Alfred Brendel - Biography
Alfred Brendel the celebrated Austrian pianist was born on January 5th 1931 in Vizmber which is now part of the Czech Republic when he was six he moved to Zagreb Croatia and eventually to Graz Austria. Though largely self taught he attended master classes with famed Swiss pianist Edwin Fischer. Brendel was also a composer during this early period of his career. When he was only 21 he made the first of his many recordings when he recorded the Fifth Prokofiev Piano Concerto. This brought him to the attention of George Mendelssohn who owned and ran the Vox Record Company in New York besides making recordings of popular classics at a budget price he recorded a huge amount of under recorded chamber and instrumental music with talented but little known younger artists of which Brendel was one. These appeared on the three record Vox Boxes with r notes. Brendel recorded for Vox in the 1950’s and 60’s all of the Beethoven Piano Music, selected Mozart Piano Concertos, Schubert piano music and a lot of Liszt. Though he does not normally play much romantic music (he rarely performed Chopin) he has a strong affinity with the music of Liszt which he plays in a poetic fashion reminiscent of a pianist who he has noted as an influence, Wilhelm Kempff. Though these recordings made him well known to record collectors he was not yet an artist with a large international reputation. This didn’t change until around 1970 when he started giving recitals in London which launched his career as a major international artist. He at the same time was given a recording contract as an artist on Philips which were far more widely distributed then Vox and offered their state of the art recording quality. Brendel began to become the sort of artist that pianist Artur Schnabel in the 30’s and 40’s a master of classical style who gives authoritative performances of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. Brendel also has a strong feeling for 20th century music of a cerebral bent like Busoni, Schoenberg and Berg. Besides Liszt the other romantic composer he often plays was Schumann.
Brendel has wriiten a number of books on music and even a volume of poetry. Though his podium style has been sometimes described as awkward (like the very similar pianist Rudolf Serkin) his authority and concentration are never in doubt. He has an engaging personality and a sly wit that I have seen in interviews. He is a tall man with often unruly hair and a characteristic probing stare behind black horn rim glasses that often adorn many of his album covers (he bears a passing resemblance to Michael Caine). He is a long time resident of London where he lives with his second wife Irene. He has a young son Adrian who is a cellist and with whom he has made recordings. Besides his work as a soloist he made many fine recordings of a chamber music and is a superb accompanist of Schubert and Schumann songs where his unparalleled understanding particularly of Schubert’s style has been an adornment to many vocal recitals. Alfred Brendel retired from concert performing in December 2008.