Alfred Brendel

“What the composer wanted is the alpha and omega for me. But the composer is not there to tell me what he wanted.”

“One must not only be a pianist, but a musician.”

“Listening is an active process. It's not just hearing. It's paying attention.”

“Doubt, for me, is a valuable signal. It warns me that something is wrong, that I am not on the right track.”

“I have always been a friend of the absurd.”

“The ugly is very important in art.”

“There are two sorts of artists, it seems to me. Those who are on a quest and those who have found.”

“The word 'listen' contains the same letters as the word 'silent'.”

“If I belong to a tradition, it is a tradition that makes the masterpiece tell the performer what to do, and not the performer tell the masterpiece what it should be like.”

“I am not interested in shocking people. I am interested in causing them to think.”

“Perfection is unattainable. But the striving for perfection is not.”

“Humour is the sublime in reverse.”

“The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things.”

“There is a difference between going to a concert and listening to a recording. The recording is a finished product. The concert is a process.”

“I think the life of a concert pianist is a very lonely one.”

“Young people can be very romantic - they're not inhibited by experience.”

“The pianist's fingers must be able to do anything that the imagination can ask of them.”

“In my opinion, the only way to be a good interpreter is to be a good servant.”

“Every good performance is a new risk.”

“The music itself is the main thing.”