Word: brendel
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Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas (Pianist Alfred Brendel, Philips; 13 LPs). The 32 sonatas, which explore every facet of the keyboard, are an Olympian effort for a performer. Brendel, a meticulous scholar and flawless technician, concentrates on incisive detail rather than drama. If such sonatas as the Appassionata lack grandeur, one can still admire the impeccable musical lines...
...sophomore Jim Strathmeyer, wrestling with a slightly injured knee, outpointed Jazenski of Pittsburgh, 7-0. Junior Bart VanDissel, wrestling third-seeded Neil Brendel of Yale, lost by a fall...
Schubert: Piano Sonata in A. Op. Posth. (Alfred Brendel; Philips, $6.98). A steadfastly rich, varied piece of music, less rambling than the dour ¶minor and the ethereal-and best-known-B Flat, all of which Schubert wrote in the last months of his life. Surprisingly from the suave, precise Brendel, the performance could now and then use a more expressive turn of phrase; but it is still the performance to have, at least until somebody gets around to reissuing the nonpareil Schnabel version...
Slightly Monkish. The birthday was 40 years ago, though Brendel looks older; his high-domed, intellectual forehead is balding from two directions, and his pale eyes and thick glasses give him af slightly monkish appearance. Says Iris Brendel, his beautiful, Argentine-born wife, "We once received a letter from an unknown admirer which said, I only know you from your records. Are you as beautiful as you are talented?' We sent back a picture and that settled that...
...Brendel finds more beauty in old works than in contemporary ones. "I play everything from Mozart to Schoenberg," he says. "I'm interested in new music, but I don't think I can play it. Wrong temperament. I admire Chopin; that's one of the reasons I don't play him. He eats up a performer. Schubert is my antidote for Beethoven." Brendel also wants to get into more Haydn. Which leaves only one great ambition. "What I really want," he concludes, eying his profile in a mirror, "is to play the lead in a Frankenstein...