Rudolf Buchbinder and the Wiener Musikverein present an exclusive focus on Schubert in the 24/25 season.

21.09.2024 Lieder recital with Jonas Kaufmann | F. Schubert: “Die schöne Müllerin”

07.11.2024 Buchbinder - Hahn - Capuçon | F. Schubert: Piano trios D 898 & D 929

30.01.2025 Buchbinder - Danailova - Landerer - Varga - Bladerer | F. Schubert: Quintet “The Trout” D 667 and others

26.02.2025 Piano recital Buchbinder | F. Schubert: Four Impromptus D 935 & Sonata D 960

Following his brilliant cycle of Ludwig van Beethoven's complete piano sonatas at the Seoul Arts Center in June-July 2023, Rudolf Buchbinder returns to Korea in June 2024. This time, he is bringing with him the five piano concertos by Beethoven - the composer with whose work Buchbinder is so closely associated. With the cycle of Ludwig van Beethoven's five piano concertos at the Seoul Arts Center, Rudolf Buchbinder follows on from his celebrated sonata cycle. Buchbinder leads the Festival Strings Lucerne from the piano - the piano concertos being performed in the style of great chamber music.

"It is a pleasure and an honour for me to open the Spring Festival in Tokyo. Congratulations on the 20th anniversary," said Rudolf Buchbinder at the beginning of March 2024. Between 15 and 22 March, he performs Ludwig van Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas on seven nights at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. This is the first Beethoven sonata cycle of Buchbinder for his Japanese audience, and also the first as part of the renowned Spring Festival in Tokyo.

The last two programs featuring the sonatas op. 22, 49/2, 13, 79 & 53 on 21 March and op. 109. 110 & 111 on 22 March are broadcasted live from Tokyo on Stage+ (7:00 pm JST/10:00 pm UST).

MünchenMusik presents a special Buchbinder cycle with Ludwig van Beethoven's five piano concertos in February and April 2024.

Tue, February 6, 2024 | 8:00 pm, Isarphilharmonie
Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala/Myung-whun Chung/Rudolf Buchbinder
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major op. 58

Fri, February 16, 2024 | 8:00 pm, Isarphilharmonie
Münchner Philharmoniker/Marie Jacquot/Rudolf Buchbinder
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor op. 37

Sun, February 25, 2024 | 8:00 pm, Isarphilharmonie
Luxembourg Philharmonic
Rudolf Buchbinder, conductor and piano
Haydn Piano Concerto in D major Hob. XVIII:11
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major op. 19
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major op. 15

Sat, April 13, 2024 | 7:00 pm, Isarphilharmonie
Philharmonia Orchestra/Santtu-Matias Rouvali/Rudolf Buchbinder
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major op. 73

At the start of the new year, Buchbinder appears as soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of its chief conductor Jaap van Zweden in four concerts from January 4 to 7, 2024. His highly anticipated return to the NY Phil sees Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 on the program.

At the beginning of November, Buchbinder returned to China for concerts with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Beethoven’s five piano concertos. He led the Staatskapelle Dresden from the piano in two acclaimed concerts presenting the cycle of all five Beethoven piano concertos in two evening programs at Shenzhen Grand Theatre and Xi'an Concert Hall, respectively.
Shortly after his return from China, Buchbinder ca,e to Dresden for three concerts with Staatskapelle Dresden and Beethoven's 1st Piano Concerto under the baton of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla at Semperoper Dresden.

The Grafenegg Festival, whose artistic director has been Rudolf Buchbinder since the festival's founding in 2007, celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. It was festively opened on August 13. On August 14, Rudolf Buchbinder performs there with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino conducted by Lorenzo Viotti and Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 1. This performance is followed by a concert in Budapest on August 15th at the Palace of Arts - Béla Bartók Concert Hall, again with Maggio Musicale and Brahms 1.

