The Diabelli Project Rudolf Buchbinder

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827): 33 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli
• 133 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Tema (Vivace)00:46
• 233 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 1 (Alla marcia maestoso)01:15
• 333 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 2 (Poco allegro)00:45
• 433 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 3 (L’istesso tempo)01:30
• 533 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 4 (Un poco più vivace)01:11
• 633 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 5 (Allegro vivace)00:52
• 733 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 6 (Allegro ma non troppo e serioso)01:29
• 833 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 7 (Un poco più allegro)01:01
• 933 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 8 (Poco vivace)01:18
• 1033 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 9 (Allegro pesante e risoluto)01:39
• 1133 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 10 (Presto)00:36
• 1233 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 11 (Allegretto)01:06
• 1333 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 12 (Un poco più moto)00:55
• 1433 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 13 (Vivace)00:56
• 1533 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 14 (Grave e maestoso)03:11
• 1633 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 15 (Presto scherzando)00:34
• 1733 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 16 (Allegro)00:57
• 1833 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 17 (Allegro)01:01
• 1933 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 18 (Poco moderato)01:47
• 2033 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 19 (Presto)00:57
• 2133 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 20 (Andante)01:53
• 2233 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 21 (Allegro con brio. Meno allegro)00:58
• 2333 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 22 (Allegro molto, alla ‘Notte e giorno faticar’ di Mozart)00:38
• 2433 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 23 (Allegro assai)00:49
• 2533 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 24 (Fughetta. Andante)02:06
• 2633 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 25 (Allegro)00:41
• 2733 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 26 (Piacevole)01:14
• 2833 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 27 (Vivace)00:55
• 2933 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 28 (Allegro)00:58
• 3033 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 29 (Adagio ma non troppo)01:10
• 3133 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 30 (Andante, sempre cantabile)01:51
• 3233 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 31 (Largo, molto espressivo)03:54
• 3333 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 32 (Fugue. Allegro)02:56
• 3433 Variations in C Major, Op. 120 on a Waltz by Diabelli: Var. 33 (Tempo di Minuet moderato)04:02
• Lera Auerbach (b.1973)
• 35Auerbach: Diabellical Waltz05:21
• Brett Dean (b. 1961):
• 36Dean: Variation for Rudi03:33
• Toshio Hosokawa (b. 1955):
• 37Hosokawa: Verlust05:03
• Christian Jost (b. 1963):
• 38Jost: Rock it Rudi02:09
• Brad Lubman (b. 1962):
• 39Lubman: Variation for R.B.02:44
• Philippe Manoury (b. 1952):
• 40Manoury: Zwei Jahrhunderte später01:19
• Max Richter (b. 1966):
• 41Richter: Diabelli02:47
• Rodion Shchedrin (b. 1932):
• 42Shchedrin: Variation on a Theme of Diabelli02:06
• Johannes Maria Staud (b. 1972):
• 43Staud: A propos de…Diabelli02:21
• Tan Dun (b. 1957):
• 44Dun: Blue Orchid04:49
• Jörg Widmann (b. 1973):
• 45Widmann: Diabelli-Variation03:35
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778 - 1837):
• 46Hummel: Var. 16 for Anton Diabelli's Waltz01:04
• Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1785 - 1849):
• 47Kalkbrenner: Var. 18 for Anton Diabelli's Waltz01:00
• Conradin Kreutzer (1780 - 1849):
• 48Kreutzer: Var. 21 for Anton Diabelli's Waltz01:02
• Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886):
• 49Liszt: Var. 24 for Anton Diabelli's Waltz01:03
• Ignas Moscheles (1794 - 1870):
• 50Moscheles: Var. 26 for Anton Diabelli's Waltz01:05
• Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1791 - 1844):
• 51Mozart: Var. 28 for Anton Diabelli's Waltz01:37
• Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828):
• 52Schubert: Var. 38 for Anton Diabelli's Waltz01:58
• Carl Czerny (1791 - 1857):
• 53Czerny: Var. 6 for Anton Diabelli's Waltz02:46
• Total Runtime01:35:13

Info for The Diabelli Project

Celebrated pianist and renowned Beethoven specialist Rudolf Buchbinder will release his first album on Deutsche Grammophon. The collaboration sees him record not only his own new interpretation of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations but to commission 12 new variations himself, echoing the original story where in 1819 music publisher and composer Anton Diabelli wrote a 32-bar German Dance – a forerunner of the waltz – and sent it to more than 50 Austrian composers, asking each of them to write a variation on his original theme.

