Alfred Brendel Quotes

#1. 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

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

Alfred Brendel

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

Alfred Brendel

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

Alfred Brendel

#5. The word 'listen' contains the same letters as the word 'silent.'

Alfred Brendel

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

Alfred Brendel

#7. Silence ... is the essence of the music itself, the vital ingredient that makes it possible for the music to exist at all.

Alfred Brendel

#8. You need three or five hands to play Ligeti.

Alfred Brendel

#9. 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.

Alfred Brendel

#10. 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 ...

Alfred Brendel