After the announcement of his retirement from the concert stage in 2008, Alfred Brendel, the famous pianist, is now concentrating on his second passion: poetry. His latest publication, 'Playing the Human Game', is Brendel's first and most comprehensive collection of poems in English with their original German versions. The author has collaborated with the leading scholar, Richard Stokes, on the English translation of the poems in this volume, and Phaidon.com joined them for tea to hear more about the inspiration for the poems and Brendel's favourite from the collection.
The Collected Poems of Alfred Brendel: Playing the Human Game is published to coincide with Alfred Brendel's 80th birthday on the 5th January 2011.