There is a great anecdote about Mr. Brendel told by Imogen Cooper, DBE (the British virtuoso pianist) in the Guardian newspaper in 2008:
I first heard Alfred Brendel perform in the late 1960s, in a tiny room in the Austrian Institute in London. I was 19. He played Schubert and Chopin, and was sensational. I marched up to him afterwards and said: "I must work with you or I'll die." He invited me to Vienna the following spring. So off I went, for six weeks.
He was a wonderful teacher. He is extremely articulate and very demanding. He made no concessions to my age. In my first lesson, I was playing a Schubert piano sonata, and the first chord took 20 minutes. I played it again and again, and Brendel wandered around the room saying: "No, balance of sound wrong ... Too much bass ... Not quite the right colour." I started hearing from inside his head. Eventually, I played the chord and he turned around and said, "Thank you," and I knew it was right. But then, so help me God, I had to play the next chord.
Here, we see Alfred Brendel playing Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.32 Op.111:
To check our listings of Alfred Brendel recordings in various media formats:
