Music review: Alfred Brendel

Published on Friday 22 August 2008 21:11

ALFRED BRENDEL **** USHER HALL

THIS was Alfred Brendel's farewell to Edinburgh. A packed but dismally lit Usher Hall made its feelings known with a standing ovation after last night's recital, part of the pianist's valedictory European tour which ends in December. At that point Brendel, who retires after 60 years on the stage, will officially become a legend.

On full display was the sheer artistry that makes everything Brendel touches look so simple. Haydn's Andante and Variations in F minor bore a delicious serenity; Beethoven's E flat Sonata, Op27 No1, taken at a leisurely pace, was a triumph of synergy and flow; Brendel imbued Schubert's B flat Sonata with a marriage of lyrical ecstasy and mastery of the big picture.

By the Bach encore – his trademark humming now frighteningly reminiscent of Glenn Gould – the air of discomfort, generated mid-Mozart in the opening half by his haranguing of some coughers, was forgotten. Which is one thing Brendel will not be in a hurry.