The pianist who owes his career to an Austrian chancellor
mainRudolf Buchbinder, who turns 70 today, is reckoned to have played the complete cycle of 32 Beethoven sonatas more than 50 times. In a flurry of Viennese press encomia for his birthday it is being recalled that Buchbinder caught the ear of the Austrian chancellor Julius Raab in 1957, when he was ten years old.
Bundeskanzler Raab found him a teacher and paid privately for his lessons. Buchbinder became the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Musikakademie.
Raab ruled Austria in a conservative-socialist coalition from 1953 to 1961. He is widely considered to be the most important founder of the post-war republic.
A ‘Happy Birthday’ out of Taipei from the BRSO and Mariss Jansons…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHoazFx4aDA
I’ve been to a couple of Buchbinder recitals in Vienna and have found them strangely lifeless.
Oh my goodness! Buchbinder is a genius and owes his career only to himself and nobody else. And he became the youngest student at the age of 5 , in 1951. I thought you are more serious , Mr. Lebrecht.
He is one of the finest pianists I have ever worked with and a fantastic musician