Alfred Brendel was an Austrian pianist, born in what was then Czechoslovakia and later resident in the United Kingdom. He was regarded as one of the best-known pianists of the second half of the 20th century, particularly for his interpretations of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Liszt.
A few years after his birth, his family moved from Loučná nad Desnou to Zagreb, where he received his first piano lessons. During the Second World War, the family lived in Graz, where he studied harmony. He gave his first recital in Graz in 1948, calling the programme The Fugue in Piano Literature. It included music by Bach, Brahms and Liszt as well as his own compositions, but he subsequently concentrated on piano performance rather than composition.
Brendel made his first recording at the age of 21, performing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 5. It began a large recorded output and an international career of more than half a century, with performances and recordings around the world. Critics sometimes called him “the intellectual among pianists” because of his thoughtful playing.
In the 1970s Brendel settled in Hampstead, London. He became an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in 1972 and was appointed an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1989. His final concert took place at Vienna's Musikverein on 18 December 2008, when he performed Mozart's Jeunehomme Piano Concerto in E-flat major, K. 271. He died at home in London on 17 June 2025.
Brendel was also an essayist, chiefly on music, and a poet whose work had a surrealist character. His books included Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts, Music Sounded Out, Alfred Brendel on Music, and conversations with Martin Meyer published as Me, of All People and The Veil of Order. His poetry collections included Finger Point, Disturbing Laughter During the Marriage Vow, Little Devils, and Mirror Image and Black Spook. His honours included the Léonie Sonning Music Prize, the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, the Herbert von Karajan Music Prize, the Praemium Imperiale, and the ECHO Klassik Lifetime Achievement Award.