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Alfred Brendel discography

artist discography

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ4722363
Source-derived summary

The pianist Alfred Brendel KBE (5 January 1931 – 17 June 2025) was a recording artist for more than half a century, from his first record of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 5 at the age of 21, to his farewell concerts in 2008, recorded in Hanover and Vienna. He has recorded with only three record companies: Vox Records, Decca and Philips. His discography contains many albums and compilations of multiple recordings from different composers featuring him as a pianist.

Overview

Alfred Brendel made his first recording at the age of 21 and has since recorded a wide range of piano repertoire. He was the first pianist ever to record the complete solo piano works of Beethoven. He has also recorded works by Mozart, Liszt, Brahms, Schumann and Schubert. In contemporary music he has recorded the piano concerto op.42 by Schoenberg, the piano sonata by Alban Berg, etc.

Brendel recorded extensively for the VOX label, providing them his first of three sets of the complete Beethoven sonatas. He did not secure a major recording contract until the 1970s.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Alfred Brendel discography” is artist discography. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Alfred, Brendel and discography, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1931, 2025, 2008—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Alfred, Brendel and discography is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “artist discography” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4722363. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1931, 2025 and 2008.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Alfred Brendel discography”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Alfred Brendel discography primary sources, Alfred Brendel discography archive and Alfred research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Alfred Brendel discography”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Alfred Brendel discography” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.