Born in Wiesenberg, Moravia (in the present-day Czech Republic), on
5 January 1931, Alfred Brendel hails from a diverse background -- both
artistically and personally -- with family roots in Austrian, German,
Italian, and Slavic ancestry. At the age of three, his family moved
to Yugoslavia and it was there that he heard his first phonograph records,
which he played for guests of his father's hotel (sometimes even singing
along!). He began playing the piano at the age of six and went on to
study piano, composition, and conducting in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, and
Graz, Austria. While continuing his piano studies and making his début
as a pianist in 1948, Brendel also actively pursued his other interests,
including painting, composing, and literature. At the time of this first
recital (a rather serious affair entitled "The Fugue in Piano Literature"
with pieces by Bach, Brahms, Liszt, and a double fugue of his own devising),
a gallery in Graz was showing a one-man exhibition of his watercolours.
Of his musical beginnings and development he has modestly stated, "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. I need eight
hours' sleep. I do not cancel concerts on principle, only when I am
really sick. My career was so slow and gradual that I feel something
is either wrong with me or with almost anybody else in the profession.
Literature -- reading and writing -- as well as looking at art have
taken up quite a bit of my time. When and how I should have learned
all those pieces that I have played, besides being a less than perfect
husband and father, I am at a loss to explain."
Though his formal piano lessons ended when he was sixteen, Brendel had
studied with Paul Baumgartner and later attended masterclasses given
by Eduard Steuermann and Edwin Fischer. By attending concerts in Vienna
and listening to recordings of the leading musicians of the day, Brendel
was able to supplement his own pianistic explorations and meditations
with the insights of such masters as Alfred Cortot, Wilhelm Kempff,
and Artur Schnabel; he has also expressed admiration for the conducting
of Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini, and Bruno Walter. He
has shared his thoughts on and respect for both Fischer and Furtwängler
in his essay writing.
After winning a prize in the 1949 Busoni Competition in Bolzano, Brendel
embarked on an international career. His solo recitals and appearances
with the leading orchestras of the world make him a regular guest in
London, Paris, New York, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, and Amsterdam, and
at the major European and American festivals. Despite the many demands
of his recording and concert schedules he also held master classes in
Vienna between the years 1960 and 1970. Among his many professional
and academic honours, he has won, often on more than one occasion, the
Grand Prix of the Liszt Society, the Prix Mondial du Disque, the Edison
Award, the Grand Prix des Disquaires, the Grand Prix de l'Académie
Charles Cros, the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, the Wiener Flötenuhr,
the Japanese Record Academy Award, and the Gramophone Award, as well
as other press prizes from Belgium and Italy; he holds honorary degrees
from the universities of Oxford and Yale and an honorary KBE in 1989.
In addition to his familiar mastery of Beethoven, Brendel's repertoire
ranges from Bach to Schoenberg. He has taken a prominent role in establishing
Schubert's piano sonatas and Schoenberg's Piano Concerto in the concert
repertoire, as well as rekindling interest in the compositions of Liszt.
Following his tradition of Beethoven recitals, he performed Schubert's
mature piano works in Europe, the Soviet Union, the United States, and
Japan in 1987/88.
Alfred Brendel resides with his wife, Irene, in London, where they
have been based since 1971. In addition to his performances and recording,
he personally finds thinking and writing about music both refreshing
and necessary; however he cautions that "I am always conscious
of the fact that feeling must remain the Alpha and Omega of the musician.
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