One Finger Too Many - Softcover

Alfred Brendel - internationally famous as the supreme interpreter of the piano music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt - is also a poet. Between concert engagements and recording sessions, he has found the time to write this collection of sardonic, wise, funny, and beautifully turned verses. Penetrating light is thrown on those parts of the author's endlessly subtle mind and sensibility which his devoted audiences can barely have guessed existed. The supernumerary finger of the book's title, the appearance of Brahms's smelly ghost, the war between the bearded and the beardless, the camel's loss of his humps, the appropriateness of laughter, the eventual appearance of Godot and the usefulness of identical twins are among the important subjects he tackles. With the help of Richard Stokes, Alfred Brendel has produced English versions of his original texts which go out to meet the reader with refreshing directness and wit.

Alfred Brendel was born in 1931 in Wiesenberg, and now lives in London. He is universally acknowledged as one of the world's leading pianists, and although he has bidden farewell to the concert stage he continues to give master-classes and readings. He is also the author of several books, including Alfred Brendel on Music (Robson Books), The Veil of Order and a volume of poetry - One Finger Too Many - both published by Faber.