A man of many parts
Once again the Festival welcomes Rudolf Buchbinder
If we want to find another pianist who has given so many concert performances at the Festival, we have to think of musicians of the calibre of Géza Anda or Alfred Brendel. Buchbinder is one of those virtuosos who have done outstanding work over the years and whose latest recitals border on the charismatic. Renowned internationally as interpreter of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, as a lied accompanist, as a chamber musician and as an indefatigable performer of Brahms’ two piano concertos (on CD conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt), Buchbinder is popular across all boundaries of social class.
Rudolf Buchbinder – a popular regular
guest at the Salzburg Festival
Though his recitals are uncomplicated, displaying at times an almost cavalier approach to the keyboard, one should not forget that behind the routine and virtuosity – the results of very hard work – lies an artist who researches diligently, examines old sources and collects materials with great enthusiasm. Buchbinder’s interests go far beyond the horizons of the piano to include painting, cinema, etc.
At last year’s Festival a guest performance was given by the Attersee Institute Orchestra under Bobby McFerrin, the American singer, composer, cellist and conductor. It began with an early Mozart symphony (K 45a), and then a breathtaking rendering of Gerschwin’s Concerto in F major was unleashed, with Rudolf Buchbinder at the piano. At that performance nothing seemed to be more natural to his whirling, fondling fingers than the hot-blooded tone repetitions, the bold volleys of chords and the twinkling dissonances of emotion which Gerschwin employed, in combination with slow, sentimental melodies, to create the American equivalent of the central European piano concerto. Seldom have I seen Buchbinder so teed up, so high-handed and at the same time so humble and servant-like, as Buchbinder again at the Festival next summer – and, no doubt, that will not be his last appearance!
Peter Cossé