Wikipedia

Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel
KBE
Brendel in 2010
Born(1931-01-05)5 January 1931
Vizmberk, Czechoslovakia
Died17 June 2025(2025-06-17) (aged 94)
London, England
EducationGraz Conservatory
Occupations
  • Pianist
  • composer
  • writer
Awards
Websitealfredbrendel.com

Alfred Brendel (5 January 1931 – 17 June 2025) was a Czech-born Austrian classical pianist, poet, author, composer and lecturer, based in London. He is noted for his performances of music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and Franz Liszt. He made three recordings of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas and was the first pianist to record Beethoven's complete works for solo piano.

Life and career

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Brendel was born in Vizmberk,[a] Czechoslovakia (now Loučná nad Desnou, Czech Republic) on 5 January 1931 to a non-musical family.[1][2][3] They moved to Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia) when he was three years old and he began piano lessons there, with Sofija Deželić, at age six.[4][5] The family later moved to Graz, Austria, following the father who worked as an architectural engineer, businessman, resort hotel manager and cinema director.[2] He studied piano with Ludovica von Kaan at the Graz Conservatory and composition with Artur Michl.[6][7] Towards the end of World War II, the 14-year-old Brendel was sent back to Yugoslavia to dig trenches.[8]

After the war, Brendel composed music as well as continuing to play the piano, to write and to paint; he never had more formal piano lessons and was largely self-taught after age 16.[5][9]

Aged 17, Brendel first performed publicly in Graz.[10][11] His programme, titled "The Fugue in Piano Literature", included fugal works by Bach, Brahms and Liszt, as well as a piano sonata he had composed,[1][12] featuring a double fugue.[1] He also published writings and exhibited art.[1] In 1949 he won fourth prize in the Ferruccio Busoni Piano Competition in Bolzano, Italy.[1] Subsequent tours in Europe and Latin America began to establish his reputation, and he took master classes with Paul Baumgartner, Eduard Steuermann and Edwin Fischer.[9]

Brendel's first recording was of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 5 in 1950. Two years later, he made the world premiere recording of Liszt's Weihnachtsbaum.[13] He went on to make other strings of recordings, including three complete sets of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas (one on Vox Records and two on Philips Records). He was the first performer to record Beethoven's complete solo piano works.[1][10]

Brendel's international breakthrough came after a recital of Beethoven at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London; the following day, three major record labels called his agent. In 1971 he moved to Hampstead, London, where he lived for the rest of his life.[11][failed verification] After the 1970s, Brendel recorded for Philips Classics Records.[10][14] He recorded Mozart's piano concertos[10] with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields,[15] which is included in the 180-CD complete Mozart Edition.[16] He also recorded numerous works by Liszt, Brahms, Robert Schumann, and particularly Franz Schubert.[10][17]

Brendel completed many tours in Europe, the United States, South America, Japan and Australia.[18] He had a particularly close association with both the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic; he is only the third pianist (after Emil von Sauer and Wilhelm Backhaus) to have been awarded honorary membership of the Vienna Philharmonic, and he was awarded the Hans von Bülow Medal by the Berlin Philharmonic.[12] He played regularly with all major orchestras in the US and elsewhere,[19] performing many cycles of Beethoven's piano sonatas and concertos. He was one of few pianists able to fill large halls even in later years.[19][20]

Brendel worked with younger pianists such as Paul Lewis,[21] Amandine Savary,[22] Till Fellner[23] and Kit Armstrong.[24][25] He also performed in concert and recorded with his son, the cellist Adrian Brendel [de][26] and appeared in many Lieder recitals with singers including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Matthias Goerne.[27]

In 2007, Brendel announced that he would retire from the concert platform after his concert of 18 December 2008 in Vienna,[10] which featured him as soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9; the orchestra (the Vienna Philharmonic) was conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.[28] His final concert in New York was at Carnegie Hall on 20 February 2008, with works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Since his debut at Carnegie Hall on 21 January 1973, he performed there 81 times, including complete cycles of Beethoven's piano sonatas in 1983.[29]

In April 2007 Brendel was one of the initial signatories of the "Appeal for the Establishment of a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations".[30]

In 2009 Brendel was featured in the German-Austrian documentary Pianomania, about a Steinway & Sons piano tuner, directed by Lilian Franck and Robert Cibis.[31] The film premiered theatrically in North America, where it was met with positive reviews by The New York Times.[32]

Personal life

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Brendel was married from 1960 to 1972 to Iris Heymann-Gonzala; they had a daughter, Doris, who became a progressive rock and pop rock musician. In 1975, Brendel married Irene Semler; they had three children, a son, Adrian, who became a cellist, and two daughters, Katharina and Sophie.[19] They lived in Hampstead, London.[11]

Brendel died at his home in London on 17 June 2025, at the age of 94.[1][33][10][34][35]

Work

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Brendel performed series of the music of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart and Liszt.[11] He was particularly close to the works of Schubert, described by Gerald Felber from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as of "luminous warmth, vulnerable and sad, painfully transience-conscious and at the same time dreamlike" and "obsessed with beauty".[15] Brendel performed and recorded little of the music of Frédéric Chopin, but not because of lack of admiration for the composer; considering his Preludes "the most glorious achievement in piano music after Beethoven and Schubert".[12] Brendel saw Liszt as a misunderstood composer, as exposed in an essay of the 1960s, "Der mißverstandene Liszt", and devoted performances and recordings to a discovery of Liszt as a serious composer, not without critically seeing weak points also.[36] Brendel played relatively few 20th-century works but did perform Schoenberg's Piano Concerto.

Harold C. Schonberg from the New York Times noted that some critics accused the pianist of "pedanticism".[37] Brendel's playing was sometimes described as "cerebral",[38] and he said that he believed that the primary job of the pianist is to respect the composer's wishes without showing off himself, or adding his own spin on the music: "I am responsible to the composer, and particularly to the piece".[19] Brendel cited, in addition to his mentor and teacher Edwin Fischer, pianists Alfred Cortot and Wilhelm Kempff, and the conductors Bruno Walter and Wilhelm Furtwängler as particular influences on his musical development.[39][40][41]

Reviewing his 1993 Beethoven: The Late Piano Sonatas (Philips Duo 438374), Damian Thompson of The Daily Telegraph described it as "a more magisterial approach ... sprinkled with touches of Brendel's strange, quirky humour."[42]

Recordings

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Main article: Alfred Brendel discography

Publications

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Brendel was a prolific author. His writings have appeared in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, and other languages. For several years, he was a contributor to The New York Review of Books.[43] His own books include:

  • 1976: Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts, essays, Robson Books[44]
  • 1990: Music Sounded Out, essays including "Must Classical Music be Entirely Serious?", Farrar Straus Giroux[45]
  • 1998: One Finger Too Many, poetry, Random House[46]
  • 2001: Alfred Brendel on Music, collected essays, A Cappella[47]
  • 2003: Me, of All People: Alfred Brendel in Conversation with Martin Meyer (UK edition: The Veil of Order), Cornell University Press[41]
  • 2004, Cursing Bagels, poetry, Faber & Faber[48]
  • 2010: Playing the Human Game, collected poems, Phaidon Press[49]
  • 2013: A Pianist's A–Z: A Piano Lover's Reader. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-30184-3.

Awards and accolades

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Brendel was awarded honorary doctorates from universities including London (1978), Oxford (1983), Yale (1992), University College Dublin (2007),[65] McGill Montreal (2011), Cambridge (2012) and York (2018) and held other honorary degrees from the Royal College of Music in London (1999), New England Conservatory (2009), University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar (2009) and the Juilliard School (2011). He was an honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford,[1][66] Wolfson College, Oxford, and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He received Lifetime Achievement Awards by Edison, International Classical Music Awards, and Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, among others.[62][64]

In 2012, Limelight asked 100 pianists which other pianist inspired them the most. In addition to his student, Paul Lewis, Brendel was mentioned by three others.[67] He was included in Peter Donohoe's "Fifty Great Pianists" series for BBC Radio 3, which aired in 2012.[68][69][70]

Notes

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  1. ^ Vizmberk had formerly been called Wiesenberg when it had been part of Austria-Hungary, but was renamed after the creation of Czechoslovakia following the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Tilden, Imogen (17 June 2025). "Celebrated pianist and writer Alfred Brendel dies aged 94". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  2. ^ a b Lunden, Jeff (31 December 1969). "Alfred Brendel, the cerebral pianist with a dry wit, dies at 94". NCPR. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  3. ^ Dethlefs, Philip (5 January 2021). ""Meine Eltern waren nicht musisch"". Musik heute (in German). dpa. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  4. ^ Millington, Barry (17 June 2025). "Alfred Brendel obituary". The Guardian.
  5. ^ a b "Alfred Brendel, pianist renowned for refined playing of Beethoven, dies at age 94". The Washington Post. Associated Press. 17 June 2025. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  6. ^ "Österreichischer Starpianist Alfred Brendel ist tot". Der Spiegel (in German). 17 June 2025. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  7. ^ "Hommage à Alfred Brendel". Kunstuniversität Graz (in German). 30 January 2024. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  8. ^ Judd, Timothy (18 June 2025). "Remembering Alfred Brendel". The Listeners' Club. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  9. ^ a b "Alfred Brendel: Life & Career". alfredbrendel.com. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g "Remembering Alfred Brendel, who has died at the age of 94". Gramophone. 17 June 2025. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
  11. ^ a b c d Plaistow, Stephen (2007). "Brendel, Alfred". Grove Music Online. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
  12. ^ a b c Francis Merson, "Alfred Brendel: Notes on a Musical Life", Limelight, April 2016, p. 40
  13. ^ Uncle Dave Lewis. "Liszt: Weihnachtsbaum; L'arbre de Noël; The Christmas Tree". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  14. ^ Anthony Holden (8 January 2006). "Alfred Brendel, A Personal 75th Birthday Selection". The Observer. London. Retrieved 21 November 2007.
  15. ^ a b Felber, Gerald (18 June 2025). "Verletzliche Schönheit". FAZ (in German). Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  16. ^ Kinderman, William (30 November 2006). Mozart's Piano Music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-988016-4.
  17. ^ "Alfred Brendel : Recordings". alfredbrendel.com. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  18. ^ Cummings, David M. (1 January 2000). International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory: (in the Classical and Light Classical Fields). Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-948875-53-3.
  19. ^ a b c d Nicholas Wroe (5 October 2002). "Keeper of the flame". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 November 2007.
  20. ^ Bernard Holland (3 May 1981). "Alfred Brendel Has Taken the Wrong Roads to Success". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  21. ^ "The Sorcerer's Apprentice Alfred Brendel and Paul Lewis Playing Schubert with no Middleman". interlude.hk. 2 October 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  22. ^ "Des œuvres de Schubert présentes depuis toujours, entretien avec Amandine Savary (Interview in French)". www.classicagenda.fr. 19 April 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  23. ^ "Till Fellner, Pianist (article in German)". www.staatsoper-stuttgart.de. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  24. ^ Stephen Plaistow (15 December 2008). "'I've had a lot of fun' Alfred Brendel talks to Stephen Plaistow about inspirations, aching limbs and mastering Mozart". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  25. ^ "Set the Piano Stool on Fire reveals the relationship between a master and his prodigy". Independent.co.uk. 23 October 2011. Archived from the original on 1 October 2011. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  26. ^ Andrew Clements (1 July 2003). "Adrian and Alfred Brendel (Wigmore Hall, London)". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
  27. ^ Warrack, John (September 2004). "Schubert Winterreise". Gramophone. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  28. ^ Charlotte Higgins (21 November 2007). "Alfred Brendel, piano maestro, calls time on concert career". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 November 2007.
  29. ^ Carnegie Hall archive
  30. ^ "Featured Signatories" Archived 3 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Campaign for a UN Parliament, 2007. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
  31. ^ Cibis, Robert; Franck, Lilian (2011), Pianomania, [U.K.]: Crabtree Films, OCLC 1114562059
  32. ^ Dargis, Manohla (3 November 2011). "A Master of the Piano Whose Performances Receive No Applause". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  33. ^ "Alfred Brendel, le pianiste qui tutoyait Beethoven et Schubert, est mort" [Alfred Brendel, the pianist who played on first-name terms with Beethoven and Schubert, has died] (in French). 17 June 2025 – via Le Monde. He died on Tuesday, June 17, at the age of 94
