Brendel back this month

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32705, 7 September 1971, Page 10

Brendel back this month

Alfred Brendel, the famous Austrian pianist, will give an all-Beet-hoven recital in the Civic Theatre on September 22. A week later he will perform as soloist with the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra in the fifth Christchurch subscription concert.

Brendel began learning the piano when he was six years old, and he took up music seriously at 13. Although at first he was not sure whether he wanted to be a composer or painter, at 18 he was already devoted entirely to the piano. He bad no regular teachers, but drew his inspiration from performances he saw and listened to, and from master classes.

In 1944, he began studies at the Graz Academy of Music in Austria. Three years later he passed the State examination for piano at the Vienna Academy of Music with the highest distinction, and after a further two years won an international piano competition held in Italy. He also attended Edwin Fisher’s master-courses.

Soon his name was established throughout Austria, and since then he has been invited to tour as a soloist with orchestras and as a recitalist in many countries —Europe, North and South

Africa, the Americas, Britain, Australia, and the Near I East. He last toured New Zealand in 1963. In Europe, he has also been a regular participant at important music festivals, and he has appeared annually at the Salzburg Festival since 1960. Brendel has made many recordings and has won the coveted Grand Prix du Disque. Today he lives in Austria. In his spare time, when not recording or giving concerts, he follows his interests in literature and painting.