Alfred Brendel in performance with the New York Philharmonic. He made multiple appearances with the Philharmonic between his 1971 debut and his final appearance in 2000. Photo: New York Philharmonic Facebook.
In Friday’s (6/20) Guardian (U.K.), Martin Kettle writes, “Alfred Brendel would have scorned the suggestion he was the world’s leading pianist…. Yet, for a generation of musicians, especially in Britain, where he lived the second half of his long life … Brendel was … the pianist whose recitals they would never miss, the one whose recordings they felt came closest to definitiveness, and he was the artist whose performances seemed unmatched in their objectivity, balance and color, seriousness and depth. For the listeners of his era, he was, quite simply, the pianist of pianists. Brendel, who died this week at his London home at the age of 94, was never best known for his piano pyrotechnics…. Brendel’s technique was of the highest order, but it was always at the service of the music and the listener.” Brendel gave recitals at the world’s leading concert halls and performed with orchestras throughout the U.S. and internationally. “He was known for his authority in the works of the Austro-German masters … But … he always kept up with contemporary music…. Piano playing was, of course, the thing he did best … He was [also] a writer, a poet and a painter as well as a musician, a teacher, a public intellectual and a man of wide sensibilities.”
