Looking back at 65 years of pianism
For many decades, the Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder has been regaling the international musical world with a cultured, masterful approach to the keyboard repertoire. His focus has been on the Viennese classical masters, particularly Beethoven, but his artistry ranges over a wide swath of music history, from the Baroque to the contemporary period.
Yet, Buchbinder’s local appearances have been few and sporadic — a solo recital here, a visit with a touring orchestra there — and even those have not necessarily garnered the attention they’re due. He returns to the Bay Area this week, shortly before his 70th birthday in December, to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 with the San Francisco Symphony in his first appearance with the orchestra in more than 30 years.
Buchbinder spoke recently by phone from Munich, where he was about to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Q: The latter part of this year will include a number of performances marking your 70th birthday. In what ways are you a different artist now than when you started out? A: This profession is not normal because you work and study as long as you live. When I first recorded the complete Beethoven sonatas more than 35 years ago, I had certain ideas about these pieces.
Then the music critic Joachim Kaiser told me, “Rudi, now that you understand the pieces, you must record them again.” And so I did, and then I recorded them a third time at the Salzburg Festival. Q: Do you look back on the earlier recordings now and take issue with some of your interpretive decisions? A: I never was absolutely wrong, but my approach was different. For example, as a young person you are not so flexible. The older I get, the more rubato I use. Q: You have a very large discography. Do you listen to your old recordings and rethink them? A: I never listen to my own recordings, because after recording a piece, the next day I would play it in a different way. You know, a painter makes a painting and it remains the same way for years, hanging on the wall. But when I play Beethoven it changes every day.
Although I don’t mind listening to recordings from when I was a child! A few months ago, I found an old tape of myself at 8 years old, playing a Chopin etude. I was surprised by the force of instinct. When you’re a child you can play a piece like that absolutely right, simply by instinct. Q: What was your childhood like? Were you raised in a musical family? A: Not at all. I grew up in Vienna right after the war, and we had no money at all. My father died before I was born, but I had an uncle who got us an old upright piano, and when I heard something on the radio I would go and play it by ear.
I entered the musical academy in Vienna when I was just 5 — one of the youngest students in its history. I couldn’t read or write, but I could play the piano. Q: What was the training like? A: Throughout my time there I never had a lesson alone — the whole class was always there listening. And it wasn’t a fixed hour, 9 to 10 and 10 to 11 and so on. If someone was playing a Brahms concerto, the lesson would take two hours; if it was a Haydn sonata, maybe 45 minutes. Q: And all the other students were observing? That must have been stressful. A: Well, it’s a very critical audience. You learn to play in public that way very early.
Joshua Kosman is The San Francisco Chronicle’s music critic. Email: jkosman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshuaKosman