Buchbinder, Brahms and Beethoven

Rudolf Buchbinder is a multi-award-winning Czechoslovakian-born Austrian pianist, who, throughout his extensive career spanning over 60 years, has become known for the depth and sophistication of his performances, and is noted for his virtuosic technique, informed and nuanced musical sensitivity and prodigiously extensive knowledge of the piano’s repertoire. He is most closely associated with the works of Beethoven, having performed the composer’s thirty-two piano sonatas sixty times in cycles all over the world, and spearheaded two important recent projects celebrating 250 years of the composer’s birth: the Diabelli Project and the performance of all five of Beethoven’s concertos at the Vienna Musikverein. He is the only soloist to have been awarded the Golden Badge of Honor by the Staatskapelle Dresden, and is an honorary member of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Society of Friends of Music in Vienna and the Vienna Philharmonic. Since its formation in 2007, Rudolf Buchbinder has been the Artistic Director of the Grafenegg Festival, a major orchestral festival to take place on the grounds of Grafenegg Castle just outside of Vienna, and is noted for his keen interest in source materials, his private music collection containing original manuscripts of both Brahms and Beethoven. This year Rudolf Buchbinder appeared as part of the InClassica International Music Festival in Dubai, where he performed alongside the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Daniel Raiskin to play Brahms’ Piano Concerto No 1, as well as teaching a masterclass as part of InClassica’s Middle East Classical Music Academy (MECMA) on 8th September. We caught up with Rudolf after the concert to learn more about his recent activities, approach to music and his appearance at this year’s InClassica. 

At InClassica you performed Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1, a work I believe you have performed numerous times in the past. Would you consider this piece to be a personal favourite? 

Yes, oh it’s one of my favourite concertos. You know, I recorded the Brahms piano concerti three times. Once with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and twice with Zubin Mehta. 

Do you find you discover something new each time you play it? 

Look, I don’t like to discover something new, I try to interpret the piece as it is written, which is something we forget today. You know, you cannot find anything new. Everything is written down from the composer. We have to try to do what the composer wants from us. I don’t understand why some people try to find something new. These pieces are hundreds of years old, why should we find something new? This I will never understand. I have copies of Brahms' original scores, and private scores of his containing his own private writings — for example, marking pianissimo and some other small things — it’s very interesting. But to find something new, I don’t understand it.

How were you impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic? 

Well, my performance schedule was just totally cut down — I think I lost around eighty or ninety concerts last year, but I will catch up. They are postponed, not over forever. In fact, because of Beethoven, I managed to do two big projects last year. Firstly, I recorded for Deutsche Grammophon the five Beethoven piano concerti, with five different conductors: Andris Nelsons, the late Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Christian Thielemann and Riccardo Muti. All of these recordings will come out next year. Then there was the Diabelli Project, for which I commissioned works by eleven contemporary composers — arrangements of a waltz written by the publisher Anton Diabelli in 1819, who invited fifty-one composers of his day to each compose an arrangement of the waltz, in which Beethoven was included. This was to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th Anniversary. The COVID-19 pandemic of course affected this project, but it is still very much alive. However, I could only play three times this last year, it was horrible. 

How did you decide to spend the time during the lockdown? 

Well, I enjoyed sitting at home with my wife and my family, relaxing and with very little stress. You know, the danger of this pandemic is that you become lazy and tired. It’s very strange, and considering my schedule before this happened, in many ways it has felt like a long holiday...so it wasn’t so bad for us. But, in fact, I don’t think I practised more than I did before! [laughs]

2020 was famously the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. Did this impact your choice of projects and repertoire that year? 

I played Beethoven before his anniversary, and I will continue to play Beethoven after his anniversary. You know, I played the thirty-two sonatas of Beethoven in cycles  all over the world, sixty times in my life. And by the way, next year sees the Deutsche Grammophon release of my Beethoven cycle from the Salzburg Festival. Which will come out next year together with the five Beethoven concerti. But, you know, I am studying Beethoven all the time, it has nothing to do with the anniversary. There’s no reason to wait until the anniversary to do something special — it’s just an anniversary, and I play Beethoven like I did before and like I will do it afterwards. 

Can you tell us more about the Diabelli Project that you mentioned before? 

Yes, so to explain: as mentioned before, Anton Diabelli wrote a waltz in 1819, asking the most prolific composers in the Austrian Empire at the time to compose a variation based on the waltz. So, it’s a collection of fifty different variations: One by Schubert, one by Liszt and so on. Beethoven was asked too, but he initially refused. In the end, he did choose to write variations on the waltz, and in fact he composed thirty-three over four years. You know, the unbelievable thing is the Diabelli Variations were performed thirty years after Beethoven composed them. It was too difficult for the audience and too difficult for the pianist. So, for the anniversary of Beethoven, I tried to do a remake of these fifty old variations. I didn’t have fifty composers, however, so I asked eleven international composers, and they were very excited for this project. Actually, it should have been twelve, including one of my closest friends, Krzysztof Penderecki, but he died sadly before the project. So instead of twelve, only eleven, but I think these new variations are music history of our time and the project my way of honouring Beethoven.

