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Alfred Brendel, who was considered one of the world’s most accomplished pianists, has died at the age of 94.
His representatives confirmed the composer and poet died peacefully in London surrounded by his loved ones on Tuesday.
Most critics have acknowledged him as one of the foremost interpreters of the works of Beethoven.
A statement from his spokesman added that Brendel would “be remembered and celebrated with deep gratitude by his family – partner Maria Majno, Irene Brendel, his children, Doris, Adrian, Sophie and Katharina, and his four grandchildren.”
The musician was also known as an acclaimed essayist and poet, with an irrepressible sense of humour.
He often cited his first musical memory as “winding up a gramophone playing opera records, and trying to sing along to it”.
Alfred Brendel was born on 5 January 1931 in Wiesenberg in northern Moravia (now the Czech Republic). He attributed his somewhat absurd view of the world to his experiences moving around with his parents in war-torn Austria.
Unlike many successful musicians, none of his family were musical and he had no particular talent for the art when he was a child.
Eventually he took piano lessons in then Yugoslavia and went to study at the Graz Conservatory in Austria.
Later in Lucerne, he took master classes with Edwin Fischer, the musician credited by Brendel with having the most enduring influence on him, and teaching him to play passionately within the bounds of classicism.
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He concentrated on his favourite composers
Remarkably, this formal training ended at 16 and, apart from attending further master classes and listening to other pianists, he explored the possibilities of the piano on his own.
“A teacher can be too influential,” he once said. “Being self-taught, I learned to distrust anything I hadn’t figured out myself.”
He made his public performing debut at Graz in 1948, aged 17. Originally a Liszt specialist, Brendel extended his repertoire to include the music of mainly central European composers, but purposely avoided modern music.
Latecomer
He preferred to chart his own process of creativity and power of interpretation by always concentrating on the works of his favourite classical composers.
His career took him to concert platforms across the world, but he decided in 1971 to make his home in London.
He recorded Beethoven’s Piano Concertos four times, lastly with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999.
This performance was under the guiding baton of Sir Simon Rattle, with whom Brendel shared a longstanding, prodigious musical partnership.
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Brendel’s last concert performance was in Vienna in 2008
He was made a KBE in1989, although his Austrian passport meant it was an honorary title.
A comparative latecomer to the international stage, the full stature of Brendel’s talent only became apparent at the age of 45.
His playing was distinguished by its emotional intensity within the disciplines of the musical framework, and by his apparent empathy with the composers’ intentions.
In later life, back trouble hampered his performances of more titanic pieces, but he explained that this enabled him to enjoy more fully the richness of the less physically demanding work of Bach and Schumann, as well as his favourite sonatas.
He always returned to his “beloved Beethoven”, for whom “his admiration grew by the day, if not the hour”.
Hearing loss
Brendel listed his hobbies in Who’s Who as “unintentional humour and the collection of kitsch”.
Visitors to his north London home were often surprised by the quirky pictures and ornaments, as well as the skeletal hand that popped out of the grand piano when they raised the lid.
His first book of essays, Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts, published in 1976, contained allusions to his musical work, but was not limited by it.
One of his hobbies was ‘unintentional humour’
In 1998, the publication of his book of poetry, One Finger Too Many, shared his good humour and his fascination with all things cultural.
He was awarded the Herbert von Karajan music prize for lifetime achievement in December 2008 in Baden-Baden, southern Germany.
Later that month he made his final appearance on the concert platform in Vienna, where he was the soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto no 9.
It was voted one of the 100 greatest cultural moments of the decade by The Daily Telegraph.
Shortly afterward, he suffered an acute hearing loss, according to German state broadcaster DW, and was only able to hear distorted tones.
In his latter years, he still travelled to give lectures and readings and held masterclasses for young musicians.
A man whose determinedly narrow musical repertoire allowed him to seek perfection at the piano, Alfred Brendel’s written work displayed a mind of much wider-ranging intellect.
Inside the evening jacket of the disciplined concert artist lay an irreverent commentator on the absurdity of the world, who saw laughter as the distinguishing feature of humanity.