On August 8, 2021, Rudolf Buchbinder will present his live recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas from the Salzburg Festival as part of an artist talk at the Salzburg Festival. In 2014, Buchbinder was honored to perform Beethoven's complete piano sonatas at the Salzburg Festival - as the first pianist in the Festival's history to do so in a single Festival summer. Now this unique audio document is being released as a 9-CD box set by Deutsche Grammophon.
Prior to the official CD release on September 3, 2021, Buchbinder will speak with Dr. Clemens Trautmann, President of Deutsche Grammophon, at the Villa Vicina in Salzburg about his Beethoven interpretation, the Salzburg Beethoven cycle and the making of the live recording. At this exclusive event, Buchbinder will also let Beethoven have his say and perform a sonata of his.

On 8 and 9 July, Rudolf Buchbinder returns to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra with Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor conducted by Manfred Honeck. The concert will be broadcast live on NDR Kultur on July 8 at 9 p.m. and, to the great delight of the artists, will take place in front of an audience at the Elbphilharmonie.

Berlin, October 9th, 2020
Luminary pianist Rudolf Buchbinder receives the 2020 OPUS Klassik Lifetime Achievement Award. Particularly his renditions of Ludwig van Beethoven's works are considered to be exemplary. He has performed the 32 piano sonatas 60 times in cycles all over the world and developed the story of their interpretation over decades. He is a sought-after partner of the great conductors and orchestras of our time performing around the world. In his work, he merges tradition and innovation, faithfulness and freedom, authenticity and open-mindedness

„My life is a life for the music. The OPUS Klassik is an important recognition of my lifelong work with and for the music. It means a lot to me to receive the OPUS Klassik Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020, the jubilee year of Beethoven. I take the challenge to continue along the path, always searching, never arriving, in virtue of my maxime 'Those who believe to be something, have stopped to become something‘“, says Rudolf Buchbinder.

Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations have become the leitmotif of Buchbinder’s life. As a contribution to Beethoven’s 250th anniversary he initiated “The Diabelli project” which bridges the gap of time and includes a cycle of eleven New Diabelli Variations by eleven leading contemporary composers of different generations and backgrounds. The New Diabelli Variations were commissioned by eleven concert promoters worldwide and with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. “The fact that Buchbinder engaged composers as diverse as Lera Auerbach, Jörg Widmann and Max Richter speaks for his curiosity and his inspirational power” said jury speaker Dr. Kerstin Schüssler-Bach about the laureate. „Rudolf Buchbinder embodies a type of artist that has become rare: unpretentious, meticulous, with never-ending creative energy and beyond routine.“

The Award ceremony takes place on October 18th at Konzerthaus Berlin. German TV station ZDF is broadcasting the show on October 18th from 10:15 p.m.

This new album, released on Deutsche Grammophon, captures a magic moment from Berlin’s Philharmonie: Rudolf Buchbinder and the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Christian Thielemann perform Beethoven’s first piano concerto. It is a document of Buchbinder’s utterly inspring encounter with one of the world’s greatest orchestras and of his long-standing musical friendship with Christian Thielemann. And it is another proof of Buchbinder’s superb, profound and always lively reading of Beethoven who has been in the centre of his music making throughout his life.

Rudolf Buchbinder began his distinguished recording career nearly 50 years ago with Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations in a “dramatically charged and spiritually uplifting interpretation” (music critic Jed Distler). Now he returns to this monumental work after decades of performing all of Beethoven’s piano music. Buchbinder was also the first to record the variations that Diabelli commissioned from Schubert, Liszt, Hummel, Czerny and other important figures of his day.

As a 21st-century parallel to Diabelli’s original conception, Buchbinder devised his own special homage, for which he invited eleven composers of different generations and manifold cultural backgrounds each to write a new Diabelli-Variation, among them Brett Dean, Toshio Hosokawa, Christian Jost, Jörg Widmann, Rodion Shchedrin, Tan Dun and Max Richter. For Buchbinder, these new pieces demonstrate beyond question that Beethoven is the whole world’s cultural heritage, that his music is current and alive and as up to date now as then.

The album The Diabelli Project, including the world première recording of the New Diabelli Variations, is now available. It marks the beginning of Rudolf Buchbinder's exclusive partnership with Deutsche Grammophon.

