Beethoven’s Piano Concerti

The relationship between Buchbinder and Beethoven is a very close one. They have been good friends, so to speak, for a long time. But that was not always the case. Buchbinder is honest: he mastered Beethoven with difficulty. This gradual coming together began, naturally, at an early age when Buchbinder was regarded as a wunderkind in his childhood. Buchbinder was barely five years old when he was admitted to the Wiener Musikhochschule. The pianist recalls “At that time I couldn’t even read sheet music, and I could only perform two songs on the piano.” His brilliant teachers did not commit the common mistake of teaching their pupil nothing other than the Pathetique, Moonlight or Appassionata sonatas. “Fortunately, I was raised on chamber music,” the pianist continues. “It is only with such works that a young pianist can learn the most important thing: the pulsation and the phrasing. In that sense, we pianists are very vulnerable. If we happen to get the pulsation the right way once, then by pressing the pedals too often we can spoil everything.” Of course, these early lessons in chamber music were not wasted on Buchbinder. For example, now he can perform Beethoven’s concerti with ease, himself conducting from the piano at the same time.

Buchbinder, regardless of any obstacles and hindrances, loves overcoming such grandiose difficulties as performing all five piano concerti in the space of two days. He uses his conducting to produce a knock-out effect. “You see and hear an ever larger number of pianists conducting from the piano. I am no exception – I love doing it.”

But as for the desire to conduct and the power that that gives you, the pianist has no illusions: “Every musician, at least once in his life, always wants to control such a powerful instrument as a full orchestra. And it is of lesser importance to him if he has the requisite talent or not.” He understands that conducting can develop into something akin to a form of “substance addiction.” At the same time, even Rudolf Buchbinder finds it hard to perform two tasks at the same time. His amazing memory, however, helps him in this task. “I have the voice of every instrument in my head and notice straight away if someone comes in late.”

Of course, in this dual role of pianist and conductor there is nothing new. As Buchbinder says, “I’m not the first to have done it.” Such great maestri as Beethoven and Mozart sat at the piano, often conducting the premieres of their works. It is only when you yourself have stood with the baton in your hands that you can truly appreciate the demanding profession conducting is, the art of avoiding errors and even preventing disasters. In German, the word “conductor” (Kapellmeister) sometimes has a contemptuous note, as Rudolf Buchbinder says, as an honorary title. As a professional conductor, Buchbinder is especially interested in the experience of direct contact with the orchestra. He grew up on chamber music and so often sees the orchestra as an enlarged chamber ensemble. And to a joking, careless remark that he probably can’t see the musicians from the piano he says that “Even from my piano stool I can see the eyes of every musician.” Buchbinder is a pianist in great demand at all the great concert halls as well as being a collector of first editions of music, manuscripts and autographs. Constantly studying these materials, he is never afraid of “overloading his brain.” Quite the reverse. He is certain that “only knowledge can set a man free”.

Thanks to his tremendous performing experience (in Vienna alone Buchbinder has performed fifty cycles of Beethoven’s sonatas and concerti) and also to his love of original manuscripts, the relationship between composer and interpreter has become uncommonly strong. Here there still remains room for spontaneous reactions and discoveries: “I never cease to be amazed at Beethoven’s utter lack of compromise. Even in his early works he was composing extremely dynamic pieces, things that no composer before him had ever attempted. For example, a subito fortissimo immediately after a pianissimo. That must have made Beethoven’s contemporaries sit up and take notice. And that’s how the music should be performed in the 21st century, too“.

Buchbinder is also delighted to speak of the cadenzas in Beethoven’s piano concerti. It is well known that in Beethoven’s time these were improvised, not composed, by the soloists during an actual performance. Beethoven, however, composed his own cadenzas. True, he did not write them down immediately – it was only in 1809 he did so for all his concerti with the exception of the Fifth which has no cadenza at all. Buchbinder loves referring back to the tradition of improvisation when performing these cadenzas. For example, audiences are always surprised by his performance of the cadenza in the First Concerto.

“It came from Beethoven’s pen. But the composer never finished it, I added to it on the basis of Beethoven’s existing material. Essentially, Beethoven left two and a half cadenzas for the concerto in C major. But the second seems too short and the third too long. And with regard to the first, which I consider the best and the most inspired, the last bars are missing from the score.” And that is something that gives Buchbinder-the-researcher no peace. He “composed” the ending from bars of the two other cadenzas. Thus emerged the alliance known as "B&B". Despite his knowledge and experience of textual analysis, Buchbinder is never afraid that Beethoven, that giant of Viennese classical music, will one day be a “mystery solved.” Quite the reverse – the musician’s interest and admiration is ever increasing. Does he have a favourite of all of Beethoven’s concerti? “The Fourth Concerto in G Major is my favourite, beyond a doubt. It is the most touching, the most spiritual concerto. Before our eyes, or rather before our ears, here we have the strongest emotions of Beethoven’s soul in their most expressive form. The core movement of the concerto is full of incredible tension and contains cantilenas that are shot through with emotion. When, after the grand cantilena, I perform the coda – the passages in dialogue with the oboe – I cannot hold back my tears. My entire body tingles. And when, at the same time, the strings weave their cover of velvet I see the heavens open up before me...” Buchbinder has found his own elixir of youth. And, it would appear, it is one that will never run out.

Michaela Schlogl