Renaissance Man

Poet, essayist, artist, and above all, pianist Alfred Brendel will play the Lobero Theatre next week, and the rest of us will just have to try to do our jobs adequately. The concert features works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert-as it should, for Brendel is well-known as one of the world’s great interpreters of all four composers.

Santa Barbara has been blessed with recitals by great pianists: Murray Perahia, Emmanuel Ax, Gila Goldstein, Leon Fleisher, and our own Hee-Kyung Juhn, among many others. But Alfred Brendel is a special case. During a career spanning nearly six decades, he has recorded all of Beethoven’s piano works, all of Schubert’s piano sonatas, all of Mozart’s piano concertos, and more of the concert repertoire than almost any pianist in history-all with stunning artistry and intellectual depth.

See him so that for the rest of your life, you can tell people you once saw a genius. Hear him so that you can keep the memory forever.

Brendel plays the Lobero Theatre on Thursday, March 15 at 8 p.m. Call 963-4408 for tickets. See www.alfredbrendel.com.