Alfred Brendel, renowned pianist, finds life is hectic at 80 (Feature)

By Anna Tomforde and Albert Otti Jan 3, 2011, 2:06 GMT

London/Vienna - Since he retired from public performances two years ago, world-renowned pianist Alfred Brendel has hardly had time to miss the concert platform.

As his 80th birthday approaches, on January 5, Brendel is engaged in a busy schedule of musical lectures, master classes and readings of his own poetry across Europe - taking him from London to Munich, Vienna and Paris.

'I mapped out exactly what I would do when I retired,' Brendel told the Daily Telegraph in a recent interview. 'For a long time I had a literary life - not a hobby, a second life - and it is nice to pursue lecturing and writing in a more focused way.'

Stepping down from public performing in December, 2008, had been the right decision, said Brendel.

'You know, when I retired, I was sure everyone would forget about me. It is very nice to be proved wrong,' he added, with a typical mix of humour and self-effacing modesty.

To mark the 80th birthday, Brendel's Collected Poems are being published in a new, bilingual edition (English and German), by Phaidon Press, and A Birthday Tribute, containing his favourite live recordings, has been released by Decca Records.

In addition to essays on music, writing poetry had become his 'second professional occupation,' Brendel said.

His deeply humorous poems, quirky, surprising and unconventional, have been praised as 'genuine comic literature' by Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

For the Daily Telegraph, the writings can be seen as Brendel's 'safety valve for the iron control and meticulous forethought that has always marked his life.'

Meanwhile, in Austria, where he studied, the artist's legacy has taken on a life of its own, with the publication of two novels about Brendel in 2009.

In Brendels Fantasie (Brendel's Fantasy) by Guenther Freitag, an industrialist becomes obsessed with setting up a concert hall for Brendel in Italy, where the pianist should perform Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy.

Brendel himself makes no appearance in the novel. He remains a similarly elusive figure in a novel by Armin Thurnher, which gives a a semi-fictional account of the attempts by an adoring journalist to arrange an interview with his idol.

In a real-life interview with the author, Brendel said he was able to keep enhancing his abilities with time.

'When I was 25, I did not believe that I must be famous in three to five years. I thought, I want to be able to do certain things when I am 50.'

Thurnher recently wrote about Brendel in an article: 'Things appear and sound clear and bright, not because Brendel shines his light on them, but because he makes them glow from within.'

For Brendel, the new focus on teaching and lecturing has brought an even greater insight into the music he loves. 'Even though I have stopped playing my musicality is still developing,' he told the Daily Telegraph.

'I notice when I teach that the clarity and speed of my musical vision has actually improved. If I could play Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy today, with the physical condition of 30 years ago, that would be ideal as I have a much clearer idea what to do with it now.'

Brendel, who was born on January 5, 1931 at Wiesenberg, northern Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic, was not a child prodigy - and his parents were not musicians.

He started playing the piano at the age of 6, and gave his first concert in Graz aged 17. His international career began in 1949.

Recent travels have taken him repeatedly to Austria and Germany, fuelling speculation that the artist could be searching for his roots in German-speaking culture.

But in his interview with the Telegraph, Brendel, who has been living in Britain since 1971, dismissed such suggestions.

'I'm not someone who needs or wants to be rooted. I want to be as cosmopolitan as possible. I prefer to be a paying guest. It's a lesson I learnt in the war, to be suspicious of nationalism,' he said.

Read more about Great Britain Culture

Read more about Music