Otto Buchner was a German violinist and teacher born (in Nuremberg) on
September 10, 1924. He is well known
(among aficionados) as a specialist in the solo violin sonatas by JS Bach. Buchner founded a string chamber orchestra based in Munich in 1962. He taught at the Munich Conservatory for many
years too. One source states (without citing the years, so it is debatable) he was also concertmaster of the
Bavarian State Opera Orchestra (associated with Carlos Kleiber for many years)
as well as concertmaster of the Munich Philharmonic. His recording of Bach’s Brandenburg
concertos, with the Munich Bach Soloists (founded in 1982), may well be the
best of all time. You can hear the first
movement of number 4 here and judge for yourself. Those of you who know these works or have
played them know how difficult number 4 is for the solo violin. The complete version of the concertos is
here. The first movement of the second Brandenburg Concerto in the set is included among the music works sent into space on the Golden Record which is attached to the spacecraft Voyager 1. If an extraterrestrial finds it, they might like the music and enjoy Buchner's playing although they probably won't know it's him playing - unless that information is included in the Golden Record but I don't think it is. Buchner also recorded many Bach solo
works which are easily found on the internet.
He played a Stradivarius violin dated 1727. Buchner died on September 28, 2008, at age
84.
