A Mozart farewell for Rudolf Buchbinder as Grafenegg artistic director

Rudolf Buchbinder said farewell to his tenure as artistic director of the Grafenegg Festival with two Mozart piano concertos, after health reasons forced Riccardo Muti to cancel his planned appearance.

Buchbinder performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C major, K. 467, and the Piano Concerto in D minor, K. 466, at the Wolkenturm. In the role he has increasingly taken on, he served as both conductor and soloist for most of the evening, which ended with flowers and several minutes of ovations.

The concert marked the latest chapter in Grafenegg’s development from the Schlosskonzerte launched during the renovation of Grafenegg Castle in 1971. The Grafenegg Advent, created by the ORF regional studio in Lower Austria, and two state exhibitions devoted to the era of Franz Joseph further strengthened the site’s reputation as a cultural center reaching beyond Austria.

The festival’s modern foundations took shape with the construction of the Wolkenturm in 2007 and the Auditorium, added to the old riding school in 2008. Buchbinder had highlighted the festival’s distinctive setting by saying that visitors in Grafenegg walked across green grass rather than a red carpet, while the program pursued leading artists.

Johanna Mikl-Leitner, governor of Lower Austria, praised Buchbinder’s achievements in remarks before the closing concert. Despite the change in artistic director, the festival will retain continuity. Buchbinder will become president and continue performing, including four appearances next summer.

Johannes Neubert, who worked for years under Buchbinder as organizational director before moving to the Vienna Symphony and the Orchestre National de France, will take over the artistic directorship. Lower Austria’s cooperation with the Metternich family, whose patronage helped make today’s Grafenegg possible, has also been secured through 2070.

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In Grafenegg, you do not walk across a red carpet, but across green grass.