If There Is Much In The Window There Should Be More In The Room

Monday, January 11, 2010

More Brendel: Schubert Op. 90/3



The Schubert piano impromptus are among the most beautiful music ever and Brendel's recordings of them are stellar. 




An internationally known, acclaimed, and respected classical pianist, Alfred Brendel was born on January 5, 1931, in Wiesemberg, Moravia (now the Czech Republic), spending his childhood in Yugoslavia and Austria. 

Far from a child prodigy, he started piano lessons at the age of six, and although he studied at Graz Conservatory, his formal training was effectively over by the time he was 16 years old. A year later he gave his first public piano recital. Brendel's first recording was released in 1972, and he has since recorded all of Beethoven's piano works (in a series for Vox Records) as well as piano pieces by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, and others in a long career that has generated an extensive discography, most of it for Philips Recordings. - Wikipedia
 



Schubert expressed his musical ideas in the same way one confides things to a friend-- Simply, without formality or extravagance but honestly and straight to the heart.




2 comments:

  1. Very appealing music. I closed my eyes and listened, and it took me places.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am extremely glad you
    experienced the music
    in a personal manner,
    and liked this as much as I did. :-)
    Is it not that music articulates
    our feelings better than words can?
    Schubert made music
    that expressed the passion
    and pain of the age,
    giving voice and rhythm
    to the soul of that generation,
    that period of Viennese
    classical style and the romantic period.
    Just a side note:
    Beethoven was said to have
    acknowledged Schubert's gifts
    and exclaimed,
    "Truly, the spark of divine genius resides in this Schubert!"

    ReplyDelete