Alfred Brendel

Speaker 10:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

Speaker 10:05

Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. This is the only extract the BBC has of this episode, and for rights reasons, the music is shorter than on the original broadcast. The presenter is Roy Plumley. I hope you enjoy listening.

Alfred Brendel0:20

That's of course not enough. What would you be happiest who got

Presenter0:24

away from To got away from from the telephone, maybe. Yes, yes, you were certainly a long way from that. What's been your guiding principle in choosing these eight records? Great music, great performances, personal nostalgia?

Alfred Brendel0:37

Yeah.

Presenter0:38

Yeah.

Alfred Brendel0:38

Uh I suppose a combination of all of them.

Alfred Brendel0:41

But as I'm I happen to be a performer

Alfred Brendel0:46

It is of course important that the performances suit me and that I could imagine to live with them for a while. And indeed I have lived with most of them for several years.

Alfred Brendel0:59

What's the first one you've chosen? Um the first one is a record of Medricles by Giasualdo, whom I enormously adore, one of the genius composers, which are hardly known to the public. I wish that would change.

Alfred Brendel1:37

With what we want, see.

Speaker 32:00

Holy holy God.

Alfred Brendel2:01

I have your heart and holy

Presenter2:12

The Gesualdo Madrigal In Vandunque sung by the N Cr V Vocal Ensemble of Hellbusm.

Presenter2:21

What's your second record?

Alfred Brendel2:23

The well-tempered piano by Johan Sebastian Bach is played by my teacher Edwin Fischer. Yes.

Alfred Brendel2:31

This is a reverence not only to the great composer.

Alfred Brendel2:37

But to my own profession as

Alfred Brendel2:41

Pianist.

Alfred Brendel2:42

Ah and to my great teacher.

Alfred Brendel2:46

Whose piano style uh

Alfred Brendel2:49

is something I've always enormously admired. It has a timeless simplicity in its best.

Alfred Brendel2:56

Examples

Alfred Brendel2:57

Which has remained Fischer's personal secret. Which one should we hear?

Alfred Brendel3:03

I think the prelude in B minor of the first book.

Presenter4:07

The prelude in B minor from the first book of the well-tempered piano played by Edwin Fisher.

Alfred Brendel4:14

mister Brendel, where were you born?

Alfred Brendel4:17

I was born in a little place in Moravia, in Czechoslovakia. Yes. And I went to Yugoslavia shortly after that to spend my youth there till the age of twelve. Then I went to Austria. You are now a Viennese?

Alfred Brendel4:33

I am Viennese and I consider London to be almost my second home.

Presenter4:38

Yeah.

Alfred Brendel4:38

Uh

Presenter4:38

Yeah.

Alfred Brendel4:38

Ended.

Presenter4:39

Did you hear a great deal of music as a child? Do you come from an intensely musical family?

Alfred Brendel4:44

No, I do not. Uh I had to discover things for myself.

Alfred Brendel4:49

Which made

Alfred Brendel4:52

It made it more strenuous and it took longer, but

Alfred Brendel4:57

I'm very glad that I had to find out for myself. Yeah.

Presenter5:02

As a youngster when you were first studying, was it already your ambition to be a professional pianist?

Alfred Brendel5:08

Uh no, I did uh composing, quite a quite a bit of painting.

Alfred Brendel5:14

along my piano studies.

Alfred Brendel5:17

I always had a keen interest for literature. And when I had my first recital in Graz, I also had an exhibition of watercolors at the same time. But it was all only one or two years later that I decided for the piano.

Alfred Brendel5:31

when I became a pupil of Edwin Fisher and

Alfred Brendel5:35

when I won a prize in the Bozzoni competition in Bolzano.

Presenter5:39

And this, of course, this decision meant you had to settle down to a lot of serious work.

Presenter5:44

Oh yes, I uh

Alfred Brendel5:46

I've always liked to do serious things.

Presenter5:48

Did engagements come along fairly speedily?

Alfred Brendel5:51

Not speedily. Uh I had enough time to.

Alfred Brendel5:55

build up a repertory and to think about pieces.

Alfred Brendel6:00

And to bear a grudge against some colleagues who had a very fast start.

Alfred Brendel6:05

But when I look back, I'm I'm very happy about how things have developed. Good. What was your first overseas tour when you first played outside Austria?

Alfred Brendel6:16

I think I went to South America first and repeatedly, and later on to Australia and the United States. And I keep going back. Yes, and since then it's been

Presenter6:26

and practically nonstop travel.

Alfred Brendel6:28

That's right.

Presenter6:29

Yeah.

Alfred Brendel6:30

Yeah.

Presenter6:30

Let's have your third record. What's that to be?

Alfred Brendel6:31

Yeah.

Alfred Brendel6:33

This is uh the cheer up of the set, a record of Mozart string quintets.

Alfred Brendel6:40

And I especially adore the E-flat major quintet.

