The great pianist died peacefully this morning, friends have reported.
He was 94.
Brendel was born in a Czech town, raised in Zagreb, educated in Graz and ignored in Vienna.
A rush of Mozart and Beethoven recordings that he made for the cheapo label Vox caught the attention of bigger fish and he moved to London to cover the entire classical repertoire for Philips.
He was a one-man piano industry, spanning three centuries from Handel to Birtwistle. He was also a published poet and socialite.
Neville Marriner (pictured below) told me how efficient he was in studio and how much fun in the bar when work was done.
We shall not see his like again.
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