Maria Radutu

Maria Radutu, celebrated pianist and Steinway Artist, embarks on a poetic and technological venture: In her program “Playing with Legends”, she encounters the “immortals” of piano art – Arthur Rubinstein, Gina Bachauer, Dinu Lipatti, George Gershwin, Hazel Scott, Vladimir Horowitz – not in the form of memories, but as real musical players.

This is made possible by Spirio, Steinway’s highly developed self-playing system, which reproduces the finest nuances of the art of touch with authentic precision. No mere playback – a mechanical reincarnation. And Radutu takes a special approach: she does not duet with the dead, but allows herself to be accompanied, carried and inspired. Her own virtuosity remains the center of the evening, while the spirits of the greats gently breathe along with her.

Works by and with Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Scriabin, Kapustin, Gershwin and the contemporary composer Margareta Ferek-Petrič are on the program. And as the crowning finale: a work by Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson, originally written
for five pianos – realized in this form for the first time by just one pianist and a Spirio concert grand piano.

A concert like looking through an acoustic kaleidoscope: past, present and future are refracted in a sparkling variety of sounds.

– VITA –

The Austrian-Romanian pianist Maria Radutu crosses borders and is known for her dramatic albums and recitals. In her solo format “Maria Radutu is____ .”, the podcast “PianoBox” and the music chamber play “All About Eve” with Sophie Heinrich, she crosses the threshold between stage and audience and provides insights into the creation of her interpretation.

Her solo career has taken her to Europe, Asia and the USA in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Prince Mahidol Hall in Bangkok, the Great Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Vienna State Opera, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Sala Radio in Bucharest, the Smith Center in Las Vegas and the National Concert Hall in Taipei. She has performed as a soloist with the Vienna RSO, the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Orquesta Clasica Santa Cecilia, the Cottbus Philharmonic Orchestra, the California Symphony and the Las Vegas Philharmonic, among others.

Her album “Phoenix” reached half a million streams, her previous album “Insomnia” was released by Decca Records accompanied by music videos and was reviewed as a “first-class listening experience” (Die Presse). She curated her own subscription series at MuTh, was director of the PhilKlang Wien ensemble, merged music and modern dance on an equal footing in a program with solo dancers and choreographer Eno Peçi, and united classical music and jazz in a modern sound language with Christoph Cech and his Jazz Orchestra Project.

Radutu can look back on an extraordinary discography, which includes a dramaturgically designed trilogy “Joujoux – Insomnia – Phoenix” and Shostakovich’s first piano concerto with the RSO under Dirk Kaftan. A whole series of works have been dedicated to her, such as the piano concertos “The Orgy of Oxymorons” by Margareta Ferek-Petric (premiere in 2022 with the Vienna RSO at musikprotokoll Graz) and “Rhapsody in Delicate Blue” by Christoph Cech (premiere in 2024 at the Keys to Heaven Piano Festival).

Maria Radutu is a Steinway Artist and Artistic Director of the Keys to Heaven Piano Festival at Esterhazy Palace, an annual festival held in spring to experience three days and nights of piano music in a wide variety of facets and formats.