Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel (1931- ), Austrian pianist, resident in London since 1974. Acknowledged as one of the world's most thoughtful interpreters, Brendel studied from 1937 with Sofia Dezelic in Zagreb and from 1943 to 1947 with Ludovika von Kaan in Graz, where he also attended master-classes given by Eduard Steuermann and Edwin Fischer. He also studied composition, and his debut recital included his own Piano Sonata. He won a prize in the 1949 Busoni Competition and began to establish an international reputation through recordings of Liszt, Mozart, Schubert, and Schoenberg, as well as the first complete recording of all of Beethoven's piano sonatas. His other recording achievements include two complete cycles of Schubert's sonatas; a third set of Beethoven recordings was released in 1996—it had been a series of Beethoven performances at the Wigmore Hall, London, in 1962 and a tour of North America in 1963 that secured his position at the pinnacle of his profession. He marked his 70th birthday in 2001 with a major tour including recitals and chamber music concerts.

Brendel is admired for the breadth of his repertoire, though it is as an interpreter of the great Classical and early Romantic composers that he is most renowned. His style is spontaneous and intuitive, responding to the circumstance of the moment, while at the same time being deeply considered, to the extent sometimes of seeming withdrawn. He is also a man of renowned intellect and has written two books, Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts (1976) and Music Sounded Out (1990).