Alfred Brendel: Composer

Alfred Brendel is Austrian pianist, poet, and author. Explore interesting quotes on composer.

Alfred Brendel: 14 quotes 0 likes

“I am accountable to the composer, but I am also there to communicate something to the listener. I am not delivering a soliloquy, but am somewhere in the middle.”

Alfred Brendel

As cited in: Nicky Losseff, ‎Jennifer Ruth Doctor (2007), Silence, Music, Silent Music, p. 170

Communication

“Those who look for contradictions will be amply satisfied. The profession of a performer is full of paradoxes, and he has to learn to live with them. He has to forget himself and control himself; he has to observe the composer's wishes to the letter and create the music on the spot; he has to be part of the music market and yet retain his integrity.”

Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel (1976), as cited in: Benny Shanon (2013). The Representational and the Presentational. p. 380.

Music , Learning , Parting , Forgetting

“If I belong to a tradition, it is a tradition that makes the masterpiece tell the performer what to do, and not the performer telling the piece what it should be like, or the composer what he ought to have composed.”

Alfred Brendel

Studs Terkel (2006). And They All Sang: The Great Musicians of the 20th Century Talk about Their Music. p. 287