  34. ^ Lewis, Daniel (17 June 2025). "Alfred Brendel, Bravura Pianist Who Forged a Singular Path, Dies at 94". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  35. ^ Cammann, Alexander (18 June 2025). "Alfred Brendel: Ein letzter Ton". Die Zeit (in German). Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  36. ^ "Ein Leben mit Liszt – Eloquence veröffentlicht Alfred Brendels Liszt-Einspielungen in einer 5 CD-Box". Klassikakzente (in German). 20 October 2011. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  37. ^ The Great Pianists from Mozart to the Present, Harold C. Schonberg, Simon & Schuster, Second Edition, 1987, ISBN 0-671-63837-8
  38. ^ Tom Service (16 June 2003). "Alfred Brendel (Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk)". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 November 2007.
  39. ^ Wroe, Nicholas (4 October 2002). "Profile: Alfred Brendel". the Guardian. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  40. ^ "Brendel: Furtwängler" (PDF). Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  41. ^ a b Brendel, Alfred; Meyer, Martin (2002). Me of All People. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-4099-1.
  42. ^ Thompson, Damian (28 January 2010). "Who is the greatest interpreter of Beethoven's piano music?". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  43. ^ "Alfred Brendel". The New York Review. 27 October 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  44. ^ Kivy, Peter (1 December 1977). "Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts by Alfred Brendel". The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 36 (2): 239–240. doi:10.2307/429775. JSTOR 429775. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  45. ^ Brendel, Alfred (1991). Music sounded out : Essays, lectures, interviews, afterthoughts. Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-21651-1.
  46. ^ "The Richmond Review, Book Review, One Finger Too Many by Alfred Brendel, English versions by the author with Richard Stokes". The Richmond Review, What's New.
  47. ^ Brendel, Alfred (2001). Alfred Brendel on Music. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-55652-408-0.
  48. ^ Barron, James (22 April 2004). "If Brendel Were a Bagel, He Would Be an Everything". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  49. ^ Brendel, Alfred (16 February 2011). Alfred Brendel: Playing the Human Game. London ; New York: Phaidon Press. ISBN 978-0-7148-5986-6. OCLC 720542411. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  50. ^ Fullbrook, Danny (17 June 2025). "World-famous pianist Alfred Brendel dies aged 94". BBC Home. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  51. ^ "Brendel". ORDEN POUR LE MÉRITE (in German). Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  52. ^ "In memory of Alfred Brendel". Berliner Philharmoniker. 17 June 2025. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  53. ^ "Alfred Brendel". AustriaWiki im Austria-Forum (in German). 21 January 2021. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  54. ^ a b c "HMTM Hannover: Zu Gast: Alfred Brendel". Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover (in German). Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  55. ^ "Alfred Brendel". Léonie Sonnings Musikpris. 3 May 2002. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  56. ^ "Alfred Brendel". evs-musikstiftung. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  57. ^ "All Laureates – Praemium Imperiale". Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  58. ^ "Alfred Brendel – Praemium Imperiale". Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  59. ^ Morrison, Richard (3 October 2009). "Alfred Brendel on retiring from the concert hall and his books of poetry". The Times. London. Retrieved 23 April 2010.[dead link]
  60. ^ "Eröffnung des Liszt-Jahres". Deutschlandfunk Kultur (in German). 4 February 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  61. ^ Thurman, Judith (3 November 2011). "Alfred Brendel's Last Master Class". The New Yorker. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  62. ^ a b "Alfred Brendel (pianist)". Gramophone. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  63. ^ "Alfred Brendel: "Verneige mich vor dem Wunder Mozart"". Salzburger Nachrichten (in German). 27 January 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  64. ^ a b "ECHO KLASSIK Lifetime Achievement Award". Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  65. ^ "History of Music at UCD 1914–2019" by Wolfgang Marx, UCD School of Music
  66. ^ "Exeter College Oxford". University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 18 June 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  67. ^ Merson, Francis (5 July 2012). "The 10 Greatest Pianists of All Time". Limelight. Archived from the original on 18 April 2014.
  68. ^ "Fifty Great Pianists auf BBCs Radio 3" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  69. ^ "Alfred Brendel and Wilhelm Kempff – Peter Donohoe's Fifty Great Pianists". Breakfast. BBC Radio 3. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  70. ^ "Fifty Great Pianists auf BBCs Radio 3 – Peter Donohoe" (in German). peter-donohoe.com. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2017.

Further reading

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