Alfred Brendel, the Czech-born Austrian pianist, author, composer, and lecturer, handed away on Tuesday (June 17) at his house in London. He was 94.
Largely self-taught after the age of 16, Brendel adopted a singular path to the highest. As an adolescent, he was already an writer and an exhibited painter. On the age of 14, within the last days of the Second World Conflict, he dug trenches in Yugoslavia. In 1949 he gained fourth prize on the Busoni competitors.
On account of his cerebral method, he was usually described as “a musician’s musician.” As a commentator, he famously reminded us that “the phrase ‘pay attention’ comprises the identical letters because the phrase ‘silent.’” His method as a considerate musical interpreter was summed up within the following quote: “If I belong to a convention it’s a custom that makes the masterpiece inform the performer what he ought to do and never the performer telling the piece what it ought to be like, or the composer what he must have composed.”
Brendel was a prodigious author of poetry and essays on music. His last live performance occurred in Vienna on December 18, 2008
Central to Alfred Brendel’s repertoire was the music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. Listed below are three recordings:
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Main, Op. 73 “Emperor”
I. Allegro:
II. Adagio un poco moto:
III. Rondo. Allegro ma non troppo:
