Alfred Brendel, the Czech-born Austrian pianist, writer, composer, and lecturer, passed away on Tuesday (June 17) at his home in London. He was 94.
Largely self-taught after the age of 16, Brendel followed a unique path to the top. As a teenager, he was already an author and an exhibited painter. At the age of 14, in the final days of the Second World War, he dug trenches in Yugoslavia. In 1949 he won fourth prize at the Busoni competition.
As a result of his cerebral approach, he was often described as “a musician’s musician.” As a commentator, he famously reminded us that “the word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent.'” His approach as a thoughtful musical interpreter was summed up in the following quote: “If I belong to a tradition it is a tradition that makes the masterpiece tell the performer what he should do and not the performer telling the piece what it should be like, or the composer what he ought to have composed.”
Brendel was a prodigious writer of poetry and essays on music. His final concert occurred in Vienna on December 18, 2008
Central to Alfred Brendel’s repertoire was the music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. Here are three recordings:
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 73 “Emperor”
I. Allegro:
II. Adagio un poco moto:
III. Rondo. Allegro ma non troppo:
Schubert: Four Impromptus, D 899, Op 90
Liszt: Weinachtsbaum, S.186, Schlummerlied (Lullaby)
Recordings
- Explore Alfred Brendel’s complete discography.