Brendel Finally Gives up

[bob3.1415926]

I haven't listened to a lot of Brendel, but when I was learning Beethoven 'Pastorale' Sonata, out of all the versions I listened to (about 5 or 6), his was my favourite. The way he played the last movement in particular was wonderful.
Anyway, I'm hoping to catch him in Oxford on his final tour. You may find him dull and boring, be you can't disagree that he is a massively successful pianist. Far more so than anyone on this forum, so he must be doing something right....

[m]

There's this dude called 'Richter'...

That's a cute one

[cloches_de_geneve]

And just because someone is intellectual does not make them by default pretentious. And just because someone isn't a virtuoso in a traditional sense also doesn't make that person pretentious. It isn't WHAT you play, but HOW you play it.

One part of the story here is that people like crowd-pleasers. Who can you see pulling off a jazzy piece of light music after a long recital?

Probably rather Lang Lang than Brendel
Barenboim more so than Pollini
Horowitz more than Cortot
Ashkenazy more than Richter
I'd say van Cliburn more likely than Michelangeli
Fazil Say more than Pletnev

Brendel may be a bit extreme that way. But I know which category of pianists I would prefer. To be a legend there is just no way of compromising on seriousness. German or other.

[forester]

Anyway, I'll probably try to get a ticket for his recital here in june, boring as it will be, just to say I have seen him live.

So patronising and ego-centric! Why don't you just shoot yourself now so that you can't go to the concert?

[forester]

At long last?

If your approach to the piano is anything like your slapdash approach to spelling you are on the road to nowhere. Show some respect and spell his name correctly.

[slobone]

  Here is Brendel playing Shubert, very touching.

   https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GkX4MyDeIqI

I really do respect Brendel as a pianist. But -- shall we have a Schub-off? Here's Horowitz:

https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=L6_SbflSwAg

And Perahia (who plays it very superficially here -- his recorded version is much better):

https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_qDzTcVpYB0

And Zimerman:

https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KkqDEh-fXVI

And even Badura-Skoda:

https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BWCfrUBJfzk&feature=related

All of whom are more interesting than Brendel.

Couldn't find Lupu, but here he is doing a different impromptu:

https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jfHeAQ18BTA

[ramseytheii]

That's irritating that you would try and tell someone that they are wrong, and that they shouldn't have been touched by a performance because you think another one is better.  You could have framed that in a much more dignified way!

Walter Ramsey

[Kassaa]

So patronising and ego-centric! Why don't you just shoot yourself now so that you can't go to the concert?

Because that hurts! Tickets are 7.50 here for people under 27 so even if the recital sucks it won't be that much money.

Brendel is ironically enough one of the most patronising and egocentric musicians out there.

Cock.

[slobone]

That's irritating that you would try and tell someone that they are wrong, and that they shouldn't have been touched by a performance because you think another one is better.  You could have framed that in a much more dignified way!

Walter Ramsey

Sorry Walter if I crossed the line. I wasn't intending to make a personal attack. I was just interested to see how many versions of this piece are on youtube, and I thought I'd share them with people.

[danyal]

I've just realised, again, why this is the first time in over a year that I am visiting this awful site. All of you that degrade someone like Alfred Brendell, and his very successful career (which, I don't seem to see any of you big headed, pompous, lazy children, with nothing better to do than to criticize great pianists, doing), are clueless and hypocritical. Go practise, instead of bringing a master down. Do not criticize, if you cant do better. Can any of you honestly say that you can do what Brendel has achieved over the years?

You all disgust me.

[pianogeek_cz]

You all disgust me.

Nothing beats such a Merry Christmas.

[Kassaa]

I've just realised, again, why this is the first time in over a year that I am visiting this awful site. All of you that degrade someone like Alfred Brendell, and his very successful career (which, I don't seem to see any of you big headed, pompous, lazy children, with nothing better to do than to criticize great pianists, doing), are clueless and hypocritical. Go practise, instead of bringing a master down. Do not criticize, if you cant do better. Can any of you honestly say that you can do what Brendel has achieved over the years?

You all disgust me.

Since we criticize him we don't even want to achieve what he has achieved.

Stop coughing or I will stop playing!!!! - Alfred Brendel

[richard black]

I think Brendel is merely paying the price (a very small one indeed, since I doubt he reads this message board) for being very successful and very famous. He isn't my favourite pianist ever, but I would strongly defend him against the attacks made here - denying that he is a good pianist is plain silly. If you don't share his taste on how Beethoven (for instance) should sound, well, go find some other player to listen to. His control at the keyboard is second to none, and I've spoken to some _very_ well respected pianists who envy him that, even if they wouldn't choose to use it the same way he does.

[Kassaa]

It's sloppy and unclear, ugly banal tone all nicely fitted in a package that gives the word boring a whole new meaning.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

It's sloppy and unclear, ugly banal tone all nicely fitted in a package that gives the word boring a whole new meaning.

eg his performance of Liszt's Isolde's Liebestod transcription on youtube.

[rene_ceballos]

Regarding his Beethoven, I think that to put things in perspective it is important to consider that he has recorded complete Beethoven works three times along his career.

In his essays regarding the complete works recordings, he indicates how and why he changed his mind and how his research on the manuscripts and original material made him adopt different interpretative forms.

https://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2192/essays1.html

Again, either if his performances are sometimes not included in my sphere of preferences, if you look his work closely you'll see that a lot of musical research lives in there.

And in a fresh mood, I really enjoy this quote:

"I did not come from a musical or intellectual family. ...I have not been a child prodigy. I do not have a photographic memory; neither do I play faster than other people. I am not a good sight reader. I need eight hours' sleep. I do not cancel concerts on principle, only when I am really sick. My career was so slow and gradual that I feel something is either wrong with me or with almost anybody else in the profession. Literature -- reading and writing -- as well as looking at art have taken up quite a bit of my time. When and how I should have learned all those pieces that I have played, besides being a less than perfect husband and father, I am at a loss to explain."

You see, he's like Batman for us mere mortals who were not born with langlangious biomechanic  talents 

[pianogeek_cz]

By the way, I just got a ticket for a Brendel recital within the frame of the Prague Spring festival. I'm SOOO much looking forward to it!

[zheer]

It's sloppy and unclear, ugly banal tone all nicely fitted in a package that gives the word boring a whole new meaning.

  Am not sure why you think that, his piano playing has extraordinary clarity.

[dmc]

Richard sums this whole thread up nicely.  I have a few of Brendel's recordings and I do enjoy them.  While he's not my favorite, I have a great deal of respect for what he's accomplished which is significantly more than I ever will.  For some self-described "experts" to launch a childish attack on him from the anonymity of the web says more about the attacker's insecurities than it ever would about Brendel.

[ramseytheii]

A lot of people have "Brendel disfigurement syndrome."  In an interview with an English music mag, Boris Berezovsky said he didn't play in Germany because "they like people like Alfred Brendel," who are "boring."  These are his own words!  I wonder what Boris has to worry about when it comes to Brendel, but the fact that Boris lacks any Beethoven sonatas in his repertoire is probably a good indication of what that is.

Walter Ramsey

[minor9th]

I'm glad the moderator removed the insulting spelling of Brendel's name. He's not my favorite pianist by any stretch, but in the right repertoire (Haydn and Mozart, for instance), he's very satisfying.

[lazlo]

I find it much more productive to focus on what a pianist does that I like, as opposed to what they do "incorrectly" or "wrong." But apparently, that's just me...

[mattgreenecomposer]

I think its funny that the Chicago Tribune article on Brendel is like 4 sentances..... but when Paris Hilton's new album came out it was like 4 pages.

When does it all end..... goah

[elevateme_returns]

He does not finally give up. He just stops performing publicly.

but it says hes not doing anything related to playing

[elevateme_returns]

and why does it say "Brendull" instead of "Brendel" in some of these posts??

[minor9th]

and why does it say "Brendull" instead of "Brendel" in some of these posts??

The original idiot who posted purposely misspelled his name to insult him. The moderator/web manager fixed the spelling.

[frankce10]

I love Brendel.  That being said,  people who detest other's opinions or claim the whole topic was anti-Brendel are misled themselves.  I enjoyed the tit for tat and lazlo and Ramsey and Forester all did fine jobs defending Brendel.   I think the Shub off with comparision of the OP 90 #3 impromptu showed Brendel's 'terp at the top of the heap even though that wasn't the intent of the poster,  funny.   Horowitz' hands and video didn't even match,   and he (or whoever overdubbed the video, probably Horowitz himself in post-prod,  even making  some weird (pretty as it may be)modulation a few bars into piece)  but all that being said,  I enjoyed that people feel so strongly one way or the other about Brendel.  It's been that way all throughout his career.   They haven't caught on to Brendel's many exciting concert performances that are without breathtaking to an unheard of degree before or since,  to all this there are sure some duds throughout his years of playing and recording.   But he's a human,  that's why we love him.   And by far, even when his playing is not up to his standards,  he'll be the first one to better it the next time,  or has that ability to,  if you don't think so ,  or know so,   you have to listen to a lot of his recordings.   A couple of don't miss interpretations of his ,  are his live Diabelli Variations,  or his HammerKlavier,  or his Liszt Sonata or Liszt Concerto's on Philip's.  The Mozart-Mariner recording's,  forget ,  never to be bettered,  what a sound,  what naturalness,  as far as his being an intellectual,  it takes an intellectual to play with the beauty and understanding he brings to composers who themselves were intellectuals of the highest order,  so get over it appearing like an intellectual,  that goes with the territory,  we've been very fortunate to have heard somebody unlock the beauty and depth of so many pieces and bring major life to them,  I haven't heard it in other's playing,  never,  I really don't mind any miscreant responses,  because I pity the fools....

[birba]

Sorry to hear this news.

Brendel is a great artist, one of the greatest of our era.  A patrician, he chooses not to show off or bring attention to himself, preferring instead to disappear into the composer and the work to offer it without distortion or his own 'interpretation.'  True humility and devotion to the art. 

His earlier "Wanderer" and Schubert Impromptu recordings (on Vox) have never been equaled, and this music is among the subtlest challenges for any mere 'pianist.'   

It's disappointing that the discussion here reflects a lack of serious listening. 

Peace,

CD

Ps .. and of course Brendel can play Russian music - check his recording of "3 Dances from Petrouchka" in the composer's version, never performed by its dedicatee Artur Rubinstein, who preferred to avoid its terrifying difficulties.

 

Thanks for your observations.  Couldn't have been said better.  I bet Brendel has been reading this stream of quips and laughing his head off!