Lecture review: Alfred Brendel '“ My Musical Life

Edinburgh International Festival: Alfred Brendel is one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, only retiring from the concert platform in 2008.

King’s Theatre

***

During his stellar career, spanning 60 years, he worked with the world’s finest musicians and conductors and he continues to share his musical knowledge by nurturing young talent and giving talks, such as this one.

Although he was brought up in a non-musical family Brendel enjoyed telling the story of how Gustav and Alma Mahler once rode bikes at his grandfather’s cycling school. He spent his formative years in Gratz where contemporary artists began to surface at the end of the Second World War, triggering in him a life-long curiosity about what was new in art.

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It wasn’t just pianists, such as Edwin Fischer, who influenced Brendel, he learnt from listening to singers and conductors, such as Deitrich Fischer Dieskau and James Levine. For Brendel cantabile singing is at the heart of all music.

There were anecdotes about concerts, recordings and the inevitable touring tales about dreadful pianos and dead rats falling from ceilings. Brendel played some well-chosen recorded extracts including his own sublime interpretation of Schubert’s Impromptu Op 90 No.3, “letting the music speak” to end this fascinating insight into a remarkable life.