Rudolf Buchbinder premiers The Diabelli Project at Musikverein Vienna on March 3rd, 2020. This very personal, bold and innovative homage to Beethoven puts Beethoven’s groundbreaking op. 120, the 33 variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, in the center of the program – reflected in Beethoven’s as well as our time. The program comprises the world premiere of eleven New Diabelli Variations, composed for Rudolf Buchbinder by Lera Auerbach, Brett Dean, Toshio Hosokawa, Christian Jost, Brad Lubman, Philippe Manoury, Max Richter, Rodion Shchedrin, Johannes Maria Staud, Tan Dun and Jörg Widmann.

The New Diabelli Variations are commissioned by the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, Brucknerhaus Linz, Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical Madrid, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Lisbon, National Centre for the Performing Arts Beijing, Palau de la Música Catalana Barcelona, Philharmonie de Paris, Stars of the White Nights Festival St. Petersburg, Foundation Piano-Festival Ruhr and Tonhalle Society Zurich, supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

On 15/16 and 17 February Rudolf Buchbinder perfoms the complete Beethoven sonatas for piano and violin together with Nikolaj Znaider-Szeps at the Wiener Musikverein.

Rudolf Buchbinder continued his cycle of the five Beethoven Piano Concertos on 6/7/8 and 9 December, 2019 with the Vienna Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti at the Wiener Musikverein.

„They literally are of one heart and one soul. When star pianist Rudolf Buchbinder, the exceptional conductor Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra make music together, one can expect great moments“, Peter Jarolin writes in the Kurier. „As in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 [...]. How unendingly subtle, unendingly gentle, unendingly profound and undendingly beautiful Buchbinder savoured this piece at the piano, most virtuosic in all its facets and nuances, deserves admiration.“
From: „When real virtuosi make musik together“, Kurier, 9 December 2019 / photo credit: Terry Linke

In the sold-out KKL Luzern Rudolf Buchbinder offered Beethoven's five piano concertos on two evenings, together with the Festival Strings Lucerne whom he directed from the piano - a celebrated opening to the last edition of Piano Festival | LUCERNE Festival with standing ovation.

„His dominance as a soloist is based on the experience of decades of Beethoven interpretation“, the daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung lately wrote, referring to Buchbinder’s performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Valery Gergiev and the Munich Philharmonic. „This might be one of the reasons why Buchbinder seems to be the embodiment of the anti-virtuoso“, the critic continues. „When he leads through the conflictual opening movement, this has little to do with soloistic self-presentation. The soloist becomes a narrator, an interpreter. [...] With this open, delicately singing sound, Buchbinder gets to the heart of the Largo movement. Embedded into the smooth sound of the Philharmonics, he conveys the peculiar atmosphere of this movement between serene cheerfulness and sweet melancholy. Without giving up this refinement, Buchbinder shows grim wit, for example in the quirky syncopes and the suddenly thunderous bass.“

The five piano concertos are in the focus of the Buchbinder-Beethoven cycle, hosted by the Wiener Musikerverein on the occasion of the Beethoven anniversary during the 2019-20 season. Buchbinder has the pleasure to work with five world-class orchestras and conductors for this unique project: Gewandhausorchester Leipzig/Nelsons, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Jansons, Münchner Philharmoniker/Gergiev, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden/Thielemann as well as Wiener Philharmoniker/Muti.

The crowning highlight of Rudolf Buchbinder's tour with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks will take place on November 9, 2019 in New York. Under the direction of Mariss Jansons, he will perform Mozart's Piano Concerto in A major KV 488 at Carnegie Hall. Further concerts of the two-week tour took place in Munich, at Vienna Musikverein, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg as well as the Philharmonie de Paris and Philharmonie de Luxembourg.

