Paul Badura-Skoda was an Austrian pianist. He built an international career in classical music.
At the beginning of his career, he won an Austrian music competition in 1947. He studied with Edwin Fischer, and from 1949 performed with prominent conductors including Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan.
Badura-Skoda performed more than two hundred works, with an important part of his repertoire drawn from composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. Unusually for a pianist of his stature, he employed historically informed performance practice. He became known in part through his complete recordings of Mozart and Schubert piano sonatas on historical grand pianos for the Astree label; much of his other work was released by Genuin Classics.
With his wife, Eva Halfar, he also worked as a composer and music publisher. In addition, he wrote cadenzas for piano concertos. He received an honorary doctorate from the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts.
After he donated his music collection to the Schloss Kremsegg Musical Instrument Museum in Kremsmünster, the museum established a special collection devoted to him. His distinctions included the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class; the Bösendorfer Ring; appointment as a Knight of the Legion of Honour; appointment as a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters; the Decoration of Honour for Services to the State of Vienna; and the Grand Silver Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria.