Alfred Brendel (born 1931) is an Austrian pianist, writer and lecturer, one of the most influential keyboard artists of the later twentieth century. Born in what is now the Czech Republic, he built an international reputation through Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart, Haydn and Liszt.

In the Pristine catalogue he appears through early concerto and solo recordings from the 1950s, before the better-known Philips cycles made his name familiar to a wider public.

Brendel’s playing is associated with intellectual clarity, structural command and a dry, alert poetic sense. He was never merely a pianist of surface beauty, but of musical argument and proportion.

His early recordings are particularly valuable because they show the formation of a major artist. Brendel’s mature persona may be famous for granite and wit; here we hear the quarry being opened.