A wide circle of leading musicians came together at Barbican Hall on 5 January for a concert celebrating the life and legacy of Alfred Brendel, who died in London in June 2025 at the age of 94.
Held on what would have been Brendel’s 95th birthday, the tribute was led by Sir Simon Rattle, conducting a specially assembled ensemble of Brendel’s friends, collaborators, and former students, named for the occasion the Orchestra of the Day of EnBrendelment. The concert was co-produced by Maestro Arts and the Barbican, with all proceeds going to the Alfred Brendel Young Musician’s Trust.
Among the performers were artists closely associated with Brendel across several decades, including pianists Paul Lewis and Till Fellner, violinist Lisa Batiashvili, soprano Lucy Crowe, and cellist Adrian Brendel, the pianist’s son. They were joined by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Imogen Cooper, Sir András Schiff, the Takács Quartet, and actor Dame Harriet Walter, among others.
The programme unfolded in three parts and closely reflected Brendel’s artistic universe. It moved between orchestral, chamber, and solo works by composers central to his career, including Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Liszt, and Beethoven. These were interwoven with more unexpected choices, such as works by Mauricio Kagel and a sequence combining Brendel’s own poems with piano miniatures by Kurtág and Ligeti, underlining the pianist’s long-standing engagement with words, humour, and musical wit.
Chamber music occupied a central place in the evening, with the Takács Quartet joined by Adrian Brendel for the Adagio from Schubert’s String Quintet in C major. Solo and duo performances brought together several of Brendel’s former students and close musical partners, before the concert concluded with a complete performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with Paul Lewis as soloist—a work closely associated with Brendel’s legacy and with Lewis’s own artistic formation under his mentorship.
The event attracted significant critical attention in the British press. Writing in The Guardian , critic Erica Jeal described the concert as “a relaxed and joyous celebration of an outstanding musician and benevolent mentor,” noting the absence of formal speeches and the prominence given to music-making itself. She highlighted the way the programme balanced seriousness and humour, from Haydn’s orchestral wit to the more surreal interludes featuring Kagel’s music, and pointed to the Schubert String Quintet and the closing Beethoven concerto as among the evening’s most powerful moments.
Born in 1931, Alfred Brendel was widely regarded as one of the defining pianists of the post-war era, particularly celebrated for his interpretations of Beethoven, Schubert, and Liszt. Based in London for much of his life, he combined a major international performing career with an influential role as a teacher, writer, and thinker on music. The Barbican tribute brought together many of the musicians shaped by his work, offering a collective reflection on a legacy defined not only by performance, but also by mentorship, intellectual curiosity, and artistic independence.
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