Shared Birthdays

I was surprised when I learned that Alfred Brendel and Maurizio Pollini share the same birthday. I was fascinated. Two of the worlds most esteemed and respected pianists, born on the same day, 11 years apart? Was this merely coincidence, or what else did they have in common? Perhaps there were mutual synergies at play, or astrological implications silently shaping and influencing the lives and careers of these two gifted musicians. Here’s what I found.

Brendel was born was born on January 5, 1931 in Czechoslovakia. His parents were not musicians, and there was no music in their home. His childhood was spent traveling throughout Yugoslavia and Austria as his father moved frequently working as an architectural engineer, businessman and resort hotel manager. Brendel received his first piano lessons at the age of 6 from a local teacher, and there was a succession of them as the family moved. They eventually settled in Graz, where for a few years he was able to study piano and composition at the Graz Conservatory. But after he turned 16, what would be the only formal training he would ever have, came to an end. Aside from attending a few masterclasses, he was self taught, with no other teachers. He learned by recording the pieces he was studying and then listen and react to them. He continued to compose and began to paint as well. At 17, Brendel gave his first public performance, entitled ‘The Fugue in Piano Literature’. The program featured the works of Bach, Brahms, Liszt and a sonata that he himself had composed. At the same time, an exhibition of his water colors was being displayed at a gallery in Graz. In 1949 he won the fourth prize of the prestigious Busoni Competition in Italy. That recognition was enough to launch him as a professional musician and tour Europe and Latin America, slowly and unspectacularly building his career. Quite unexpectedly, the day after performing an all Beethoven recital in London, he received three offers – each from a major record company – and Brendel sensed his career “beginning to boil and to bubble.” His initial recordings in the 1950’s established his credentials as an authoritative keyboard artist, and during the 1960’s, he became the first pianist ever to record the entirety of Beethoven’s piano works.

Pollini was born in Milan, on January 5, 1942, with art and music a natural part of his childhood. His father was a modernist architect and violinist, his mother a trained pianist and singer, and his uncle a leading Italian sculptor. He began playing the piano at the age of 5 studying with well known teachers. His first public performance took place at the age of 9, and he gave a remarkable recital of Chopin’s Etudes at the age of 14. Four years later he received a diploma from the Milan Conservatory and went on to win the International Etorre Pozzoli Piano Competion in 1959, and the VI International Chopin Piano Competition in 1960. Arthur Rubenstein headed the jury there, declaring “that boy can play better than any of us.” Pollini soon recorded Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 with the prestigious Philharmonia Orchestra for EMI and also taped performances of Chopin’s Etudes as well. A series of concerts that would’ve effectively launched his international career was offered. However Pollini declined. He withdrew from public performance intending to study with the legendary virtuoso Arturo Benedetti Michelangelo instead. Speculations of a possible crisis of confidence arose, but Pollini was intent on acquiring “a precise technique and emotional restraint”, and deeply motivated to expand his repertoire beyond the music of Chopin which had brought him so much success. For two years his concert appearances were sparsely limited, until the mid 1960’s, when he resumed offering recitals and appearing with orchestras throughout Europe, the United States and the Far East. 

From their childhoods and family life, to their musical training and entry into the world of classical music, the careers of these two were distinctly contrasted. While Brendel grew up without music and art, he has also earned recognition as a writer and painter.  He achieved his artistic goals independently, learning “to distrust anything I hadn’t figured out myself.” Pollini had the advantage of knowledgable teachers, and he relied on that relationship to realize his own musical ideals. He forfeited early fame in order to pursue his interest in contemporary music, which was surely influenced by his father and uncle.

Their repertoire differentiated them as well. Brendel focused on the works of Bach, Hadyn, Weber, Schumann, and Brahms. He recorded all of the Mozart piano concertos, and was a champion of the sonatas of Schubert. While Pollini focused squarely on the works of Chopin, Schumann, Brahms and Debussy, he “wanted to be involved in many other musical experiences.” His first recording in the 1970’s created a sensation by featuring the works of Stravinsky and Prokofiev. He embraced contemporary music by performing and recording the works of Boulez, Stockhausen, Nono, Schoenberg and Webern. During his entire career, Brendel’s sole foray into contemporary music was to establish Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto in the keyboard literature. There was only one composer that each of them held tantamount throughout their entire careers, and performed to such an extent that both men are synonymous regarding the works of Beethoven.

After recording all of Beethoven’s piano music in the 1960’s, Brendel recorded the complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas in the 1970’s, and performed all 32 Sonatas in 77 recitals in 11 cities throughout Europe and America during the 1980’s. He was the first pianist since Artur Schnabel to perform the complete cycle at Carnegie Hall. He undertook the endeavor again twice during the 1980’s and ’90s. Pollini launched his original recordings of Beethoven’s piano Sonatas in 1977, performed all of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos with the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1980’s, and played the complete Sonata cycle in Berlin, Munich and five other cities within a two year period in the early 1990’s. His recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations was awarded the prestigious Diapason d’ Or.

They were of the same mind in other important ways, too. Throughout his career Pollini has affirmed that his concern has been to express the composer as accurately as possible, not by his own emotion. Brendel expressed that thought when he stated “If I belong to a tradition it is a tradition that makes the masterpiece tell the performer what he should do and not the performer telling the piece what it should be like, or the composer what he ought to have composed.” The two certainly shared an unwavering belief in their art, talent, and a lifelong fidelity to their beliefs and influences. Brendel never altered his commitment to the repertoire he loved as a youth, or his interest in painting and literature. Pollini risked his career in order to pursue his artistic interests in contemporary music. Both men remained dedicated to the keyboard music of Beethoven, and were the recipients of countless awards including the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize for music. Most importantly, it was the love they shared for the art of piano playing that has influenced and inspired all of us.