Rudolf Buchbinder

For more than 50 years, Rudolf Buchbinder – born on December 1, 1946 in Litoměřice, Czechoslovakia - has played classical piano with the major orchestras of the world and worked with famed conductors. He is noted for his readings of Beethoven, whose 32 piano sonatas he has performed more than 50 times internationally. Born in what was then Czechoslovakia, he is an Austrian citizen who studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and garnered attention when he won a special prize at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1966. He has toured often with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which made him an honorary member in 2016 when he released a live recording of Brahms's two piano concertos with the orchestra under conductor Zubin Mehta. Buchbinder is artist in residence with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and since 2007 he has been artistic director of the Grafenegg festival in Austria. A dedicated collector of classical music scores, his library contains 39 complete editions of Beethoven's piano sonatas. He has published two books, My Beethoven - Life with the Master and an autobiography, Da Capo. To mark his 70th birthday in 2016, his tour included performances with the Berliner Philharmonie and at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Musikverein in Vienna. In 2017, he was honored with the Vienna Mozart Prize. With over 100 releases in his catalog. His 2020 release, The Diabelli Project, was issued 50 years after the release of Klaviertrio D-Moll, Op.49 / Klaviertrio D-Moll, the 1970 album where he made his recorded debut.