专辑名称：The Complete Vox, Turnabout and Vanguard Solo Recordings

演奏家：阿尔弗雷德·布伦德尔（Alfred Brendel）

专辑风格：古典音乐、钢琴

录音时间：1955-1975

发行公司：Brilliant Classics

唱片版本：欧洲纸盒版

唱片编号：93761

专辑介绍：

这套35CD合辑收录了钢琴家布伦德尔1955年-1975年间在Vox、Turnabout和Vanguard唱片公司的全部录音。当布伦德尔在2008年结束了他的公开表演生涯时，Brilliant Classics汇编了这套合辑，以表达对这位当代伟大的钢琴家的敬意。这些录音是在布伦德尔在加盟Philips唱片公司，达到他国际化演奏事业巅峰前录制的。从这些早期的录音中，可以感受到他那热情、生动、引人入胜的演奏风格，作为一个雄心勃勃的二十多岁的年轻人，布伦德尔的演奏比后期在Philips公司更流畅、更真实也更灵动。

阿尔弗雷德·布伦德尔（Alfred Brendel，1931-）奥地利钢琴家。布伦德尔是二战后老一代与中生代钢琴家之间承上启下的人物，他是战后成名的钢琴家中年龄较长者，至今已在舞台上驰骋了近半个世纪。演奏会上的布伦德尔很有特点，每次出场犹如宗教仪式一般，双眼仿佛瞪着天花板似地走到钢琴前，要等到观众席鸦雀无声时，才慢条斯理地开始演奏。但是，一旦开始演奏，就不再看观众席一眼了。当演奏到优雅微妙的乐段时，布伦德尔就忽而低下头注视键盘，忽而眼睛眺望虚空，嘴里无声地哼唱着流畅的音乐，像是深切地歌颂自然一般，此时的布伦德尔完全陶醉在自我的音乐中。不论有多少听众，他总是把他们与自己的音乐紧密地结合在一起，演奏时犹如在与听众对话般地亲切而又富于说服力。他确信音乐具有内在的精神力量，惟有音乐的崇高表现才是与听众心灵的交流。他的录音非常多，许多作品都多次录音。特别是一些经典作品，几乎录音技术每有重大突破，他都要重录一次。

布伦德尔的演奏风格是继承德奥系的传统，注重结构、内在张力强。他知识广博、技术辉煌，对音色非常敏感，在处理装饰音和华彩乐段方面具有独到之处。他的演奏清纯隽永，音色变化细微，善于处理装饰音，注重情感、想象力丰富。他是学者型的钢琴家，对演奏的每一部作品都要潜心研究，深入探索，以揭示深刻的内涵。但他的演奏并不刻板，而是非常浪漫抒情。布伦德尔总是把自己的热情及幻想寄托在作品中，以发挥他的艺术精髓。他是一位诚实的钢琴家，可以说是目前钢琴家中精神派的代表人物。早先他在维也纳因弹奏李斯特作品而名盛一时，他的手指灵活、富有弹性，旋律的流动圆滑舒畅。能像布伦德尔那样把李斯特特有的甜美旋律表现得温暖飘香的钢琴家并不多见。

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As Alfred Brendel brought to a close his public performing career in 2008, Brilliant Classics compiled a 35-CD set devoted to the pianist's complete solo and concerted discs for the Vox, Turnabout, and Vanguard labels, recorded prior to the long affiliation with Philips that helped cement his international career. Although Brendel generally does not look kindly upon his distant discographical past (he apparently "disowns" his world-premiere Prokofiev Fifth Concerto that closes disc 35), he certainly has little for which to apologize here, musically and pianistically speaking. Indeed, in certain cases I've long preferred Brendel's earlier, budget-priced versions to his later and costlier counterparts.

At least four Mozart concerto readings substantiate my claim, specifically the beautifully engineered and subtly inflected K. 271, K. 449, K. 482, and K. 503 works. The calmer, more rippling Schubert Impromptus score over both of Brendel's relatively self-conscious Philips remakes. Likewise, the picky, italicized nature of his Philips Schubert D. 958 sonata traversals appeal to me far less than his fiery, vividly characterized, utterly gripping Vanguard version. He played Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition more fluidly and flexibly as an ambitious twenty-something for Vox than did his older, more celebrated, and textually truer self for Philips.

Much as I respect and appreciate the mindful virtuosity of Brendel's 1980s Liszt recordings, his less-favorably engineered yet more unfettered youthful counterpart proved no slouch in the B minor and Dante sonatas, to say nothing of the various opera paraphrases' surface bravura and scintillation. While his Vanguard Liszt Rhapsodies and Chopin recital don't represent the last word in Romantic rhetoric (notwithstanding the nifty improvised flourish toward the Second Rhapsody's end), the interpretations remain fresh and unhackneyed.

Both Brendel and conductor Michael Gielen certainly knew what they were doing in their first recording of the Schoenberg concerto, although they ultimately achieved reference status decades later for Philips. And as for Stravinsky and Balakirev, in a "blind" listening test unsuspecting keyboard mavens likely will never guess who's playing so authoritatively and brilliantly in the horrendously difficult climactic pages from Petrouchka's last movement or in Islamey's mounds of double notes.

Brendel's pioneering complete Beethoven piano music cycle (including the concertos) takes up nearly half of the set's contents. It embodies the "consistent inconsistency" that can leave an academic, fussy, tonally unalluring aftertaste (the 32 C minor Variations, the D major Op. 28 sonata), yet at other times hits the proverbial nail on the head (the brilliantly turned out Op. 31 No. 3, Op. 54, and Appassionata sonatas), even in the same piece (the Pathétique sonata's draggy first-movement introduction versus the supple, insightfully inflected Rondo).

No doubt the variable sonics partly contribute to my observations. For example, Op. 22's dry and boxy sound, which wouldn't have passed muster in the early mono days, contrasts sharply to Op. 90's intimately detailed, rounded reproduction. Once you get past the raw orchestral execution in the concertos, you'll discover frequently more impetuous and daring conceptions of the solo parts than Brendel would deliver in his more polished Philips versions: sample the vehement, not too subtle yet exciting Emperor Concerto, and an unusually rhapsodic yet attention-grabbing Fourth. Brendel's own words help frame Ates Orga's balanced and perceptive commentaries on the recordings. Although we no longer have the opportunity to hear Brendel perform live, we still can buy this enticingly-priced package for less money than a premium ticket to one of the pianist's "farewell" recitals.