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Under the Radar - Rudolf Buchbinder's 1986 Chopin Recital · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:07
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
• 0:14
  Consider subscribing to The Piano Maven through
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  my Substack page, and I've posted a link in our
• 0:21
  episode description to do so. probably have more
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  Chopin CDs in my collection than any normal person
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  needs. And these include some discs that probably
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  no one needs. But there also are some Chopin
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  discs in my collection that either you wouldn't
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  have paid attention to when they first came out,
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  or if you saw them, you'd think, you know, why
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  do I really need this? But I just revisited a
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  recital of Chopin works by the pianist Rudolf
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  Buchbinder that he made for the EMI label in
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  1986. And I think it's a really, really excellent
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  disc. I was not aware of this release when it
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  first appeared, but in 2004, EMI reissued the
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  disc in its... encore budget price series, or
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  maybe this was a mid -price series, I don't remember.
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  Now, Buchbinder is most closely linked with the
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  Austro -German repertoire. He recorded Beethoven's
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  complete works for Telefunken, which became Teldeck,
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  of course, and he did two further Beethoven sonata
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  cycles, one for RCA Victor, and then there was
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  one that came out on Deutsche Grammophon a few
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  years later. He recorded all of the Mozart concertos
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  conducting from the piano with the Vienna Symphony,
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  and that was for Prophiel, or was it for Hensler?
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  I don't have the physical box right in front
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  of me, but... Profil is a label that is part
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  of the Henssler family. And it's a fabulous Mozart
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  cycle, one of the top ones in the catalog. And
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  he also made those terrific Brahms concertos
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  with Nicholas Harninkort and the Concertgebouw
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  Orchestra. And that is a reference version, or
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  very close to a reference version. And there
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  are some Bach and Schubert discs with Rudolf
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  Buchbinder out there. But Rudolf Buchbinder as
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  a Chopin player? That's kind of like Alfred Brendel
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  playing Rachmaninoff. Kind of inconceivable,
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  right? Well, you are wrong, Vladimir Depachman
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  -Breath. Rudolf Buchbinder is a most engaging
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  and individual Chopin player. And he has strong
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  ideas about the pieces that he plays. He breezes
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  through the fantasy impromptu while making every
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  phrase clear and with a definite sense of direction.
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  And in the E -flat nocturne, opus 9, number 2,
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  he refuses to sentimentalize the music. Although
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  he plays the D -flat nocturne, opus 27, number
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  2, in a very slow and dynamically outsized manner.
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  The effect is not so much moonlit as it is dark
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  and desolate. I kind of miss the grace and long
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  legato lines that you get from, I guess, so -called
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  standard performances of this Nocturne, but it
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  is still an interesting interpretation. Buchbinder...
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  proves equally brooding in the posthumous E minor
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  nocturne opus 72 number one but here there's
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  more of a sense of a long line and inwardness
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  and it's a serious performance but it's also
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  very moving Of the three waltzes that he plays,
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  the minute waltz receives one of this hackneyed
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  work's most dapper and perfectly proportioned
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  performances I've ever heard. And it contrasts
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  to the probing deliberation that Buchbinder brings
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  to the C -sharp minor waltz and the B minor waltz.
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  Now, at first, that big F -sharp minor polonaise,
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  opus 44, in Buchbinder's hands seems kind of
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  unidiomatic and literal and foursquare in its
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  phraseology. But you have to admit that the pianist
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  does not skimp on details. Those trills and ornaments,
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  for example, are perfectly turned out, and those
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  fast scales go exactly in tempo. The performance
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  settles in more and more as it unfolds. But I
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  would say that the third ballade is much more
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  poetic and eloquent and genuinely singing and
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  much more flexible. It's even kind of meditative.
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  And the three equisais have all of the lightness
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  and suppleness that one expects. However, I think
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  that Rudolf Buchbinder saves his best Chopin
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  playing for last and the final selection, which
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  is the Scherzo No. 2 in B -flat minor. This performance
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  has rhythmic vivacity and stinging accents, and
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  the rhetorical touches enhance rather than draw
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  attention away from Chopin's expressive subtext.
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  And you notice this in the second theme in the
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  opening section. And the trio section features
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  some wonderful and rather... unpredictable details
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  of accentuation and emphasis that keep you guessing
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  and keep you listening. There's a lot going on
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  in this performance. And what pent -up fury Buchbinder
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  unleashes in the second section of the trio and
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  the big minor key climax that leads into the
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  main theme's recapitulation. I would not say
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  that this unusually dramatic performance is the
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  best second scherzo that I've heard, because
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  that's not a realistic thing to say, because
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  there's so many great performances out there.
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  But the very individual profile of this interpretation
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  really makes it stand out from the pack. So if
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  you can find this disc, definitely grab it. And
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  by the way, I only just noticed that Warner Classics
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  issued a recording in 2022 with Rudolf Buchbinder
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  playing the Chopin Preludes. And I didn't know
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  about this release until just minutes before
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  I started recording this podcast episode. So
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  I definitely have to investigate Buchbinder's
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  Chopin Preludes because... You know, I'm very
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  curious. But this 1986 mixed Chopin recital with
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  Rudolf Buchbinder is a definite keeper. And really
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  try to find it. You will not regret it. This
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  is Jed Dissler, and you've been listening to
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  The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings. And I look forward to being
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  with you next time for the next episode.