Rudolf Buchbinder was born in 1946 in Litoměřice, Czechoslovakia, and studied piano with Bruno Seidlhofer at the Vienna Academy of Music. He won a special prize at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1966 and went on to a long international career, including a period teaching at the Basel Academy of Music, and has served as artistic director of the Grafenegg Festival since 2007.

Buchbinder is particularly renowned as an interpreter of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, having recorded the complete Haydn keyboard works, all major Mozart piano works, and the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, as well as leading Beethoven concertos from the keyboard. He toured extensively with the Vienna Philharmonic and was featured in the acclaimed documentary Pianomania (2009).