What a superb Buchbinder triple act

The Viennese Piano Concert on 25 April 2010 featured Haydn's D major Piano Concerto, Mozart 's Piano Concerto No 22 K 482 and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 1. At hand to oversee the proceedings on the piano and conducting the MPO, was 64-year old Rudolf Buchbinder. Buchbinder perhaps took the Haydn at too slow a speed overall and I felt that this concerto had a slight lack of sprightliness that Haydn needed. I remember an unforgettable concert by Leif Ove Andsnes and the Norwegian CO here at the DFP and the interpretation was just lovely and so similar to their EMI CD of 3 Haydn Piano Concertos.

The Mozart was the best performance of the afternoon, with the first movement given its due grandeur, the second movement a lyric grace and the third movement a lilting playfulness. The Beethoven concerto was well played but did not surpass Ashkenazy's interpretation here in the DFP a few years ago. The audience were very taken by Buchbinder's triple act and refused to let him go. He obliged by playing Godowsky's Symphonic Metamorphosis on Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus. What an encore!

The DFP must invite Buchbinder to direct the MPO from the keyboard in more Mozart concertos. This man is a genius but the media have not made him out to be sufficiently "marketable" in the classical music sphere. A great pity.