Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel's place among the greatest musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries is assured. Renowned for his masterly interpretations of the works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, and Liszt, he is one of the indisputable authorities in musical life today. During the 1960s, he became the first pianist ever to record the entire piano works of Beethoven (on the Vox label) and returned to Beethoven with a complete cycle of the piano sonatas on the Philips label for which he recorded exclusively since 1969. Brendel's discography is now among the most extensive of any pianist, reflecting a repertoire of solo, chamber, and orchestral works by the major composers from the central European tradition from Bach through to Schoenberg. Among the countless prizes he has won (sometimes on more than one occasion), he is also a recipient of the Hans von Bülow Medal of the Berlin Philharmonic and was made an Honorary Member of the Wiener Philharmoniker in 1998, an honour conferred on only two other pianists – Emil von Sauer and Wilhelm Backhaus – since the orchestra's foundation in 1842. Brendel has begun giving illustrated lectures at musical institutions and universities around the world on musical subjects and issues that have always been central to his own insatiable interpretative quest. He retired from performing in 2008 and gave his farewell concert with the Vienna Philharmonic in December that year.