‘The Farewell Concerts’ - Piano Works

Alfred Brendel pf Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Charles Mackerras

Decca 478 2116 Buy now

(141’ · DDD)

Bach/Busoni Chorale Prelude, ‘Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland’, BWV659 Beethoven Bagatelle, Op 33 No 4. Piano Sonata No 13, Op 27 No 1 Haydn Variations in F minor, HobXVII/6 Mozart Piano Concerto No 9, K271. Piano Sonata No 9, K533/494 Schubert Piano Sonata No 21, D960. Impromptu, D899 No 3 

There is much to glory in here. Brendel’s Schubert, for instance. The final sonata was a moving choice in itself and the performance is all that you would expect: there’s no grandstanding, no inordinately extreme tempi (à la late Richter) but throughout there’s the sense that Brendel understands every aspect of Schubert’s late masterpiece, has pondered it deeply, but the result is anything but ponderous. It starts so naturally it’s as if you walked in on his performance, mid-stream, so to speak. The weighting of individual chords, the underlying pulse, the tempo – all grow from a decades-long familiarity. In the Andante sostenuto – and in the slow sections of the Beethoven sonata too – Brendel spins the musical line quite beautifully. It’s a reminder that, for all his reputation as a cerebral musician, he’s by no means a cool player. Beauty per se may not be his ultimate aim, but listening to the Schubert G flat major Impromptu, and the way he picks the melody out of the air, it’s impossible to remain unmoved. 

It’s fitting that these discs should also include a Mozart concerto. Here we have his first great concerto, K271, with Brendel joined by his more recent Mozartian partner, Sir Charles Mackerras. It’s a musical marriage made in heaven, especially when you add the VPO to the mix. Every phrase has such detail, such intricate colouring, yet, again, it’s detailing that comes of long exposure to a work, built up over the years like a patina, rather than something superficially applied on a single level. The performance is unhurried but not in any way sluggish, and the slow movement is utterly glorious. You can hear faint vocalisations from Brendel, here and elsewhere, but they don’t intrude unduly.

There is so much to admire throughout these two discs: his Mozart sonata is another treasure, and his soulful yet grand Bach/Busoni Chorale Prelude reminds us of repertoire from much earlier in his career, but perhaps the highlight is the Haydn – a composer absolutely made for Brendel’s gifts (or should it be the other way round?). Rather than a sonata, we have here the F minor Variations, an apt example not only of Haydn’s innovative formal genius but also a reminder that he, too, could write melodies to melt the heart. There is greatness to be found in every bar of these two discs, and that goes not only for the music but the musician too.