Alfred Brendel
Alfred Brendel is the preeminent thinking pianist, a loner to whom fame came through the power of imaginative integrity, an artist who has achieved -- at his best -- a divinatory rapport with piano literature from Bach to Schoenberg. Yet by his account, "I did not come from a musical or intellectual family....I have not been a child prodigy. I do not have a photographic memory; neither do I play faster than other people. I am not a good sight-reader." Born in Wiesenberg, Moravia -- in the latter-day Czech Republic -- in 1931, he received piano lessons from ages 6 to 16, as the family moved from Zagreb to Graz, and studied composition privately while supporting himself in a variety of odd jobs. Brendel was among the first generation to learn from recordings, the legacies of Cortot, Kempff, Schnabel, Furtwängler, and Toscanini proving especially valuable. Master classes with Eduard Steuermann -- a pupil of Busoni and Schoenberg -- and Edwin Fischer crowned his scarce tuition. A 1948 debut recital in Graz marked the beginning of his career, launched by taking a prize at the Busoni Competition in Bolzano in 1949. Busoni's example, his mysticism and Faustian striving, fascinated the young Brendel -- he recorded Busoni's Fantasia Contrappuntistica in the early 1950s -- but proved a detour while prompting an extraordinary insight into the music of Liszt. The ensnaring and gradual liberation from Busoni's influence may be traced in the several essays Brendel wrote about him in Musical Thoughts & After-Thoughts. Fischer came to mean more. "With Fischer," Brendel wrote in 1960, "one was in more immediate contact with the music: there was no curtain before the soul when he communicated with the audience. One other musician, Furtwängler, conveyed to the same degree this sensation of music not being played, but rather happening by itself." Armed with such ideals, Brendel embarked upon an international recital and recording career which, in the decade of the 1960s, saw his reputation grow throughout Europe and North America as he became a frequent guest with the world's greatest orchestras. He performed the entire cycle of Beethoven sonatas in London's Wigmore Hall in 1962, and recorded them for Vox. In the 1970s he became an exclusive Philips artist, touring and recording prolifically, not only the Classical masters -- Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann -- but Liszt, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Bartók, and Schoenberg, and garnering numerous awards. He has published books of comedic poetry and musical criticism. In 2004 he appeared in concert with his son, cellist Adrian Brendel. Brendel announced his retirement in 2007 and undertook one last, worldwide concert and recital tour, ending in Vienna in December 2008, performing, appropriately enough, Mozart's "Jeunehomme" Piano Concerto.
© TiVo
Similar artists
-
Schubert: 6 Moments musicaux, D. 780 & 3 Impromptus, D. 946 (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Sonatas K.322, K.333 & K.457
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brendel plays Liszt
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 26 Feb 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: The Piano Concertos, Vol.4
Alfred Brendel, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alfred Brendel plays Schumann
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 9 Dec 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Piano Sonata In C minor, D958; 6 Moments Musicaux, D.780
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 24; Concert Rondo, K.382
Alfred Brendel, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos.16-18
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: The Late Piano Sonatas
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Klavierkonzert Nr. 3 & 4
Alfred Brendel, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
Classical - Released by Decca on 1 Jan 1976
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Années de pèlerinage: Deuxième année - Italie
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Impromptus & Wandererfantasie
Classical - Released by Artemisia on 13 Sep 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brendel - Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emporer" Choral Fantasy Op. 80
Classical - Released by Denon on 1 Jan 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 5 "Emperor" & Rondo, WoO 6 (1995 Remastered Version)
Alfred Brendel, Vienna Volksoper Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Heinz Wallberg, Zubin Mehta
Concertos - Released by Vox on 28 Jul 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Op.2 Nos.1-3
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: The Piano Concertos, Vol.2
Alfred Brendel, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MOZART: Complete Solo Piano Concertos (The VoxBox Edition)
Classical - Released by Vox on 4 Nov 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt / Hungarian Rhapsodies
Classical - Released by ISMCDigital on 7 Feb 1966
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alfred Brendel - Live
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alfred Brendel plays Liszt & Schumann
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos.1 & 4
Alfred Brendel, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo