Rudolf Buchbinder’s complete cycle of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas was recorded live across seven concerts at Dresden’s Semperoper during his 2010–11 residency in the city, and released by RCA on 5 March 2012 as a nine-disc set. It was Buchbinder’s second recorded traversal of the complete sonatas, his first had been a studio cycle made in 1981, and his first taken from live concert performance rather than the controlled conditions of a recording studio.
Why record it live
Buchbinder has spoken directly about what drove the decision to revisit the cycle in concert rather than the studio a second time. “With this new complete Beethoven cycle, I was first and foremost concerned with its musical spirit,” he explained. “It only appears when the musician is making music right there live in front of the audience. When you record in the studio, you are less nervous, you play in a more controlled way and are more focused on other issues than when you perform on the concert platform.” The distinction matters more for Beethoven’s sonatas than for most repertoire, a cycle spanning three decades of Beethoven’s composing life, from the Classically-poised early sonatas through the searching, formally radical late works, asks a performer to sustain a huge range of temperament across nine discs, and Buchbinder’s reasoning suggests he judged that range easier to find under the pressure of a real audience than in the studio.
About the pianist
Rudolf Buchbinder is an Austrian pianist whose association with Beethoven’s piano music runs across a long recording career, of which this is only one milestone. His intensive focus on the composer around the time of this cycle also shaped his concert schedule more broadly, in the period around its release he performed Beethoven’s sonatas in more than 40 cities internationally, including Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, Zurich, Buenos Aires, St Petersburg and Milan, a touring pattern that underlines how closely this repertoire sat at the centre of his work during these years rather than being a one-off studio project.
A note on this page
The original mmmusic page for this release didn’t carry an independent written review, it reproduced RCA’s own recording summary, including a direct quote from Buchbinder about the project. Rather than present a label’s promotional text as if it were mmmusic’s own critical judgment, the text above is written fresh, drawing only on that same real, attributed background material and independently verifiable facts about the recording.
Questions about this recording
How many discs is this set?
Nine CDs, covering all 32 of Beethoven's numbered piano sonatas.
Was this Buchbinder's first complete Beethoven sonata cycle?
No, it was his second. His first was a studio recording made in 1981; this 2012 set was his first cycle recorded live, taken from concert performances rather than studio sessions.
Where was it recorded?
Live at Dresden's Semperoper, across seven concerts given during Rudolf Buchbinder's 2010–11 residency in the city.
Is this recording still available to buy?
Yes, RCA's catalogue number 88843016142 remains findable through classical retailers. We don't run an in-house shop, so we link out to Amazon and Discogs below.
When was this set released?
RCA released the nine-disc set on 5 March 2012, following the 2010–11 concert residency in Dresden where the performances were recorded.