On November 6&10, Rudolf is back at Symphony Center upon invitation of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He dedicates his two recitals to Beethoven‘s Sonatas op. 2 no. 1, 2, 3; op. 57 „Appassionata“; op. 10 no. 1, 2, 3 und op. 31 no. 3. His concerts are part of the CSO’s Beethoven250 celebrations

Rudolf Buchbinder and Mariss Jansons enjoy a particularly close musical friendship. After two concerts in Munich with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, where Rudolf Buchbinder was Artist in Residence in the 2016/17 season, they’ll embark on a tour to Vienna @Musikverein (27/28 October), Hamburg @Elbphilharmonie (29 October), Paris @Philharmonie (31 October), Luxembourg @Philharmonie (4 November) and New York @Carnegie Hall (9 November). On the program: Mozart Piano concerto in A major K 488 and Beethoven Piano concerto no. 2 op. 19.

On Sunday, 20 October, Rudolf Buchbinder returns to Musikverein Wien. Performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, together with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Gewandhaus-Kapellmeister Andris Nelsons, he will open his cycle of the five Beethoven concertos which he will perform at the Musikverein during the 2019/20 season alsongside five international top orchestras and conductors.

On 13 October, Buchbinder was joining the Gewandhausorchester and Andris Nelsons for a concert at the Gewandhaus Leipzig. The daily Leipziger Volkszeitung wrote: „Wide awake the musicians begin. And when Rudolf Buchbinder joins them, […], all seemingly simple scales and arpeggios seem to transform into Apollonian rays of light. Brilliance is anything but the result of unbridled joy of playing, one hears with amazement in Buchbinder’s crystal clear piano sound, but also to achieve with objective restraint.“ The Leipziger Volkszeitung continues, Buchbinder was „the top dog in Beethoven matters, […], that type of musician who confidently declares the core repertoire to his territory, hardly tolerates any competitors and always keeps the final word.“

The Buchbinder-Beethoven cycle will be continued at the Musikverein on 28 October with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Mariss Jansons.

Rudolf Buchbinder and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe are enjoying a long-standing artistic relationship. Buchbinder’s concerts with Claudio Abbado and Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Europe will remain unforgettable. Historical radio recordings of these inspiring encounters testify the freshness and joy of playing which are so typical for Rudolf Buchbinder’s music-making still today.

Rudolf Buchbinder is looking forward to the reunion with the COE at the Musikfest Bremen on 30 August as well as at the Grafenegg Festival on 1 September. He will play and conduct Beethoven’s Piano Concertos No. 1 and 5.

In the context of a concert with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Andris Nelsons on 9 April 2019, Rudolf Buchbinder signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in Hanover, Germany. The thrilling start is an innovative project around Ludwig van Beethoven's epochal Diabelli Variations Op. 120. After recordings in 1973 and 1976, Buchbinder dedicates himself, 43 years later, to a new recording of Beethoven's final major piano work. The world première recording of a series of new Diabelli Variations, composed by eleven leading composers of our time to mark Beethoven's 250th birthday, will also be released. Dr Clemens Trautmann, President of Deutsche Grammophon, is looking forward to the future collaboration with Buchbinder and especially to the adventure of the new Diabelli Variations. “Rudolf Buchbinder knows Beethoven's work very intimately and, perhaps for this very reason, discovers new worlds in these works like no other. His Diabelli project will be a unique contribution to the Beethoven Year. It bridges the gap between Beethoven and his contemporaries and again to us in the present time.”

Based on Beethoven's Diabelli Variations Op. 120, Rudolf Buchbinder has initiated a new cycle of variations on the waltz by Anton Diabelli, which inspired Beethoven to create his epochal masterpiece. With Lera Auerbach (*1973), Brett Dean (*1961), Toshio Hosokawa (*1955), Brad Lubman (*1962), Philippe Manoury (*1952), Krzysztof Penderecki (*1933), Max Richter (*1966), Rodion Shchedrin (*1932), Johannes Maria Staud (*1974), Tan Dun (*1957), and Jörg Widmann (*1970), eleven leading contemporary composers of different generations and origins are working with the same original as Beethoven once did. Beethoven in the mirror of the present. Beethoven World Cultural Heritage. The new work is premièred by Rudolf Buchbinder on 3 March 2020 at the Musikverein Vienna and will subsequently be presented by him all over the world.

