Born in Moravia (now the Czech Republic) in 1931, Alfred Brendel is above all known for being one of the classical pianists whose work – performing Beethoven, Liszt and Brahms – has been the most widely acclaimed. He is easily recognisable by his gangly appearance, his big glasses, his sense of humour which is omnipresent on stage and in his poems, and by his subtle interplay of wittiness and sensitivity. All of these qualities make Alfred Brendel a virtuoso, one of the grand masters of piano at the beginning of the 21st Century. In 2007, he was awarded the prize “Une vie en musique - Arthur Rubinstein”, the equivalent of what would be a Nobel Prize for music. He is also passionate about painting, literature and poetry. He has published two collections of poems, notably Une aile blanche et l’autre noire, in which his brilliant sense of humour is clearly revealed.