Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel (born January 5, 1931) is an Austrian pianist, born in Czechoslovakia. He is widely regarded as one of the great classical pianists of the second half of the 20th century. low res pic Alfred Brendel source: http://photos1. ... low res pic Alfred Brendel source: http://photos1. ... January 5 is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... A pianist is a person who plays the piano. ... Classical music is a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, European art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly 1000 to the present day. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...

Brendel was born in Vízmberk (now Loučná nad Desnou), Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) into a non-musical family. They moved to Zagreb when Brendel was six, and later to Graz. They lived there during World War II, towards the end of which the fourteen year old Brendel was sent to Yugoslavia to dig trenches. However, he caught frostbite and was taken to hospital. Throughout his childhood, Brendel had occasional piano lessons, but otherwise little formal music education. . Loučná nad Desnou (formerly Vízmberk, German: Wiesenberg) is a village in the Czech Republic, in Olomouc Region. ... Zagreb (pronounced: ) is the capital city of Croatia. ... The Graz Schlossberg Clock Tower Graz [graːts] (Slovenian: Gradec, pronounced grah-dets), with a population of 300,000 (in 2005) is the second-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Styria (Steiermark in German). ... This is the current Improvement Drive collaboration! World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ... Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages, in Cyrillic Југославија) is a term used for three separate but successive political entities that existed during most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. ... Frostbite (congelatio in medical terminology) is the medical condition where damage is caused to skin and other tissues due to extreme cold. ... This article is about the modern musical instrument. ...

After the war, Brendel composed music, as well as continuing to play the piano and paint. He never had any more formal piano lessons, however, and although he did attend masterclasses with Edwin Fischer and Eduard Steuermann, he is largely self-taught. A composer is a person who writes music. ... The Mona Lisa is perhaps the best-known artistic painting in the Western world. ... Edwin Fischer (October 6, 1886 – January 24, 1960) was a Swiss classical pianist and conductor. ... Eduard Steuermann (June 18, 1892 - November 11, 1964) was an American pianist and composer of Polish birth. ...

Brendel gave his first public recital in Graz at the age of seventeen. He called it "The Fugue In Piano Literature", and as well as fugal works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms and Franz Liszt, it included some of Brendel's own compositions. However, he gave up composing shortly after this to concentrate on the piano. In 1949 he won 4th prize in the Ferruccio Busoni Piano Competition in Bolzano, Italy and moved to Vienna the following year. At the age of 21, he made his first record, Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 5. He went on to make a string of other records, including three complete sets of the Ludwig van Beethoven piano sonatas (one on Vox and two on Philips). He has also recorded works by Brahms (including Brahms' Concertos), Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Unlike virtually all classical pianists, he has recorded very little Chopin other than the Polonaises (which, interestingly, have been highly praised). In music, a fugue is a type of piece written for counterpoint for several independent musical voices. ... The 1748 Haussmann portrait of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach (March 21, 1685 – July 28, 1750) was a German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together almost all of the strands of the baroque style and brought it to its ultimate... Johannes Brahms (May 7, 1833 – April 3, 1897) was a German composer of Romantic music, who predominantly lived in Vienna, Austria. ... Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. ... Ferruccio Busoni Dante Michaelangelo Benvenuto Ferruccio Busoni (April 1, 1866 – July 27, 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, music teacher and conductor. ... Coat of Arms Bolzano (Italian) or Bozen (German) is a city in the Trentino-South Tyrol (It. ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]; Hungarian: Bécs, Czech: Vídeň, Slovak: Viedeň, Romany Vidnya; Serbian: Beč) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austrias nine states (Land Wien). ... Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Russian: , Sergej Sergejevič Prokofev, 15/April 271, 1891–March 5, 1953) was a Ukrainian-born Russian composer who mastered numerous musical genres and came to be admired as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. ... A piano concerto is a concerto for solo piano and orchestra. ... Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer of classical music, who lived predominantly in Vienna, Austria. ... A piano sonata is a sonata written for unaccompanied piano. ... Robert Schumann (June 8, 1810 – July 29, 1856) was a German composer and pianist. ... Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 – November 19, 1828), was an Austrian composer, considered the last master of the Viennese Classical school and one of the earliest proponents of musical Romanticism. ...

Brendel recorded extensively for the Vox record label, but did not get a major recording contract until the 1970s, nor did he play much outside Austria. His breakthrough came after a recital of Beethoven at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the day after which three major record labels called his agent. Around the same time he moved to London. Since then, he has recorded extensively, and his fame has grown. The 1970s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1970 and 1979. ... The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, which hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. ... Part of the London skyline viewed from the South Bank London is the most populous city in the European Union, with an estimated population on 1 January 2005 of 7. ...

Brendel is today seen as one of the most thoughtful interpreters of classical Germanic works by composers such as Beethoven, Schubert and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He plays relatively few 20th century works, but is closely associated with Arnold Schoenberg's Piano Concerto. In recent years, however, he has stopped playing many of the most physically demanding pieces in the repertoire, such as the Hammerklavier Sonata of Beethoven, owing to problems with arthritis. W. A. Mozart, 1790 portrait by Johann Georg Edlinger Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) is among the most significant and enduringly popular composers of European classical music and is widely regarded as one of historys greatest composers. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1948 For the American music critic and journalist, see Harold Charles Schonberg. ... Arnold Schoenbergs Piano Concerto, Op. ... Beethovens Hammerklavier sonata, Op. ... Arthritis (from Greek arthro-, joint + -itis, inflammation) is a group of conditions that affect the health of the bone joints in the body. ...

Brendel's playing is sometimes described as being analytic, and he has said that he believes the primary job of the pianist is to respect the composer's wishes without showing off himself, or adding his own spin on the music. "I am responsible to the composer, and particularly to the piece," he has said. As well as his old teacher, Edwin Fischer, he cites Alfred Cortot, Wilhelm Kempff, and the conductors Bruno Walter and Wilhelm Furtwängler as particular influences. Musical analysis can be defined as a process attempting to answer the question how does this music work?. The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst. ... Edwin Fischer (October 6, 1886 – January 24, 1960) was a Swiss classical pianist and conductor. ... Alfred Denis Cortot (September 26, 1877 – June 15, 1962) was a French pianist and conductor. ... Wilhelm Kempff (November 25, 1895 – May 23, 1991) was a German pianist and composer. ... See Conductor for other possible uses of the word. ... Bruno Walter (September 15, 1876 - February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor and composer. ... Portrait by Emil Orlik, 1928 Wilhelm Furtwängler (January 25, 1886 – November 30, 1954) was a German conductor and composer. ...

In recent years, Brendel has worked with young pianists such as Paul Lewis and Till Felner, he has also recorded with his son Adrian Brendel, a cellist. He has also published poetry, which has been compared by Andrew Motion to Miroslav Holub in its style. He still lives in London. Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Professor Andrew Motion (born October 26, 1952) is an English poet, novelist and biographer who is the current Poet Laureate. ... Miroslav Holub (13 September 1923 Plzeň - 14 July 1998) was a Czech poet and immunologist. ...

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