Review: Alfred Brendel, at Birmingham Town Hall
Now retired from the concert-platform, the pianist Alfred Brendel (one of the greatest performer-thinkers the world has ever seen), delivered an engrossing lecture with copious musical examples, some recorded, more of them played so grippingly by himself at the piano (the gifts haven’t diminished).
But I fear that much of what he said may have gone over the willing Town Hall audience’s heads (and a creaky sound-system didn’t help), as Brendel spoke about phrasing, articulation and dynamic nuance, ranging over a huge conspectus of composers from Handel (Hercules to Wagner Walkure Act I.
Yes, these are scarcely remembered as keyboard composers (and certainly not Wagner), but the points Brendel made about his concerns were totally convincing.
And his final example, a recording of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, where “the performer has disappeared inside the music”, was a perfect way to end the evening.
Christopher Morley
