Brendel at his Best

Alfred Brendel: Unpublished Live and Radio Performances 1968-2001. Ludwig van Beethoven. 33 Variations in C major on a waltz by Anton Diabelli op.120. Frédéric Chopin. Andante spianato & Grande polonaise in E flat major op.22. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Variations sérieuses op.54. Ferruccio Busoni. Elegien 3 & 6. Ludwig van Beethoven. Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major op.101. Alfred Brendel, piano. Recording producers for BBC Radio 3: Peter Thresh, Misha Donat, Christopher Marshall. Balance engineers for BBC Radio 3: Neil Pemberton, Steve Portnoi. Two compact discs, total playing time 114 minutes. Recorded at BBC Studios, London, 13 May 1968 (Chopin); Royal Festival Hall, London, 25 March 1990 (Mendelssohn), 22 October 1997 (Busoni), 30 May 2001 (Beethoven op.120); Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 26 November 1992 (Beethoven op.101). Philips 475 8322

The release of the latest instalment of Philips’ Artist’s Choice series of CDs devoted to Alfred Brendel seems to have been kept surprisingly quiet. Brendel writes in his introductory notes that the collection "aims to bring together a majority of those performances I’d like to ask my listeners to consider in preference to all others", and the present double disc includes a number of previously unreleased live/radio recordings. In most cases it is not difficult to see why Brendel made his choice – he is well known for relishing the presence of a good audience, and the beneficial effects, especially in the form of increased spontaneity, are apparent in many of the tracks here.The whole of Disc One is devoted to a new release of the Diabelli Variations, a live performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall recorded on May 30th, 2001. This is…

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