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Alfred Brendel

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Alfred Brendel was an Austrian pianist, poet and writer, born in Czechoslovakia in 1931 and based in London. He grew up in Zagreb and Graz, where his father was, among other things, a hotel manager and a cinema manager. He had piano lessons from the age of six and after the age of sixteen was largely self-taught. At seventeen he gave his first public recital in Graz, with a programme on the fugue in piano music. In 1949 he won fourth prize at the Busoni Competition in Bolzano.

Music and breakthrough

He made his first recording in 1950, of Prokofiev's Fifth Piano Concerto. In 1952 he was the first to record Liszt's Weihnachtsbaum. He made three complete recordings of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas and was the first to record all of Beethoven's solo works. His international breakthrough came after a Beethoven recital at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, after which three record companies phoned his manager. In 1971 he moved to Hampstead. For Philips he recorded Mozart's piano concertos with Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He also played a great deal of Liszt, Brahms, Schumann and above all Schubert.

Influence

Brendel gave concerts in Europe, the United States, South America, Japan and Australia, and had a close bond with the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. He died in 2025. He showed that a pianist who thinks, writes and paints can also play the great classical works with fresh attention, and his recordings remain a benchmark for Beethoven and Schubert.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to the Diabelli Variations (1972) and notice how he gives each variation its own character, from humour to gravity.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists