Rudolf Buchbinder: a career on record

"I reject any sort of pigeon-holing. 'Viennese Classics' is one of the dumbest of all. Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven: they had no idea that they were part of 'Viennese classicism', a silly phrase that was coined only a century later. Then you talk of Romanticism… Bach was no less a romantic composer than any other. And with Bach the most fantastic thing was always his rhythm. These days we'd almost call it swing – and it's no surprise that we have Bach from the Jacques Loussier Trio and Swingle Singers. What they did with Bach was inspired. And we mustn't forget that Mozart, Beethoven – all of them – were the pop stars of their time. We try to give all these composers a special halo, but Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, they were all geniuses too. There are geniuses in all different sorts of music these days!

"I was very inflexible and intolerant as a young lad!"

I recorded my first Beethoven sonata cycle at a time when everything had to be transparent – very clear, very exact – and I remember when we youngsters heard Pablo Casals playing the Bach Suites, we were horrified by his rubati. Today it's obvious, almost obligatory. I was very inflexible and intolerant as a young lad! But I have [journalist and critic] Joachim Kaiser to thank for the fact that I re-recorded the sonatas a few years ago. "Rudi, now you're free," he said to me, "you must record the Beethoven Sonata again." He more or less forced me into this second recording!

Schubert's final B flat Sonata is surely the crowning achievement of his works for piano. It moves me to tears every time, this piece. He was when it boils down to it a very unhappy man. You have to imagine, this poor devil, never heard a single one of his own symphonies. And my recording of Haydn Variations… it's some 40 years old now, an "historic" recording! I don't know if I'm happy with it these days because I've not heard it. I only know that it was a very important piece for me at that time.

"When I conduct from the piano, it's like a large sort of chamber music"

It's interesting with my recordings with Harnoncourt. If I'm honest, some colleagues thought I was mad, saying that he sent you scores and notes to study in advance. But he sent me nothing. We met each other for the first time right at the rehearsal, without having spoken about it. Of course we knew each other, but we didn't talk about the music. He conducted the first tutti and before I came in, he broke off and asked, in front of the orchestra, "Rudi, how was the tempo? Did you like it, or was it too slow or fast?” That was Harnoncourt for me. And that was the same for all the concertos we did together – Mozart, Beethoven or Brahms – all of which he did for the first time with me.

It's different, of course, without a conductor. When I conduct from the piano, then it's like a sort of large-scale chamber music; and suddenly the musicians on the back desks have a much greater responsibility. It's a very different sort of music-making, and everyone has to listen. I've done it about 500 times to date, really quite often, all over the world. Everyone loves it, really enjoys it and wants to do it again, because they suddenly have a completely different role.

"It was so important, because it made one learn to listen"

Chamber music more generally is something that I grew up with. I played in the Munich competition with my Viennese trio when I was 15. I was lucky in that I joined the Conservatoire in Vienna when I was five and had six years with Professor Marianne Lauda, who organised with the string professors that we play in ensembles – and ours was an ensemble that carried on. It was so important, because it made one learn to listen. Pieces like the "Gassenhauer" Trio are what I grew up with, and it was a great joy to return to it after so many years with Sabine Meyer and Heinrich Schiff.

And then the Dvořák, one of my very favourite pieces, with the Alban Berg Quartet – that was a great joy! But above all I played a lot of trios with Josef Suk and Janos Starker. And happily there's a document from the Schwetzinger Festspiele: they phoned me up, years later, and said they'd found a recording in Stuttgart and asked if I'd have anything against it being released. I said I'd be delighted finally to have a document of us, and I even gave them a dreadful old photo of us, which is what now adorns the cover!

"You breathe music in this city"

Finally let's talk about Vienna. Why in fact did a Mozart, a Beethoven or a Brahms come to Vienna? There was this multiculturalism. Whenever you hear a piece by Brahms you hear the influence of gypsy music, of Bohemian folklore, or this multiculturalism, which was always so important, even if, alas, it often comes under fire today. You breathe music in this city, and I have to say I'm grateful to have been able to grow up and live there. And to my final choice: there are only three composers who I wish had written for the piano: Puccini, Lehár and Johann Strauss. There we have to turn to transcriptions and arrangements, which can often be inspired. Again we back with the idea of music for entertainment or music as art… for me, though, there's only good music and bad music."

[Interview by Hugo Shirley]