Buchbinder has invited 12 contemporary composers to write a variation on Diabelli’s theme including (in order of appearance) Lera Auerbach (1973), Brett Dean (1961), Toshio Hosokawa (1955), Christian Jost (1963), Brad Lubman (1962), Philippe Manoury (1952), Krzysztof Penderecki (1933), Max Richter (1966), Rodion Shchedrin (1932), Johannes Maria Staud (1974), Tan Dun (1957) and Jörg Widmann (1973).

At the time, Diabelli received contributions from Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), Frédéric Kalkbrenner (1785-1849), Conradin Kreutzer (1780-1849), Franz Liszt (1811-1886), who was barely eight years old when the invitation was issued, Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870), Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1791-1844), Franz Schubert (1797-1828) and Carl Czerny (1791-1857). Buchbinder has included these 8 variations that the original composer Diabelli received back on the album as well.

Beethoven initially refused to write anything, and supposedly dismissed the theme for its banality – but four years later he sent the publisher his own Thirty-Three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli. The set, later hailed by conductor Hans von Bülow as a “microcosm of Beethoven’s genius”, turned out to be the composer’s last completed large-scale piano work.

"No composer has been by my side as intensively as Ludwig van Beethoven, and none of his works has become a leitmotif of my life as much as his Diabelli Variations. Sixty years ago, my piano teacher Bruno Seidlhofer gave me, his youngest student at the Vienna Academy of Music, whom he liked to call "Burli" ("little chap"), the sheet music: "To my dear Rudolf Buchbinder with best wishes for the future" he wrote with ballpoint pen on the front page - Beethoven's "last waltz" has been with me ever since."

"It was also Seidlhofer who let me play the first 25 of the total of 50 variations of the so-called "Vaterländischer Künstlerverein" in a student concert, variations by Beethoven's contemporaries who had also taken up Diabelli's waltz theme. Among them were Beethoven pupil Carl Czerny, his 11-year-old pupil Franz Liszt, Czerny's teacher Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Mozart's son Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart and Franz Schubert, whose C minor variation must have appeared otherworldly even to listeners at that time." (Rudolf Buchbinder)

Rudolf Buchbinder, piano

Rudolf Buchbinder
is one of the legendary artists of our time. His piano playing is an unparalleled fusion of the authority of a career spanning more than 60 years with spirit and spontaneity. His renditions are celebrated worldwide for their intellectual depth and musical freedom.

Particularly his renditions of Ludwig van Beethoven's works are considered to be exemplary. He has performed the 32 piano sonatas 60 times in cycles all over the world and developed the story of their interpretation over decades. He was the first pianist to play all Beethoven sonatas at the Salzburg Festival during a summer festival. A live recording is available on DVD.

On the occasion of Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday in the 2019/20 concert season, for the first time in its 150-year history, the Vienna Musikverein is giving a single pianist, Rudolf Buchbinder, the honor of performing all five piano concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven in a specially edited cycle. Buchbinder's partners in this unprecedented constellation are the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Music Director Andris Nelsons, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Riccardo Muti and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under their chief conductors Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev and Christian Thielemann.

Together with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, Rudolf Buchbinder will also return to the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Philharmonie Luxembourg and the Carnegie Hall New York as part of a tour.

A première is the focus of the Beethoven Year 2020. Based on Beethoven's Diabelli Variations Op. 120, Rudolf Buchbinder initiated a new cycle of variations on the same waltz by Anton Diabelli, which also forms the basis of Beethoven's epochal masterpiece. With Lera Auerbach, Brett Dean, Toshio Hosokawa, Christian Jost, Brad Lubman, Philippe Manoury, Max Richter, Rodion Shchedrin, Johannes Maria Staud, Tan Dun and Jörg Widmann, it was possible to win eleven leading contemporary composers of different generations and backgrounds. The New Diabelli Variations were commissioned by a variety of concert promoters worldwide and with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

The world première recording of the New Diabelli Variations marks the beginning of Rudolf Buchbinder's exclusive partnership with Deutsche Grammophon. At the same time he also presents a new recording of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, which he last recorded in 1976.

Rudolf Buchbinder is an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He is the first soloist to be awarded the Golden Badge of Honor by the Staatskapelle Dresden.

Buchbinder attaches great importance to source research. His private music collection comprises 39 complete editions of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas as well as an extensive archive of first prints, original editions and copies of the piano scores of both piano concertos by Johannes Brahms.

He has been the artistic director of the Grafenegg Festival since its foundation in 2007. Today, Grafenegg is one of the most influential orchestral festivals in Europe.

Two books by Rudolf Buchbinder have been published so far, his autobiography "Da Capo" and "Mein Beethoven - Leben mit dem Meister". Numerous award-winning recordings on CD and DVD document his career.

Booklet for The Diabelli Project