Pianist Painter Of "Fantastic Realism”

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32050, 26 July 1969, Page 14

Pianist Painter Of "Fantastic Realism”

The first thing the Austrian pianist Rudalf Buch- i binder, unpacked when he I reached Christchurch yes- ! terday was not his sheet i music but a boa of water- i colour paints. Painting is only a hobby ; wjth him, but he envies the j painter in some ways. The good thing about 1 painting is that you just paint when you’re in the 1 mood—a musician has to be in the mood from 8 till 10 every night "But I would not want to be a painter by profession. The fashion is always changing in art; it does not change so much in music,” he said. Mr Buehbinder has chosen the latest European style of painting for bis own work, which he started only two nioaUu ago. “It is called ‘fantastic realism’,” he-said, “and it’s a style which started in Vienna. It is very much fantasy, but it is not surrealism. I’m

collecting works in this style in Vienna.”

The pianist said he had begun '* new painting in Christchurch, but Because of the style it would not be influenced a bit by the surroundings. Mr Buchbinder, aged 23, has lived mostly ip Vienna. At the age of 10 be made a sensational debut in Vienna, which attracted the attention of the Austrian Chancellor, Dr J. Raab, who subsequently became his god- : father and looked after his i education. In 1958 he began study , with the famous teacher, Bruno Seidhofer. Just before ; his sixteenth birthday he , gave his first London recital in the Royal Festival Hall, and in the same year was ‘ awarded the Harriet Cohen Junior Medal in memory of > Dlnu Lipatti. ' After bis first visit to New Zealand in I*o6 Rudolf Buch- • binder went to the United i States to take part in the Van , Cliburn Contest, where he t received a special award i from Van Cliburn. He reprei sented Austria in 1967 at the World Fair Expo in Montreal.