Alfred Brendel6:45

This performance uh combines freshness and refinement, which is easy to say but uh very hard to achieve.

Presenter7:35

The beginning of the last movement of Mozart string quintet in E-flat major, played by the Amadeus string quartet with Cecila Ronowitz.

Presenter7:44

Which composers did you feel most at home with at the beginning of your career?

Alfred Brendel7:49

I suppose my interest for Beethoven and Liszt was already strongly developed and Mozart and Schubert followed a little later.

Alfred Brendel8:01

And also contemporary music, I mean 20th century music.

Alfred Brendel8:06

Came along.

Presenter8:07

A few years ago in London you played all the thirty two Beethoven sonatas in a series of eight recitals. Now this surely is a great feat of memory apart from everything else.

Alfred Brendel8:17

Yes, i if uh it is concentrated uh on on a short uh span of time, on a few weeks, then it really means.

Alfred Brendel8:28

an enormous amount of concentration and one never can do well enough.

Presenter8:33

And playing them chronologically, you left yourself with all the big ones for the last evening.

Alfred Brendel8:37

Yes, this is a particular strain and I I must say that I never did it again chronologically.

Alfred Brendel8:43

Apart from learning new works, how much do you practice?

Presenter8:46

Yeah.

Alfred Brendel8:47

It depends of where I am, if I'm at home.

Alfred Brendel8:52

I work up to six hours.

Presenter8:54

A day.

Alfred Brendel8:55

A day

Alfred Brendel8:56

And if I'm on tour, sometimes considerably less or nothing, depending on travel and rest. I'm used to do a routine.

Alfred Brendel9:05

On a concert day of going through the whole programme at the hall.

Alfred Brendel9:10

And warming up on a piano before the concert for about an hour. Well, let's have your fourth record now.

Alfred Brendel9:19

This is Beethoven's C sharp minor quartet, Opus One Thirty One, played by the Busch Quartet.

Alfred Brendel9:28

This is a marvellous work which will give me a lot to chew.

Alfred Brendel9:33

A phone or two on, how do you say? Chew on. Chew on, yes.

Presenter10:35

Part of the sixth movement of Beethoven's quartet in C Sharp minor, opus one hundred and thirty one, played by the Busch Quartet.

Presenter10:44

Now your home is in Vienna, mister Brendel.

Presenter10:47

Your wife is a potter, isn't she?

Alfred Brendel10:49

Yes, she's a potter by profession. She has a studio in Vienna where she works when when she is there.

Alfred Brendel10:56

And she was also.

Alfred Brendel10:58

A choir singer for several years. She traveled in chamber choirs. Yes.

Alfred Brendel11:03

You have to

Presenter11:03

Chapter

Alfred Brendel11:04

Yeah.

Presenter11:04

Yeah.

Alfred Brendel11:04

We have a daughter of five.

Presenter11:07

You have an unusual habit of putting adhesive plaster on your fingers before you play.

Alfred Brendel11:11

Yes, some people think that this may be disturbing, but

Presenter11:15

Yes, isn't it uncomfortable then?

Alfred Brendel11:17

Uh not at all. I I feel completely lost if I don't have my plasters when I play the piano. I forget what forgot what it is like because I I use them since fifteen years. Uh I protect my fingernails, which need protection.

Presenter11:32

You will have large hands. What is your stretch?

Alfred Brendel11:34

Um uh twelve notes.

Presenter11:38

Now, inevitably, Mr. Brendel, things go wrong sometimes. What's your favourite story of

Presenter11:44

Things coming unstuck on the console.

Alfred Brendel11:46

But that for

Presenter11:46

Yeah.

Alfred Brendel11:46

Well, I suppose it's the story.

Alfred Brendel11:49

Which

Alfred Brendel11:50

for once brought me onto the first page of the New York Times, among other papers. That was when I played a concert in Melbourne under the late Sir Malcolm Sargent.

Speaker 111:54

Some months of paper.

Alfred Brendel12:03

And after we had finished the Mozart Concerto five zero three, I wanted to rise from my piano stool to shake Sir Michael's hand. And I wasn't able to because uh my

Alfred Brendel12:17

Tails had uh got caught in the piano stool and some musicians from the orchestra tried to help me and un unwind the stool, but uh they didn't succeed so that I finally had to take off my tails and shake hands and

Alfred Brendel12:38

bow in the white vest, which has for some reason amused the public in all. I'm sure it went down very well indeed. Let's have record number five.

Alfred Brendel12:49

Yes, the record number five.

Alfred Brendel12:53

uh is a very serious one and uh one which is as far removed from anecdotes and frivolous thoughts as possibly Schubert's String Quintet in C major.

Presenter14:05

Part of the first movement of the Schubert string quintet in C major, Isaac Stern, Alexander Schneider, Milton Katims.

Presenter14:14

Pablo Casals and Paul Tortellier.

Presenter14:17

Now what's your next record?

