Silence... is the essence of the music itself, the vital ingredient that makes it possible for the music to exist at all.

- Alfred Brendel

Art gives a sense of order, life is basically chaotic, and there's a tension between them. A sense of order comes from chaos and contains a bit of it…

- Alfred Brendel

A work of art is like a person: it has more than one soul in its breast.

- Alfred Brendel

You have to be aware of all the latent possibilities that give a work its special character - its atmosphere, its moods, its contrasts.

- Alfred Brendel

In his larger forms, Schubert is a wanderer. He likes to move at the edge of the precipice, and does so with the assurance of a sleepwalker. To wande…

- Alfred Brendel

You need three or five hands to play Ligeti.

- Alfred Brendel

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 …

- Alfred Brendel

The word 'listen' contains the same letters as the word 'silent.'

- Alfred Brendel

I want to make music. That means I prefer the Steinway piano.

- Alfred Brendel