Alfred Brendel at the last public concert held in 2008, in Vienna Photo: Dieter Nagl / AFP / Profimedia
Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel, a legend of classical music, died at the age of 94 on Tuesday, in London, the city where he had been living for many years, his spokesman announced, AFP reported.
The famous pianist, especially known for his Beethoven interpretations, “died reconciled (…) and surrounded by his family,” the same spokesman said.
Born in 1931 in Wiesenberg, a city on the current territory of the Czech Republic, before his family moved to Graz, Austria, Alfred Brendel became quite late. He acquired the celebrity after a concert held in the early 1970s in London, the city where this almost self -taught artist was established.
“I had come here from Vienna, because I wanted to live in a large cosmopolitan city. At that time, Vienna seemed provincial, despite her orchestra, of her work,” he revealed in an interview with France Musique.
He then multiplied his concerts and records, specializing especially in Beethoven and Schubert's music, as well as in Mozart. He was sometimes accompanied by his son, Adrien, who is a cellist. In 2004, he received the Ernst-Von-Siemens award, one of the most prestigious distinctions in the universe of classical music.
Erudit, Alfred Brendel also wrote numerous essays and poems.
In 2008, after a goodbye concert held in Musikverein, the Viennese Temple of Music, withdrew from the activity and continued to live in the British capital, in the Hampstead neighborhood. However, he continued to hold conferences and masterclasses.
Royal Philarmonic Society greeted the social network X “a giant of music, with a touch of the flaps of a great tenderness”.
“He was a model of civilization, a deeply cultivated man, passionate about music, who shared this love for music without making any compromise, neither artistic, nor personal. We will be missing a lot,” said the Social Network X British cellist Steven Isserlis.
Alfred Brendel had four children and four grandchildren.
