Alfred Brendel: Star pianist died at the age of 94

He was known as one of the most important pianists in the world: Alfred Brendel (1931-2025) died on Tuesday at the age of 94. confirmed his representatives that he fell asleep peacefully on June 17th in his adopted home London, surrounded by his loved ones.

According to the broadcaster, a statement stated that Brendel “will be remembered by his family and celebrated with deep gratitude”. “Partner Maria Majno, Irene Brendel, his children Doris, Adrian, Sophie and Katharina and his four grandchildren are mentioned”.

The virtuoso was born in Wiesenberg in today’s Czech Republic in 1931. In contrast to other successful musicians, no one in his family was musical and he was also not a so -called child prodigy. At the age of six, Brendel received the first piano lessons in a school in Zagreb. He later studied at the conservatory in Graz.

His training ended at the age of 16 and he mainly completed his skills on the piano. At the age of 17 he gave his first public concert in Graz. “A teacher can be too influential,” he said once. “As a self -taught, I learned to distrust everything that I hadn’t found out myself.”

In 1971 the Brendel, who was considered in an inferior, moved to London. Back problems later disabled the piano game. But he is said to have learned to appreciate the less physically exhausting works by Bach and Schumann. In 2008, the award -winning pianist said goodbye to the concert podium and devoted himself to his second passion: the poems.

Shortly afterwards, according to a “DW” report from 2021, Brendel is said to have suffered acute hearing loss and has since only been able to hear distorted tones. Alfred Brendel then traveled a lot to keep lectures on music or read from one of his books.