Alfred Brendel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alfred Brendel
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Brendel, Ruhr Piano Festival, Essen, 2019
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| Born | 5 January 1931 Wiesenberg, Czechoslovakia
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| Alma mater | Graz Conservatory |
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Alfred Brendel (born January 5, 1931) is a famous Austrian classical pianist. He is also a poet, author, composer, and lecturer. He is especially known for his amazing performances of music by Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven.
Contents
The Life of Alfred Brendel
Early Years and Learning Music
Alfred Brendel was born in Wizemberk, Czechoslovakia (which is now called Loučná nad Desnou in the Czech Republic). His family was not musical. When he was three years old, they moved to Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia). There, at age six, he started taking piano lessons.
Later, his family moved to Graz, Austria. Alfred continued his piano studies at the Graz Conservatory. He also learned how to compose music. During World War II, when he was 14, he was sent to dig trenches.
Becoming a Musician
After the war, Alfred Brendel kept playing the piano, writing, and painting. He also composed music. He didn't have many formal piano lessons after he was 16. Even though he attended special classes with famous pianists like Edwin Fischer, he mostly taught himself.
When he was 17, Brendel performed in public for the very first time in Graz. His concert was called "The Fugue in Piano Literature." He played complex musical pieces called fugues by composers like Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Liszt. He even played a sonata that he had composed himself!
In 1949, he won fourth prize in a piano competition in Italy. After this, he started touring in Europe and Latin America. This helped him become well-known.
Recording and Performing
Alfred Brendel made his first recording in 1950. He recorded a piece called Piano Concerto No. 5 by Sergei Prokofiev. Two years later, he was the first person to record Franz Liszt's Weihnachtsbaum.
He went on to record many more albums. He recorded all of Beethoven's piano sonatas three times! He was the first pianist to record all of Beethoven's solo piano music. He also recorded many works by Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, and especially Franz Schubert.
Brendel also recorded all of the Mozart piano concertos. He worked with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields orchestra for these recordings.
His career really took off after a concert in London. After that show, three big record companies wanted to sign him! Around this time, he moved to London, where he still lives.
Since the 1970s, Brendel has recorded for Philips Classics Records. He has toured all over the world, including Europe, the United States, Japan, and Australia. He often played with the famous Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He was one of the few pianists who could still fill large concert halls even in his later years.
He is one of only three pianists to be given honorary membership in the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. He also received the Hans von Bülow Medal from the Berlin Philharmonic.
A Documentary About Music
In 2009, Brendel was in a German-Austrian documentary called Pianomania. This film was about a piano tuner for Steinway & Sons pianos. The movie was shown in North America, Asia, and Europe, and received good reviews.
His Approach to Music
Alfred Brendel often played music by Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart. He played fewer pieces from the 20th century, but he did perform Arnold Schoenberg's Piano Concerto.
Some music critics have called Brendel's playing "cerebral." This means his playing is very thoughtful and intelligent. He believes that a pianist's main job is to respect what the composer wanted. He feels it's important not to show off or add too much of his own style to the music. He once said, "I am responsible to the composer, and particularly to the piece."
Brendel has mentioned that his teacher Edwin Fischer greatly influenced him. He also looked up to other pianists like Alfred Cortot and Wilhelm Kempff, and conductors like Bruno Walter.
Working with Others
Alfred Brendel has worked with many younger pianists, helping them learn and grow. Some of these include Paul Lewis, Amandine Savary, Till Fellner, and Kit Armstrong. He has also performed and recorded with his son, Adrian, who is a cellist. Brendel has also performed in many vocal concerts with singers like Hermann Prey and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
Retirement from Concerts
In 2007, Brendel announced that he would stop performing in concerts. His very last concert was on December 18, 2008, in Vienna. In that concert, he played Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 with the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. His last concert in New York was at Carnegie Hall on February 20, 2008. He had performed at Carnegie Hall 81 times since his first show there in 1973!
Personal Life
Alfred Brendel has been married twice. His first marriage was from 1960 to 1972. He had a daughter named Doris, who is a rock and pop musician. In 1975, Brendel married Irene Semler. They have three children: a son named Adrian, who is a cellist, and two daughters, Katharina and Sophie.
Recordings
- Alfred Brendel – Unpublished Live and Radio Performances 1968–2001
- Great Pianists of the 20th Century – Alfred Brendel III
Awards and Honors
Alfred Brendel has received many awards and honors throughout his career:
- Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE; 1989)
- Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts (1991)
- Hans von Bülow Medal of the Berlin Philharmonic (1992)
- Beethoven-Ring of the Vienna Music University (2001)
- Léonie Sonning Music Prize (2002; Denmark)
- Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (2004)
- Prix Venenia: Premio Artur Rubinstein (2007)
- Praemium Imperiale (2009)
- Herbert von Karajan Music Prize (2008)
- Franz Liszt-Ehrenpreis (2011)
- Juilliard Medal (2011)
- Voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame (2012)
- Golden Mozart Medal of the Salzburg Mozarteum (2014)
- Echo Klassik Lifetime Achievement Award (2016)
He has also been given special honorary doctorates from many universities around the world. These include universities in London (1978), Oxford (1983), Yale (1992), and Cambridge (2012). He is also an honorary Fellow at several colleges at Oxford and Cambridge.
Brendel has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from many important music organizations. In 2012, Limelight magazine asked 100 pianists who inspired them the most. Alfred Brendel was mentioned by several of them. He was also featured in a special radio series called "Fifty Great Pianists" on BBC Radio 3.
See Also
In Spanish: Alfred Brendel para niños
