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Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert : Alfred Brendel (piano). Symphony Hall, Birmingham 24.6.2008 (JQ)

Haydn: Variations in F minor, HobXVII/6 (Un piccolo divertimento)
Mozart: Sonata in F, K533/494
Beethoven: Sonata quasi una fantasia in E flat, Op 27 No 1
Schubert: Sonata in B flat, D960


June has been something of a month of farewells in Birmingham. A couple of weeks ago Sakari Oramo gave his final concerts as Music Director of the CBSO. However, that was very much a case of au revoir, since he’ll be returning to the orchestra as a guest conductor. However, the capacity audience that gathered in Symphony Hall last Tuesday had indeed come to say goodbye to a great artist for this recital was to be Alfred Brendel’s last appearance in the city before he retires at the end of this year. He’s been a perennial visitor to Symphony Hall in the fifteen seasons since it opened and the audience was clearly determined to show its affection and respect for this distinguished pianist.

Indeed, as he came on to the platform he was given a standing ovation. This followed a brief speech of welcome by Lyndon Jenkins in which he explicitly invited the audience to make this gesture. Quite frankly, I felt this was a misjudgement. Surely an ovation should be spontaneous? As we resumed our seats for the start of the recital I heard the man in the seat behind me mutter crossly “a bit contrived” and I was relieved to find I was not alone in my view.

But this was an evening when the music came first: one would expect nothing less from this dedicated and thoughtful artist. Nick Breckenfield’s good programme notes were sprinkled with liberal quotations from Brendel’s own writings about music and about the particular pieces he’d chosen for this programme. This use of Brendel’s own words was highly appropriate for it reminded us that he is as lucid and stimulating when he writes about music as he is when he plays it. The programme, which Brendel will be touring all year, could scarcely have been better chosen as a summation of his career. It was a satisfying entity and very well planned. The music covered some four decades but hearing the chosen works in almost chronological sequence took the audience on a stylistic and philosophical journey, illustrating some aspects of the development of music in a relatively short period of time.

We began with Haydn. His Variations in F minor date from 1793. The piece is fairly short – less than ten minutes in duration – but it’s a far from insubstantial work. Brendel unfolded the opening pages with a simple grace, bringing out the gentle melancholy. One could only admire the poise with which he invested the music. I felt that everything was absolutely in place – even the rests were telling, which is always a mark of a fine musician.  Unlike some sets of variations this piece is anything but a mere display piece and in only a few minutes Haydn says rather a lot. I thought Brendel’s account of it was masterly. 

He broke the chronology of his programme slightly to give us Mozart’s Sonata in F major, a work which preceded Haydn’s Variations by several years. The first movement was played dexterously and with admirable clarity. The Andante that follows was expressive and carefully nuanced. Brendel built up to the climax expertly and the return to the quiet opening material was beautifully judged. Such a performance as this made me wish in a way that Mozart had left the sonata unfinished instead of adding on the Rondo K494, which he’d already written in 1786. However, Brendel played this rondo elegantly and with fine style, so Mozart’s decision was vindicated.

The Beethoven sonata with which he concluded the fist half was beautifully judged and executed. The material of the opening Andante was beautifully shaded and I admired the gravitas in the third movement, Andante con espressione.  Brendel’s performance of the Allegro vivace finale was suitably lively but he didn’t drive the music too hard and I was glad of this. Overall this was a mature and understanding reading of the sonata and the warm reception from the audience was fully justified.

One work occupied the second half and it was the one to which I’d been looking forward most keenly. The opening movement of Schubert’s great B flat sonata is a wide-ranging discourse and here it benefited from Brendel’s profound understanding and fastidious taste. In the opening paragraph, as Schubert’s warm theme unfolds, the rise and fall of the melodic line was conveyed wonderfully. Brendel’s own description of this movement includes the term “gently hymnic” and that’s just how the main subject came across. Schubert ranges very widely over the long span of this movement and Brendel sustained the music’s long span expertly. I noted in particular how well he weighted the left hand to bring just the right degree of emphasis to Schubert’s crucial bass line. At the very end of the movement the brief reminiscence of the main theme was delivered quite beautifully.

Brendel refers to the “clear-sighted melancholy” in the second movement and in his performance he showed just how apt is this description. His reading was masterful and deeply considered. I was struck, as the music unfolded, by the wisdom of Schubert at the age of just thirty-one and, of course, on this occasion we heard Schubert’s wisdom refracted through that of the seventy-seven year-old pianist; it was an incredibly fruitful combination. This searching, poetic performance captivated the audience. I found it quite enthralling and the end was particularly magical.

In the scherzo I admired Brendel’s lightness of touch. After the profundities of the preceding movements he seemed to relish the gaiety of this music and I was reminded that in the programme biography we were told that this very serious musician had once listed ‘laughing’ as his favourite occupation. This good humour carried over into the finale. The programme note very rightly pointed out that, despite some autumnal overtones, Schubert never thought of this work, or its two companions, as in any sense valedictory. Though he died only a matter of weeks after completing the B flat sonata this finale shows him displaying abundant vitality, energy and invention and these qualities were equally in evidence in Brendel’s playing. A suspicion of some smudged fingering in the quicksilver coda was an infinitesimal blemish on a superb performance.

Then the proper, spontaneous standing ovations began – there were to be no less than three. The audience rose to its feet to acknowledge one of the truly great pianists of our time – and rightly so. The applause was stilled only by Brendel returning to the piano to give us an encore. This was  ‘Au lac de Wallenstadt’ from Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage. Brendel’s rendition was wonderfully fluent. After further prolonged applause he treated us to more Schubert. This time we heard the Impromptu in G flat, a serene piece which, in this context I found particularly moving. It formed a perfect, valedictory conclusion to a memorable recital.

Alfred Brendel is surely one of the most thoughtful and musicianly artists of his generation and we are unlikely to see his like again. He’ll ring down the curtain on a career spanning six decades in Vienna in December. Before then there are many opportunities to hear this programme in a variety of European venues and also to hear him in Mozart piano concerti.

This was an unforgettable recital and one which I wouldn’t have missed for anything.

John Quinn

Details of all the concerts in Alfred Brendel’s final concert tour can be found at http://www.alfredbrendel.com/


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