Alfred Brendel, 1931-2025
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Gift link. The Times has the best obits.
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R.I.P. maestro.
Not my favourite pianist by any means. I found his interpretations of Beethoven and Liszt pretty dry and academic. His Mozart and Haydn recordings were however among the best out there. He was also a fine musicologist. He was certainly there up along with the likes of Wilhelm Kempf, as a highly respected musician and latter half twentieth century pianist.
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@Klaus said in Alfred Brendel, 1931-2025:
I believe his deserved nickname is Brendull.
He didn't start out that way. I liked his recordings of Beethoven early in his career. His Schubert was decent, and I enjoyed his Haydn. His later recordings of Beethoven I found less engaging though technically fine. Some of his last recordings seemed to be a bit more heartfelt than that huge expanse in the middle of his career. Nearly everything he did could e bettered by other performers.
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Tough crowd.
I rather suspect that my obituary will also include the phrase 'Nearly everything he did could be bettered by others', at least if it's written by anybody who actually knows me.
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Interesting presentation. Beehoves me to listen again to some of Brendel’s recordings of Beethoven. Not sure about Liszt though - I remain convinced that he never “got” Liszt the same way as did the likes of Horowitz, Arrau, Cziffra, Ogden, Wild, Bolet and Argerich.
Elbows up!
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Interesting presentation. Beehoves me to listen again to some of Brendel’s recordings of Beethoven. Not sure about Liszt though - I remain convinced that he never “got” Liszt the same way as did the likes of Horowitz, Arrau, Cziffra, Ogden, Wild, Bolet and Argerich.
I agree, having listened to his Bm sonata last night.
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Had to listen to Brendel’s recording of Liszt’s B minor Sonata recording during an undergrad Music History course. The prof, a vocal disparager of Liszt and his music, loved the recording and praised it to no end in class. At the time I had already owned two recordings (still have the vinyls) of the sonata - Arrau’s and Argerich’s.
The word “trite” best describes Brendel’s interpretation in comparison to Arrau and, at the time, a very youthful, Martha Argerich.
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