FastSaying

If I belong to a tradition, it is a tradition that makes the masterpiece tell the performer what to do, and not the performer telling the piece what it should be like, or the composer what he ought to have composed.

Alfred Brendel

BelongMasterpiecePerformerTradition

Related Quotes

The word 'listen' contains the same letters as the word 'silent'.
— Alfred Brendel
inspirationallistenlistening
With Fischer," Brendel wrote in 1960, "one was in more immediate contact with the music: there was no curtain before the soul when he communicated with the audience. One other musician, Furtwangler, conveyed to the same degree this sensation of music not being played, but rather happening by itself.
— Alfred Brendel
Music
You need three or five hands to play Ligeti.
— Alfred Brendel
Play
My difficulties belong to me!
— Alfred Adler
BelongDifficultiesMe
The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.
— Alfred North Whitehead
europeaninfluencephilosophy