The Farewell Concerts

"These CDs from farewell concerts in Vienna and Hanover...show Brendel as one of the supreme pianists of our time. The deliberately un-virtuosic repertory carries an almost unbearable inwardness of feeling: that quintessential Brendel mixture of intellect and emotion." The Observer, 15th November 2009

"The CD set still presents Brendel the supreme artist. He probes and shapes his core repertory - Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Haydn - with enviable elegance and ease, and a heavenly lack of show." The Times, 13th November 2009 ****

"Here we have Mozart's first great concerto, K271, with Brendel joined by his more recent Mozartian partner, Sir Charles Mackerras. It's a musical marriage made in heaven, especially when you add the VPO to the mix. Every phrase has such detail, such intricate colouring, yet again, it's detailing that comes of long exposure to a work, built of over the years like a patina, rather than something superficially applied on a single level. The performance is unhurried but not in anyway sluggish, and the slow movement is utterly glorious. There is greatness to be found in every bar of these two discs, and that goes not only for the music but the musician too." Gramophone Magazine, January 2010

Alfred Brendel has for many years been among the world's greatest pianists; in concert, recital and on many best-selling recordings. Here, in his last CD release, recorded in the year of his retirement (2008), he gives his final public performances in solo recital and in concert - revealing a master musician in total command of his art.