But I suspect he has sold more records than you.

LOL!

My opinion comes somewhere in-between the two of you.

I drove 5 hours to see him on his farewell tour, but I am not in love with everything he does either.

So has Miley Cyrus.

My wife and I went to see him several years ago, when someone gave us tickets. We met two of Berkeley's top teachers at the performance, and going home on BART, and they had almost opposite opinions of the performance. We were sort of in the middle. Of the other old Vox performers that I heard, I think I preferred Walter Klien.

I rarely go to performances like his any longer. There are equally as good performances by local performers or smaller venues, and it is easier to be delightfully surprised at their performances, and harder to be disappointed.

I love Brendel's recordings of the Beethoven sonatas. I bought them a couple of years ago at random, not looking for a particular artist, and was really struck by the beauty. Makes me dull, I guess.

If you go through a VPN (Virtual Private Network) you can fool the BBC and get to see it.

Not available in Australia either. Not fair really, as my wife is English and she misses some of her English programs.

I have several Brendel CDs, and find his interpretations interesting, but not generally to my taste.

My take on his playing is that he approaches performance very much from a dispassionate academic/intellectual standpoint. There's nothing wrong with this, but it doesn't really surprise me that he doesn't relate to Rachmaninoff's music, which is ALL about passion and emotion.

BTW, I find it hard to believe that even Brendel wouldn't be moved by Richter playing the 4th Prelude from the 1st set!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATWU85fxD2k

I think a pianist can approach a work intellectually but also play it with great emotion/passion. I think it's wrong to assume the two approaches are mutually exclusive.

I don't think many people - even his fans - associate Brendel with passion & emotion.

I was quite surprised when he brought out a CD of Mussorgsky's Pictures in his mature years, and I bought it out of curiosity. Within the first few minutes, I regretted it - there is nothing of Mussorgsky in it, and he clearly didn't understand what the music (or 'Russian soul') is about. Everything is carefully calculated, picked over & laid out, devoid of anything resembling spontaneity, let alone emotion or soul.......

And perhaps surprisingly, he didn't even bring out much color in the music, and his tone was unlovely, which made me wonder what he saw in the piece.

Just listen to Richter or Pletnev (or indeed, any other good Russian pianist) - within a few bars you hear passion and 'soul'.......

I didn't "get" Brendel's Beethoven playing until I heard him live - the recordings didn't capture what he was doing, as far as I was concerned. Live, it was incredible and not like anyone else, and it was certainly among the great Beethoven performances I've ever heard, either live or recorded.

Yes! Last year at the Colburn School I heard a 12 year old girl play Haydn that was just terrific. She was a tiny thing and introduced the piece in a small quiet voice, then turned into a monster at the piano. She should have been across the street at Disney.

Agreed...

I didn't mean to suggest that they are mutually exclusive, rather that Brendel's playing - for me at least - focuses too much on the intellectual, and too little on the emotional.