Alfred Brendel, one of the most important pianists, died at the age of 94.

The composer, poet and essayist left his last breath in London, surrounded by his loved ones, earlier today, as it became known in a statement.

His family – his partner Maria Majno, his ex -wife Irene Brendel, Doris’s children, Adrian, Sophie and Katharina, as well as his four grandchildren – said goodbye to him with “deep gratitude and love”, according to the same announcement.

Brendel is considered one of the leading performers of Beethoven’s music world.

Alfred Brendel was not, as mentioned above, only a top pianist.

He was also a distinguished essayist and poet, known for the thin and often subversive of humor.

He remembered as his first musical memory to tune a gramophone with opera discs and trying to sing.

He was born on July 5, 1931 in Wiesenberg, Moravia (today’s Czech Republic), and attributed his peculiar sarcastic cosmopolitan to his experiences as a child in a European war.

Unlike many musicians, he did not come from a musical family, nor did he show any special talent in his childhood.

He studied piano in then Yugoslavia and then at the Graz Conservatory in Austria. He later attended lessons in Lucerne with Edwin Fischer, whom he considered his most important mentor, the one who taught him to play passionately in the context of classicism.

Brendel evolved as a self -taught. “A teacher can be too influential,” he said.

“If you are self -taught, you learn not to trust anything you have not understood on your own.”

He began his career in 1948 in Graz and won the Concorso Busoni Award in Italy the following year.

Although he initially dealt with Liszt’s work, he soon expanded his repertoire, focusing mainly on composers of Central Europe – but avoiding contemporary music.

In 1971 he settled permanently in London. He recorded four times the Beethoven piano concerts, with the latest 1999 historical execution with the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle – a cooperation characterized by emblematic.

In 2008, at his latest concert in Vienna, he performed the piano concert no. 9 of Mozart.

This concert was included by the Daily Telegraph on the list of the top 100 cultural moments of the decade.

He received the title of Knight (KBE) in 1989, honored because of his Austrian nationality.

Although his international recognition came relatively slowly – at 45 – his interpretive maturity and his spiritual approach to the piano established him as one of the most important musicians of his time.

In his last years, musculoskeletal problems forced him to focus on less demanding works, such as those of Bach, Schumann and of course “Beethoven’s favorite”, in which he said “his admiration grew up day by day – if not time by time”.

In recent years, he has also presented hearing loss.

In any case, he continued to teach and give lectures.

Known for his particular sense of humor, he had stated as his hobby the “unintentional humor and the collection of kitschy objects”.

His home in North London was filled with peculiar objects – including a skeletal hand that emerged from the piano when you opened the lid.

His essays, such as “Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughs” (1976), and his poetic collection of One Finger Too Many (1998), reveal the range of his spirit beyond musical events.