# Alfred Brendel



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I think I've come to realize he is my favorite Concert Pianist. I at least know I love his Mozart, Beethoven, and especially his Haydn!


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## poconoron (Oct 26, 2011)

One of the best, for sure.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

Schubert, Mendelssohn, Liszt, and Schumann are other composers he does well with.


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## Guest (Oct 25, 2017)

I just absolutely love him playing this!! What's absolutely not to love about Schubert??


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I love his light airy approach to performance, it's very graceful and pleasant to listen to. His Beethoven is almost optimistic!


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I love his light airy approach to performance, it's very graceful and pleasant to listen to. His Beethoven is almost optimistic!


Funnily enough, that's exactly why I _don't _like Brendel's Beethoven (although I love his take on Mozart and Haydn). I want my Ludwig to sound stormy and moody!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Bettina said:


> Funnily enough, that's exactly why I _don't _like Brendel's Beethoven (although I love his take on Mozart and Haydn). I want my Ludwig to sound stormy and moody!


I just tend to enjoy light, airy, percussive, precise, fun playing. It's kind of funny, because my own style of performance is rather stormy, dark and moody.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Claudio Arrau has some of my favorite recordings of Debussy which is also rather light and precise. The dynamics are all rather subdued which I actually like.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I really dislike extreme fortissimos!


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

I like Brendlel, and from the interviews I have heard he is such a modest man, I have his Beethoven set plus a few others, he told one interviewer that he was surprised that people still wanted to hear him play, a true artist in my book.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Dan Ante said:


> I like Brendlel, and from the interviews I have heard he is such a modest man, I have his Beethoven set plus a few others, he told one interviewer that he was surprised that people still wanted to hear him play, a true artist in my book.


Sounds like my kind of man! I love the humble artists best!


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Bettina said:


> Funnily enough, that's exactly why I _don't _like Brendel's Beethoven (although I love his take on Mozart and Haydn). I want my Ludwig to sound stormy and moody!


What's with the wink? I didn't sense any undertones at all. What've they done to you? :lol:


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> What's with the wink? I didn't sense any undertones at all. What've they done to you? :lol:


The forum only allows so much.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I mistakenly bought Mahler's re-orchestration of Beethoven's 9th and got all the way through the third movement until I noticed. I think it's actually rather nice!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I bought the complete box when it came out and NEVER regretted it, even if it has Schubert twice fore example, analogue and digital.


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

I love Brendel, every recording I've heard from him has something to tell, something new.
He rediscovered entirely Liszt to my ears, for example.
Unique and powerful artistry.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

A very consistent performer and probably my favourite with Schubert


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Haydn man said:


> A very consistent performer and probably my favourite with Schubert


I'd call it a toss-up with Richard Goode, whose Schubert recordings seem to be going slowly out of print. But they're worth having!


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## Guest (Oct 26, 2017)

Here are the great man's thoughts on Beethoven and Schubert, though brief:


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## Guest (Oct 26, 2017)

And tonight the earth is standing still as I listen to Brendel playing Bach:






Bach leaves everyone (except Beethoven) in his wake!! He's phenomenally great for whatever ails you, and is the perfect antidote to our age of moral preening, political correctness, identity politics and increasing tyranny!!


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

CountenanceAnglaise said:


> I just absolutely love him playing this!! What's absolutely not to love about Schubert??


Or his Mozart. (I was at this recital).






"Let us therefore never lose sight of the humanity of [Mozart's] music, even when it gives itself an official and general air. The unimpeachability of his form is always balanced by the palpability of his sound, the miracle of his sound mixtures, the resoluteness of his energy, the living spirit, the heartbeat, the unsentimental warmth of his feeling." - Alfred Brendel, from a program note


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Phil loves classical said:


> What's with the wink? I didn't sense any undertones at all. What've they done to you? :lol:


The wink is because Ludwig's moodiness turns me on, but I'm not supposed to say so. Well, now you've made me say it! I hope I don't get in trouble...


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Bettina said:


> The wink is because Ludwig's moodiness turns me on, but I'm not supposed to say so. Well, now you've made me say it! I hope I don't get in trouble...


You mean his thrustful passion? He is pretty unique in that, his music I mean, not some other way which is quite common


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## Taplow (Aug 13, 2017)

I am going to buck the trend and declare that I find myself somewhat indifferent to Brendel. Yes, he is a consistently great performer, and you can't go wrong if he is your first pick for much of the piano repertoire, but for me he's often lacking something. For individual composers or works, I prefer a more idiomatic performer - someone who brings something unique to a specific performance, or is more suited to a specific style - performers who offer, for a brief moment, a spark of brilliance even if they can't sustain such brilliance across the repertoire.

I have several Brendel sets, as well as some individual works performed by him, but I still find myself drawn more often to any number of other pianists as my first choice for some of my favourite sonatas or concertos.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Brendl is my first choice for some of Beethoven’s Sonatas, like the Tempest. I used to like Kempff the most for almost everything, but his approach hasn’t worked well with me anymore. I thought Ashkenazy, who not considered first choice for Beethoven, is also really imaginative. 

I don’t like Brendl’s Mozart very much, and prefer Perahia, Curzon, Uchida and others more.


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