Pianist Alfred Brendel gave his final public performance in December 2008, to a 20-minute standing ovation in the Musikverein in Vienna. He'd been playing professionally for about 60 years. For the Salzburg Festival he has chosen to appear exceptionally on stage again and to give three lectures within the „School of Listening Series“ 2010.

1. Does all Classical Music have to be Entirely Serious?
Can absolute music, without the assistance of words, movement, ort he stage be funny?

2. On Character in Music
The lecture sets out to show that in musical performances the perception of character and atmosphere is no less important than that of form and structure.

3. Light and Shade of Interpretation
In this lecture Brendel speaks about perfor- mance in general and then examines various
aspects in detail.

Mr. Brendel plays a number of musical examples during the lecture. Alfred Brendel’s place among the greatest musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries is assured. Renowned for his masterly interpretations of the works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and Liszt, he is one of the indisputable authorities in musical life.

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