No sleep till Vienna - Alfred Brendel bows out
Philharmonia Orchestra / Mackerras / Alfred Brendel - Royal Festival Hall, 12 October 2008
On Tuesday Alfred Brendel leaves England via the majestic portal of Basingstoke to commence the final leg of his farewell tour, which winds up in Vienna's Musikverein on 18 December.
Tonight was London's chance to say goodbye as he took to the Royal Festival Hall stage in front of a packed house, the even more senior Sir Charles Mackerras and the Philharmonia Orchestra in tow.
His choice of parting shot, as it will be for that final Vienna concert, was Mozart's Piano Concerto No.9 in E flat, the 'Jeunehomme', the work which perhaps captures the composer's genius most perfectly in its sweeping play of emotional contrasts and invention. Brendel, modest and thoughtful as ever, never sought to impose himself, but gently drew out the sparkling wit of the outer movements and the bleak, bitter core. The Philharmonia were alive to every nuance and contributed to a perfectly-crafted whole.
It was a performance above criticism, a fitting end to a mighty career.
How odd then that it was decided to follow concert convention, and place this work in the first half, with a Dvorak symphony to follow in the second. Perhaps it was simply Brendel's choice, humble to the last.
The Royal Festival Hall's standing ovation for Alfred Brendel:
Thanks for bringing some little glimpse of what it might have been like... i was forced to give up my ticket for his Edinburgh concert and never managed to get one for London... i'll never quite digest that i have missed his last performances.I do hope they have at least done some recording for the BBC of this and there might be a chance of hearing it.
Posted by: Hariclea | October 13, 2008 at 10:33 AM
I was thinking of the same, although from Chicago. Although Brendel has expressed a desire for no more recordings of his live concerts some time ago, I wanted to also express my hope , along with Hariclea on this page, to wish that there will be a collection of his final recital that he is touring with and the 2 Mozart Concerto's he is also playing. I'm sure his final recitals in December would be especially moving and valuable contributions to his great discography. Hopefully the people from Philips read this page or somebody who knows somebody at Philips reads this and passes it along so we do get a document of these events. Bravo Brendel on a great, great career, you, in my humble opinion have set the bar very, very high for everything you have played, thanks very much.
Posted by: FSchwarz | October 13, 2008 at 07:51 PM
Don't forget his encore, Bach's Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61 (trans. Busoni)
Posted by: Vladimir | October 13, 2008 at 10:01 PM
I was fortunate to be there on Sunday night. Sublime playing by Brendel as always. He thoroughly deserved the ovation at the end. Great pianist and even greater musician.
Posted by: Gillian Smith | October 13, 2008 at 10:13 PM
... and the long sold-out concert in Basingstoke was also a fantastic piece of superb quality music making. To cap it all, Bredel's encore was the Schubert Impromptu No. 3 in G flat [D899]. A great human being indeed.
Posted by: Christopher Gordon | October 15, 2008 at 08:10 AM