
Since 2007, Buchbinder has been the artistic director of the Grafenegg Festival.[5]
In 2009, Buchbinder was featured in the award-winning German-Austrian documentaryPianomania, about aSteinway & Sons piano tuner, which was directed byLilian Franck and Robert Cibis. The film premiered theatrically in North America, where it was met with positive reviews byThe New York Times,[6] as well as in Asia and throughout Europe, and is a part of theGoethe-Institut catalogue.
