ALFRED BRENDEL

I want to make music. That means I prefer the Steinway piano.

A work of art is like a person: it has more than one soul in its breast.

You have to be aware of all the latent possibilities that give a work its special character - its atmosphere, its moods, its contrasts.

Art gives a sense of order, life is basically chaotic, and there's a tension between them. A sense of order comes from chaos and contains a bit of it, but it's the sense of order that is important in a work of art.

I have a great need to learn what the norm is by dealing with what is not the norm... with the grotesque and the fantastic.

Silence ought also to be the core of each concert. Remember the anagram: listen = silent.

You need three or five hands to play Ligeti.

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.

In his larger forms, Schubert is a wanderer. He likes to move at the edge of the precipice, and does so with the assurance of a sleepwalker. To wander is the Romantic condition; one yields to it enraptured, or is driven and plagued by the terror of finding no escape. More often than not, happiness is but the surface of despair.

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.

You need three or five hands to play Ligeti.

In his larger forms, Schubert is a wanderer. He likes to move at the edge of the precipice, and does so with the assurance of a sleepwalker. To wander is the Romantic condition; one yields to it enraptured, or is driven and plagued by the terror of finding no escape. More often than not, happiness is but the surface of despair.

I want to make music. That means I prefer the Steinway piano.

I have a great need to learn what the norm is by dealing with what is not the norm... with the grotesque and the fantastic.

Silence ought also to be the core of each concert. Remember the anagram: listen = silent.

You have to be aware of all the latent possibilities that give a work its special character - its atmosphere, its moods, its contrasts.

A work of art is like a person: it has more than one soul in its breast.

Art gives a sense of order, life is basically chaotic, and there's a tension between them. A sense of order comes from chaos and contains a bit of it, but it's the sense of order that is important in a work of art.