Pianist Alfred Brendel gave his final recital on December 18 in Vienna, and he has given Gramophone’s Stephen Plaistow what the magazine calls his “one final interview.” Aside from giving no concerts and interviews, Brendel has also decided to abandon recording, and so all we’ll have from now on (aside from his massive discography) are a few unreleased live performances. But he has no regrets:

I wanted to stop when I am maybe still in pretty good shape – the difference with my colleagues being that I’m not addicted to giving concerts…It shouldn’t be drawn out until some of my faculties might deteriorate, or until I become a glorification of arthritis…As to the public, I am most grateful to it, in spite of all those obnoxious coughers and the mobile telephones and hearing aids going off…I would have preferred not to announce my retirement but it was technically impossible…On the whole, these farewell concerts have turned out to be enlightening. When I have been told “you are leaving a big hole in the lives of so many people”, I felt glad that I could leave something behind, even if it’s a hole.

OLM’s Greg Waldmann attended Brendel’s final Carnegie Hall appearance last February, and reviewed both the concert and the pianist’s legacy in our March 2008 issue.