ADRIAN BRENDEL, Cello
“Adrian Brendel is everything but a showman: his tone is clear and precise, leaning towards classical refinement, always exposing an acute understanding of the composer’s intentions…One learnt more about Beethoven’s artistic development in two hours than one might have from entire seminars devoted to this subject.”
Berliner Tagesspiegel
Born in London in 1976, Adrian Brendel studied at Winchester College, Cambridge University and with Frans Helmerson at the Cologne music conservatoire. His other important teachers have included Alexander Baillie, Miklos Perenyi and William Pleeth, with whom he developed a strong attachment to the chamber music repertoire from a young age. He attended masterclasses with members of the Alban Berg quartet and György Kurtág and was also a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s prestigious CMS2 scheme for two years from October 2002.
He is a regular participant at the Aldeburgh, Cheltenham and Oxford festivals; the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove; the Rheingau and Mecklenburg Festspielen; Berliner Festwochen, and the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, Austria. Adrian Brendel has performed extensively throughout the UK and abroad as chamber musician and soloist, appearing in such diverse venues as the Berlin Philharmonie, Zollverein Essen, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, and the Wigmore Hall, where he made his debut in 1999. He has worked frequently with Imogen Cooper, Paul Lewis, Till Fellner, Daniel Hope, Lawrence Power and Katharine Gowers, and has a regular duo with pianist Tim Horton. He has also recorded for radio companies across Europe including BBC, ORF, NDR, WDR, Sudwestfunk and Deutschlandradio.
The last few years saw the culmination of his close musical relationship with his father Alfred Brendel. In 2001 they performed Mozart Piano Quartets together in cities such as Vienna, Tokyo, London, Köln, Paris and at both the Edinburgh Festival and Salzburg Mozartwoche. In 2003 and 2004 they performed Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano including recitals in Bremen, Brussels, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Hannover, Essen, Firenze, Freiburg, New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Palermo, Turin, Bologna, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Paris, Lyon, Lucerne, Graz, Vienna, Amsterdam and London. Their much heralded Beethoven Cello Sonata recordings for Philips were recently chosen as the top recommendation on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Building a Library’ programme.
Other recent highlights include Haydn's D major concerto with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields; the Dvorak Concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, as well as further performances of concertos by Schumann, Dvorak and Ligeti with European orchestras including the Sinfonia Varsovia.
Engagements in 2005/6 included trio concerts with Till Fellner and Lisa Batiashvili in Germany and Austria; recitals in England and Spain with Tim Horton, and in Turkey with Charles Owen; concerts in the USA, Spain and Wigmore Hall, London with the Sequenza trio, and recitals in England, France, Italy, Germany and Austria with Till Fellner. Commitments in the 2006/7 season include performances in Austria with Till Fellner and Lisa Batiashvili, in Spain and the UK with Tim Horton and in Turkey with the Bogazici Trio.
Adrian Brendel is co-founder of 'Music at Plush', a summer music festival held every year in Dorset, South-West England. www.musicatplush.com
