Alfred Brendel (born 5 January 1931) is a Czech-born Austrian classical pianist, poet, author, composer, and lecturer who is noted for his performances of Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven.

But he never had more formal piano lessons and, although he attended master classes with Edwin Fischer and Eduard Steuermann, was largely self-taught after age 16.

Subsequent tours in Europe and Latin America began to establish his reputation, and he undertook masterclasses by Paul Baumgartner, Eduard Steuermann and Edwin Fischer.

His breakthrough came after a recital of Beethoven at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the day after which three major record labels called his agent.

[12] Brendel has performed many cycles of the Beethoven sonatas and concertos, and was one of the few pianists who, in later years, could continue to fill large halls.

[5] Reviewing his 1993 Beethoven: The Late Piano Sonatas (Philips Duo 438374), Damian Thompson of The Daily Telegraph described it as "a more magisterial approach ... sprinkled with touches of Brendel's strange, quirky humour.

[15] In 2009 Brendel was featured in the German-Austrian documentary Pianomania, about a Steinway & Sons piano tuner, directed by Lilian Franck and Robert Cibis.

The film premiered theatrically in North America, where it was met with positive reviews by The New York Times,[16] as well as in Asia and Europe, and is a part of the Goethe-Institut catalogue.

[citation needed] Brendel has worked with younger pianists such as Paul Lewis,[19] Amandine Savary,[20] Till Fellner[21] and, most recently, Kit Armstrong.

[22][23] He has also performed in concert and recorded with his son Adrian[24] and has appeared in many Lieder recitals with Hermann Prey, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Matthias Goerne.

[26] His books include: Brendel has been awarded honorary doctorates from universities including London (1978), Oxford (1983), Yale (1992), University College Dublin (2007),[34] McGill Montreal (2011), Cambridge (2012) and York (2018) and holds other honorary degrees from the Royal College of Music, London (1999), New England Conservatory (2009), Hochschule Franz Liszt Weimar (2009) and The Juilliard School (2011).