Within the campaign 'Cast Your Vote in the Poll for the Best Classical Album of 2013', I would like to bring to your attention the latest CD of the Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder: works by Franz Schubert, recorded for Sony, an album released on 19^th July, 2013.

I'm certain that classical music lovers already know that Rudolf Buchbinder is one of the guests of the 2013 'George Enescu Festival: on 11^th and 12^th September, he will interpret Beethoven's collected concerts, along with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra.

Rudolf Buchbinder is a great contemporary pianist: he reminds me of Radu Lupu when it comes to the classical spirit, the preference for the same composers - Beethoven, Mozart and especially Schubert, the elegance of the sound and the mental sharpness which are so obvious in his interpretation.

It's not the spectacular that you first grasp when listening to Rudolf Buchbinder, but an immortal grace, a high spirit that one so rarely comes across in our society today.

Listen to the four impromptus of Op. 90/D 899 by Franz Schubert and you'll have a better understanding of what I'm trying to say.

On the same CD presented today, Rudolf Buchbinder also included a sonata by Franz Schubert: the monumental and complex Piano Sonata D960 in B flat major, one of Schubert's best-known sonatas. Listening to it, the same comparison Radu Lupu-Rudolf Buchbinder came to mind: two pianists who stand out in today's musical universe, bringing to their interpretation a sensitivity and an understanding of music that seem to come from other times, maybe better times. Listening to Schubert in Buchbinder's interpretation is more an adventure of the spirit than one of the senses: music pours sweet sounds not only into our ears (to paraphrase Caragiale), but also into our hearts and minds.

The CD you will listen to is part of the campaign 'Cast your Vote in the Poll for the Best Classical Album of 2013', taking place on the Radio Romania Music website, www.romania-muzical.ro. I invite you to listen for the first time or listen again to the broadcasts with the CDs participating in the competition and vote.

Next week, on Monday, 5^th August, starting with 20:00 , you can listen to a CD belonging to the series dedicated by Vladimir Ashkenazy to Rachmaninoff's music: two piano trios, an album that is to be released at international level, on 6^th August.