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.