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Alfred Brendel remains perhaps the preeminent thinking pianist, a loner to whom fame came through the power of imaginative integrity, an artist who has achieved -- at his best -- a profound rapport with and a unique understanding of piano literature from Bach to Schoenberg. Yet by his own account, "I did not come from a musical or intellectual family. ... I have not been a child prodigy. I do not have a photographic memory; neither do I play faster than other people. I am not a good sight-reader." Brendel's recording catalog is vast, stretching back to the dawn of the LP era. He is also a compelling writer and remained active in that capacity after retirement and into the mid-2020s.

Brendel was born to a family of Austrian background in Wiesenberg, Moravia, Czechoslovakia (in Czech, Wizemberg, and now Loučná nad Desnou in the Czech Republic) on January 5, 1931. He received piano lessons from ages six to 16 as the family moved from Zagreb to Graz, and studied composition privately while supporting himself in a variety of odd jobs. Brendel was among the first generation to learn from recordings of pianists like Alfred Cortot, Wilhelm Kempff, and Artur Schnabel, with conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arturo Toscanini proving especially valuable. Master classes with Eduard Steuermann -- a pupil of Busoni and Schoenberg -- and Edwin Fischer completed his sparse musical education. A 1948 debut recital in Graz marked the beginning of his career, which was propelled by a prize at the Busoni Competition in Bolzano in 1949. His first recording, with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, appeared in 1950 or 1951 but wasn't the music for which he became better known; rather, it was Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 5 in G major, Op. 55.

Busoni's example, his mysticism and Faustian striving, fascinated the young Brendel; the latter recorded Busoni's Fantasia Contrappuntistica in the early '50s. The ensnaring and gradual liberation from Busoni's influence may be traced in the several essays Brendel wrote about him in the collection Musical Thoughts & After-Thoughts. Armed with high musical ideals, Brendel embarked upon an international recital and recording career which, in the '60s, saw his reputation grow throughout Europe and North America. He performed the entire cycle of Beethoven sonatas in London's Wigmore Hall in 1962, and recorded them for the budget Vox label, with the result that many classical listeners with more taste than money had their conceptions of repertory works deeply shaped by the pianist. In the '70s, he became an exclusive Philips artist, touring and recording a wide variety of composers including Liszt, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Bartók, and Schoenberg, and garnering numerous awards. He remains perhaps best known, however, for his readings of the Viennese Classicists and early Romantics, from Haydn and Mozart to Schumann.

He has published books of musical criticism -- and comic poetry. In 2004, he appeared in concert with his son, cellist Adrian Brendel. Brendel announced his retirement in 2007 and undertook one last worldwide concert and recital tour, ending in Vienna in December 2008, performing, appropriately enough, Mozart's Jeunehomme Piano Concerto. Brendel remained active as a writer, and, at age 94, he contributed an essay about Busoni to a reissue of his early-'50s recordings of the Fantasia Contrappuntistica and of Liszt's Weihnachtsbaum (the latter was the world-recorded premiere of that work). No reliable count of Brendel's hundreds of recordings exists; the "complete discography" on his website is a sparse accounting of his digital releases. His recordings, even the earliest ones, remain avidly listened to, however, and his influence among thoughtful classical music listeners is perhaps unmatched. ~ Adrian Corleonis & James Manheim

The events of Beethoven's life are the stuff of Romantic legend, evoking images of the solitary creator shaking his fist at Fate and finally overcoming it through a supreme effort of creative will. His compositions, which frequently pushed the boundaries of tradition and startled audiences with their originality and power, are considered by many to be the foundation of 19th century musical principles.

Born in the small German city of Bonn on or around December 16, 1770, he received his early training from his father and other local musicians. As a teenager, he earned some money as an assistant to his teacher, Christian Gottlob Neefe, then was granted half of his father's salary as court musician from the Electorate of Cologne in order to care for his two younger brothers as his father gave in to alcoholism. Beethoven played viola in various orchestras, becoming friends with other players such as Antoine Reicha, Nikolaus Simrock, and Franz Ries, and began taking on composition commissions. As a member of the court chapel orchestra, he was able to travel some and meet members of the nobility, one of whom, Count Ferdinand Waldstein, would become a great friend and patron to him. Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792 to study with Haydn; despite the prickliness of their relationship, Haydn's concise humor helped form Beethoven's style. His subsequent teachers in composition were Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Antonio Salieri. In 1794, he began his career in earnest as a pianist and composer, taking advantage whenever he could of the patronage of others. Around 1800, Beethoven began to notice his gradually encroaching deafness. His growing despondency only intensified his antisocial tendencies. However, the Symphony No. 3, "Eroica," of 1803 began a sustained period of groundbreaking creative triumph. In later years, Beethoven was plagued by personal difficulties, including a series of failed romances and a nasty custody battle over a nephew, Karl. Yet after a long period of comparative compositional inactivity lasting from about 1811 to 1817, his creative imagination triumphed once again over his troubles. Beethoven's late works, especially the last five of his 16 string quartets and the last four of his 32 piano sonatas, have an ecstatic quality in which many have found a mystical significance. Beethoven died in Vienna on March 26, 1827.

Beethoven's epochal career is often divided into early, middle, and late periods, represented, respectively, by works based on Classic-period models, by revolutionary pieces that expanded the vocabulary of music, and by compositions written in a unique, highly personal musical language incorporating elements of contrapuntal and variation writing while approaching large-scale forms with complete freedom. Though certainly subject to debate, these divisions point to the immense depth and multifariousness of Beethoven's creative personality. Beethoven profoundly transformed every genre he touched, and the music of the 19th century seems to grow from his compositions as if from a chrysalis. A formidable pianist, he moved the piano sonata from the drawing room to the concert hall with such ambitious and virtuosic middle-period works as the "Waldstein" (No. 21) and "Appassionata" (No. 23) sonatas. His song cycle An die ferne Geliebte of 1816 set the pattern for similar cycles by all the Romantic song composers, from Schubert to Wolf. The Romantic tradition of descriptive or "program" music began with Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony No. 6. Even in the second half of the 19th century, Beethoven still directly inspired both conservatives (such as Brahms, who, like Beethoven, fundamentally stayed within the confines of Classical form) and radicals (such as Wagner, who viewed the Ninth Symphony as a harbinger of his own vision of a total art work, integrating vocal and instrumental music with the other arts). In many ways revolutionary, Beethoven's music remains universally appealing because of its characteristic humanism and dramatic power. ~ Rovi Staff