You’ve been quoted as saying: “There are three types of fingerings: the one you study, the one you recommend to colleagues, and the one you find yourself doing at the concert.” Can you elaborate further on this, and would you still agree with the assertion? 

Absolutely. For instance, when I was teaching I told my students that when they are practising at home and they have a trill to play, to do this each time in a different combination. It is very important never to use the same two fingers, otherwise you will only be able to play trills using those two fingers. All ten fingers should be equal, of the same strength and therefore enjoy the same possibilities. Look, if you could make a trill at home with a Mozart sonata, for example, playing with one and three [the thumb and middle finger respectively] is always the easiest way. But then, when you are asked to play Opus one hundred and eleven by Beethoven, for example, suddenly you have to play a trill with fingers four and five, so you must train them before.

This idea of spontaneity in performance regarding technique would be terrifying for most pianists. How do you stop yourself getting distracted or phased in the face of unpredictability in live performances? 

Something like that should never happen, not ever. I’m not thinking about things like that during a performance. You know, I love to make live recordings, and I’ve done all of the Beethoven and Brahms concerti, and all the time only live. When you go to the studio you lose the spontaneity, that’s the point. You have no emotion in the studio, in the studio you are not nervous. This is important, as a performer having that adrenaline is vital, and I think you can really feel that in a live recording. 

Do you have any special routines or ‘rituals’ before performing a concert?

One of my favourite conductors was Lorin Maazel, and he always said to just concentrate yourself on the first note, only the first note, and everything else will come from that. The next thing is, when you are in the artist room just before the concert, never practise or play the piece you will play a few moments later onstage. Can you imagine if something happens in the artist room, you cannot ask not to go out [laughing[. I don’t practise or play in the artist room — and, in fact, there often isn't a piano in the artist room anyway. 

Congratulations on being awarded the Golden Badge of Honour by Staatskapelle Dresden — an honour you were the first soloist to have received. How did it feel to be given this award?

Of course, it's a great honour — the Staatskapelle is one of the greatest and most famous orchestras and I love to play with them as often as possible. We made some fantastic tours together through China, Japan and Europe. It’s a big honour. I’m also an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic. These are two orchestras which I play with most of the time, and, like the Staatskapelle, there are some orchestras which are simply fantastic to make music with. 

You’re the Artistic Director of Grafenegg Festival since its formation in 2007. Can you tell us more about the festival, and what, in your view, separates different orchestras in terms of their sound? 

Yes, the Grafenegg festival is an orchestra festival and I try to invite orchestras from all over the world, which is not so easy in the summertime in fact as some of them don’t travel at that time. I like that the public has the opportunity to listen to hear the different sounds of the varying orchestras, and also how they interpret pieces too. As you’re aware, I’m sure, orchestras have a chief conductor. This post is held by someone for five years, and during that time he or she tries to develop their personal sound with the orchestra. When that person’s term is over, a new chief conductor takes over and the orchestra’s sound changes again. Interestingly, and by contrast, the Vienna Philharmonic has never had a conductor in this role. It’s a very important law for that orchestra that it is forbidden for them to have a chief conductor, which means that throughout their whole history, they always have had their own sound as it was never changed.  

Turning to the InClassica festival now, Dubai is a location arguably relatively new to classical music. What are your thoughts on the organisers choosing to hold the festival there? 

I think it is very important to bring music to Dubai, to young people and to a place which is not used to this. We have to catch up to what was missed in the past… I think it’s very important to do this and to bring classical music here.

How was your experience of the festival concert? 

I would just like to say thank you for the fantastic audience, thank you for the excellent orchestra and its wonderful conductor. It was a great pleasure for me to perform here. I have played this concert with the orchestra many times in Europe. This Brahms concert is not an easy one. In Dubai, I presented it to the public for the first time and I'm glad to be here.

You taught a masterclass at the festival’s classical music academy, the MECMA. What was your experience of the event? 

Well, in general I really like teaching. I taught at the Academy of Music in Basel for 35 years, and since then I have always been happy to share my experience with my young colleagues. I really liked the students of the MECMA, it was very interesting to work with them. They have a really high level. This means that they learn from excellent teachers, and I am glad that they use every opportunity to learn.

If you could go to a concert featuring one soloist, one orchestra and one conductor, what would be your choice? 

Probably Rachmaninoff as a pianist, with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy — I think he was their conductor for thirty years. In terms of the repertoire...any work, this doesn’t matter. 

Rudolf Buchbinder performed at the InClassica Festival on 10th September this year. For full details visit the festival’s official website.