Alfred Brendel News
Austrian pianist, poet and author
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2024-03-29
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2024-01-29 11:31:00
Salzburg Mozartwoche (2) - Mozart and Schubert, 27 January 2024
Grosses FestspielhausMozart: Le nozze di Figaro, KV 492, Overture Mozart: Piano Concerto no.9 in E-flat major, KV 271 Schubert: Symphony no.9 in C major, ‘Great’, D 944 Igor Levit (piano)Vienna Philharmonic OrchestraJoana Mallwitz (conductor)Images: Wolfang Lienbacher Joana Mallwitz’s account of the Overture to The Marriage of Figaro revealed the Vienna Philharmonic as of old. (Conductors foolish enough to try to change its sound will quickly be rebuffed. If you do not like it, work with another orchestra.) Warm sound, fine turning of phrases, and a swift tempo that yet permitted time for the music to breathe offered a proper curtain-raiser. Indeed – a good sign, this – when the Overture had come to an end, I expected and wanted the opera to continue. Alas not on this occasion, but instead we were treated to a performance of ‘one of the greatest wonders of the world’ (Alfred Brendel): the E-flat Piano Concerto, […]
2024-01-08 16:07:00
Catching up, January 2024
This Week in Classical Music: January 8, 2024. Catching up. Last week we simply wished you a happy New Year, so this week we’ll try to make up for it and cover the first two weeks of the year. January 5th should be officially named Piano Day, as on this day three great pianists were born: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, in 1920, Alfred Brendel, in 1930, and Maurizio Pollini, in 1942. Pollini still performs, but we stopped attending his concerts some years ago: he’s now just a shadow of his great self. This doesn’t diminish his prodigious talent that he brilliantly displayed for decades with virtuosity and incisive repertoire, which, unique to a pianist of his stature, included the music of many modern composers. (In comparison, the repertoire of his compatriot, the perfectionist Michelangeli, was very narrow). Two prominent Soviet cellists were born during these two weeks, Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, on January 6th […]
2023-12-11 15:39:12
Beethoven, DEI, Berlioz 2023
[…] our library, and it turns out that while we have most of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, we don’t have the sonata no. 19, a short and misnumbered piece, easy enough to be well known to practically all young pianists. Beethoven composed it sometime in 1797, about the same time as his sonatas nos. 3 and 4, but it wasn’t published till 1805 and thus acquired its late opus and number. Here it is, performed by Alfred Brendel in a 1992 recording. Also, on this day 220 years ago Hector Berlioz was born in La Côte-Saint-André, a small town halfway between Lyon and Grenoble. Berlioz was one of the greatest composers France ever produced, and a very unusual one at that: he didn’t follow any established schools and didn’t leave any behind. We’ve written about Berlioz many times, and he requires a separate entry, so for now, here is his symphony cum […]
2023-12-11 04:46:37
Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Sonata no. 19Alfred Brendel (Piano)
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