Julian Rachlin /violin/ & Rudolf Buchbinder /piano/

 

Violin virtuoso Julian Rachlin and Rudolf Buchbinder will perform together for the first time in Latvia. Their repertoire will include chamber music classics,  combining their joint musical abilityand imagination  to find new, individual and exciting detail in even the most well-known pieces.

Rudolf Buchbinder’s ability to make music come alive, inhabiting each phrase, is truly unique. He has set new standards in the performing arts, especially as an interpreter of the music of Beethoven. He is not afraid to admit that Beethoven’s music continues to move him to tears. Julian Rachlin’s individual style is characterised by excitement and the ability to inspire the audience. He plays a 1704 ex-Liebig Stradivarius violin.

 

Concert programme:
Franz SCHUBERT Violin Sonata in D Major D. 384 “Sonatine”
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata no. 9 in A Major op. 47 “Kreutzer”
Johannes BRAHMS Violin Sonata no. 3 in D minor op. 108

 

“Another person may learn a new piece, maybe, in two weeks. I would rather do it in a year. Not because I’m a bad musician. It’s not a case of speed, but of what I want to say with the music. It’s about enriching your life with music, your whole life long. Because life is too short to uncover all the secrets of the great composers.”

 

So says Julian Rachlin (1974), who is often called one of the most exciting, inspiring contemporary musicians. He is a violinist who has been making music with the leading classical musicians since he was in his teens (after his first international success in the Eurovision Young Musician of the Year competition in 1988, Julian became the youngest ever soloist to play with the Vienna Philharmonic). Additionally, Rachlin has been purposefully and excitingly expanding his performing range, adding the viola and conducting. Thus, for example, in Krzysztof Penderecki’s Double Concerto for Violin and Viola, which was dedicated to Rachlin, he was able to play three roles, playing both the violin and viola solos as well as conducting.

 

Conductor Daniele Gatti characterised Rachlin as a simple, modest person with a constant thirst for making music. Another giant of conducting, Zubin Mehta, adds that he is giving, helpful, and compassionate. Rachlin founded and managed his own festivals in Dubrovnik and Palma de Mallorca. He has been leader of the orchestra and Head Guest Conductor in England, Finland and Norway, and in this season alone he has conducted the orchestras of Vienna, Pittsburgh, Berlin, Zagreb, Moscow, Saint Petersburg and others, and has performed as soloist with Mariss Jansons, Manfred Honeck, Christoph Eschenbach, Myung-whun Chung and others.

 

The repertoire of piano legend Rudolf Buchbinder (1946) stretches from Bach to contemporary music. The Austrian pianist’s almost sixty-year career, (including his first performance with an orchestra he was just twelve years old) has been reflected in over one hundred recordings.

His ability to make music come alive, inhabiting each phrase, is truly unique. He has set new standards in the performing arts, especially as a performer of the music of Beethoven.
“I learn every time. It is a challenge every time. Only since I started collecting old sources have I realised that knowledge is what makes me most free… The musical freedom back then was fantastisch! We are too strict today,” says Buchbinder.

 

Buchbinder celebrated his 70th birthday two years ago with concerts in New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Musikverein, and the Berlin Philharmonic. The Vienna Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra paid tribute to him on his birthday with honorary membership, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, under conductor Mariss Jansons, invited him to be their Artist in Residence. In that same year, the Orchestra announced that “Rudolf Buchbinder was the youngest student ever to have enrolled at the Vienna Academy of Music… Since then he has appeared with every major orchestra and international conductor. Although his technique continues to improve with age, he is now far more nervous than he used to be before a concert, because now he has to convince not only his audience but also – which is much harder – himself.”

 

In 2019 his concert schedule is full as usual – he performs several concerts per week in all corners of the globe, with a total of around one hundred concerts each year. Since 2007, Buchbinder has been the Artistic Director of the Grafenegg Festival, and under his leadership the event has become one of Europe’s leading symphonic music forums.

With concerts taking place in the historic cities of Riga and Jurmala, the Riga Jurmala Music Festival features four weekends throughout the summer. A leading international orchestra and conductor anchor each weekend, offering a range of symphonic concerts and recitals that feature leading stars and young up-and-coming talent.

 

More information: www.riga-jurmala.com