On the occasion of the composer's 250th birthday, for the first time in its 150-year history the Musikverein Vienna is granting a single pianist, Rudolf Buchbinder, the honour of performing all five piano concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven in a specially edited cycle in the 2019/20 concert season. Buchbinder's partners for this exceptional project are the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Riccardo Muti and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under their chief conductors Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev and Christian Thielemann.

As part of their complete Brahms symphonic cycle “Brahms and the art of film”, Kent Nagano leads the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. Rudolf Buchbinder joins them for the Burlesque by Richard Strauss, one of Buchbinder’s favorite pieces. His reading of this highly virtuosic concerto is captured live on medici.tv. Watch here, Feb 9 at 1:10 AM (CET)

Shanghai, Kyoto, Tokyo: Rudolf Buchbinder is the soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 4 with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and chief conductor designate Alan Gilbert on tour in Asia.

On November 11 and 13, Rudolf Buchbinder embarks on a very special musical journey: his first Beethoven Sonata Cycle in Moscow. Having built a close relationship with music-loving Moscow audiences over the years, he is looking forward to performing Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas for the Philharmonic Society with great anticipation. The Moscow Beethoven Cycle will span 2019 and culminate in early 2020.

This year’s Grafenegg Festival kicks off on 17 August. Under Rudolf Buchbinder’s leadership as artistic director it has developed into one of Europe’s foremost festivals for orchestral music. 

Rudolf Buchbinder returns to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for a series of ten concerts between 15 and 25 July in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa. On the program: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 1 and Grieg’s Piano Concerto, conducted by Karlheinz Steffens who is replacing Maestro Zubin Mehta at short notice. Rudolf Buchbinder also appears in a chamber concert with the IPO Richter String Quartet in Dvořák’s Piano Quintet no. 2 op. 81.

Rudolf Buchbinder joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Tanglewood for a concert with Brahms Piano Concerto no. 1 conducted by Music Director Andris Nelsons on 8 July. He also appears in a chamber concert with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players at Seiji Ozawa Hall, combining Mozart’s beloved Quintet K. 452 for piano and winds with Schumann’s Piano Quintet op 44.

Rudolf Buchbinder returns to the “Stars of the White Nights Festival” in St. Petersburg. On June 27, he appears at the Mariinsky Theatre. Together with the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra he plays and conducts Beethoven’s Piano concertos nos. 2, 3 and 4.

Every time, a return to Milan’s world-famous La Scala is a very special highlight. Making music there and sharing the unique atomsphere with the audience is both, a great joy and honour. Rudolf Buchbinder will be the soloist in Mozart’s Piano concerto K. 482 with the Filarmonica della Scala conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi. Concerts are taking place on 30 April, 3 and 5 May.

Welcome to the new website of Rudolf Buchbinder! With an extensive retrospective, it pays particular attention to his unique 60 years career. What did it sound like when Rudi Buchbinder played Chopin at the age of nine? Listen to his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado in 1972 or with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta in 1983.

Concerts with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden take Rudolf Buchbinder to Dresden, Berlin, Munich, Essen and Mannheim, performing Beethoven’s piano concertos No. 1 Op. 15 and No. 5 Op. 73. Rudolf Buchbinder will lead the orchestra, with whom he has a particularly close artistic friendship, from the keyboard.

In December 2017 and January 2018, Rudolf Buchbinder appears with the Kammerorchester Wien-Berlin. Founded by members of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the ensemble in a way represents the essence of both orchestras. It combines chamber music delicacy with symphonic grandeur. In dialogue with Rudolf Buchbinder who will be conducting from the piano the ensemble performs Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D Major as well as Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 271 "Jeunehomme", ensuring an exhilarating artistic exhange.

Rudolf Buchbinder returns to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. On 21, 24 and 25 November, he performs Beethoven’s Piano concerto no. 1 under the baton of Music Director Andris Nelsons.
The concert on  Saturday night will be broadcasted live on WCRB Classical Radio Boston.

25 November 2017 |8:00 PM

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Rudolf Buchbinder, piano

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1, op. 15
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 4, Romantic

http://classicalwcrb.org
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