Presenter14:19

Uh

Alfred Brendel14:19

My next record is

Alfred Brendel14:21

A piano record again of Chopin's 24 preludes played by Alfred Courtaup, which I admire greatly.

Presenter15:28

Alfred Cotto playing Chopin's prelude number eight in

Alfred Brendel15:32

Yeah.

Presenter15:32

F. Sharp minor.

Alfred Brendel15:35

I admire this record particularly because it combines so many different virtues, it makes a whole of a cycle of miniatures.

Alfred Brendel15:46

It gives every of the miniatures its own character. Each of the pieces is quite differently played from each of the other ones. The playing is al always corresponds with what the music calls for.

Speaker 115:54

I'm good.

Alfred Brendel15:58

To my taste. Yeah. And also Kotto makes it sound like an improvisation while it is completely worked out from the beginning to the end.

Alfred Brendel16:08

And with each piece with each beginning, the character is instantly there from the first moment.

Alfred Brendel16:14

Yes.

Presenter16:16

No,

Presenter16:17

We've cast you away on this desert island. Past experience has shown that pianists don't make very good castaways. You've always had to look after your hands, so of course no practical hobbies like hut building.

Presenter16:27

I'm afraid not.

Presenter16:30

Could you win?

Presenter16:31

Look after yourself as far as food is concerned. Can you fish?

Alfred Brendel16:36

I never try to kill an animal except a mosquito.

Presenter16:39

Kito.

Presenter16:40

And you can't live on mosquitoes. Uh can you cultivate? Do you ever do any gardening? No, I I just hope for some

Alfred Brendel16:48

Fruit trees. Well, there are fruit trees all right. Would you try to escape? Do you know anything about small beds?

Alfred Brendel16:53

I have no idea about boats. Uh if I would find one I would probably try to escape and I would drown miserably.

Alfred Brendel17:02

This is all this.

Presenter17:02

said Albert. Get back.

Alfred Brendel17:04

To music.

Alfred Brendel17:07

Wait.

Presenter17:07

Where are we now?

Alfred Brendel17:08

We are uh coming to Tristan and

Alfred Brendel17:11

After our sad talk.

Alfred Brendel17:14

Because they had opera.

Alfred Brendel17:16

We actually should play the beginning of the of the third act, but uh

Alfred Brendel17:22

I'd I'd rather have the beginning of the second act.

Alfred Brendel17:25

And uh it is Foto English performance, he throws you into the frenzy of feeling right away.

Presenter18:31

The opening of Act Two of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde

Presenter18:35

The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Furtwengler.

Presenter18:39

Now we come to your last record. You haven't chosen any of your own discs.

Alfred Brendel18:43

No, uh w why should I? Why should I uh be confronted with my sins or that I'm not a Methodist?

Alfred Brendel18:51

What are you choosing as your last record? Um, I decided for Mahler's Ninth Symphony, which closed an era and opened a new one, which is really the door to new music in my eyes.

Alfred Brendel19:04

And it's the performance by Bruno Varta with which I have lived several years.

Presenter20:10

The beginning of the fourth movement of the Mahler Ninth Symphony, Bruno Balter conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra.

Presenter20:18

Now, if you would have only one record out of the small allowance of eight, which one would it be?

Alfred Brendel20:24

B.

Alfred Brendel20:24

It's a terrifying question.

Alfred Brendel20:27

Uh I think I would settle for the well-tempered piano. The box.

Alfred Brendel20:32

And

Presenter20:33

One luxury to take to the island with you?

Alfred Brendel20:36

Uh

Alfred Brendel20:38

You know that I just spent my vacation in Bavaria looking at fifty-five Baroque churches, so would you grant me a little Roccoco church from the countryside?

Presenter20:47

A little Rococo church, but purely to look at and not to live in.

Alfred Brendel20:50

Uh

Presenter20:50

Yeah.

Alfred Brendel20:51

Alright, thank you.

Speaker 320:52

Is there any particular one that you picture in your mind?

Alfred Brendel20:52

Maybe

Alfred Brendel20:55

Well, I leave you the choice between Buytenhausen.

Alfred Brendel20:58

Uh, Maria Talheim and Berblin.

Alfred Brendel21:02

I'll see which is the most readily of Available. Yeah. One book Apart from Bible and Shakespeare. I would like to ask you for Schubert's leader, the complete set of Schubert's leader, nothing less.

Alfred Brendel21:17

Will you grant me that?

Speaker 121:17

Really?

Presenter21:17

You grant me this.

Alfred Brendel21:19

This uh

Alfred Brendel21:21

Contains also quite a lot of literature, some great poems and some very bad ones.

Alfred Brendel21:27

And

Alfred Brendel21:28

The most marvellous amount of great music I could think of.

Alfred Brendel21:33

Of course.

Presenter21:34

And thank you, Alfred Brendel, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs. Pleasure.

Presenter21:39

Goodbye everyone.