Legendary pianist Rudolf Buchbinder fails to inspire

This particular Emperor may be in need of new clothes.

- Geoffrey Lim

Austrian Rudolf Buchbinder is an eminent pianist who has earned many accolades. Though not known for extreme keyboard athleticism nor tonal voluptuousness, his imposing reputation in Beethoven has been built on performances of verve, rigour and directness.

But he delivered flustered, perfunctory and largely charmless performances worlds away from the poise and freshness of his famous Beethoven recordings.

Astonishingly, he managed to give the simultaneous impression of having played these works too many times and not having played them enough.

Technical aspects felt woefully under-rehearsed, a particularly egregious shortcoming in Beethoven’s Emperor concerto, where the martial display of technique and precision is central to the aesthetic of the work.

Some of the more treacherous passages — such as when Beethoven transforms the opening movement’s first theme in right-hand thirds set against staccato left-hand triplets — felt out of control.