Igor Levit
Biography
Igor Levit has established himself as “one of the essential artists of his generation” (The New Yok Times). The press attests to his performing with a “wealth of meaning without artifice” (Washington Post) leaving the listener “speechless with amazement and admiration” (The Telegraph). In January 2018, Igor Levit was named the Gilmore Artist 2018, and in May 2018, he was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” at the 2018 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards. Born in Nizhni Nowgorod in 1987, Igor Levit at age eight moved with his family to Germany. He completed his piano studies at Hannover Academy of Music, Theatre and Media in 2009 with the highest academic and performance scores in the history of the institute. Igor Levit has studied under the tutelage of Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Matti Raekallio, Bernd Goetze, Lajos Rovatkay and Hans Leygraf. As the youngest participant in 2005 Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv, Igor Levit won the Silver Prize, as well as the Prize for Best Performer of Chamber Music, the Audience Favorite Prize and the Prize for Best Performer of Contemporary Music. In Berlin, where he makes his home, Igor Levit is playing on a Steinway D Grand Piano kindly given to him by the Trustees of Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells.
Current album
Brahms
Artists Igor Levit, Christian Thielemann, Wiener PhilharmonikerRelease Date: 10/04/2024
Sony Classical announces the new recording by Igor Levit, Christian Thielemann, and the Vienna Philharmonic of Brahms’s two Piano Concertos. The release is a triple album with Levit’s long-anticipated recording of Brahms’s late solo piano works. As a special encore, Levit and Thielemann play a Brahms waltz together. The album has been released internationally on October 4 and is available for download now. Additionally, the “Andante” from Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, op. 83, is out now.
“Feel-good vibes effervesced, while applause resounded around the stage: that’s amore!” This is how the Viennese newspaper Der Standard described the audience’s enthusiastic reaction after Igor Levit, Christian Thielemann, and the Vienna Philharmonic performed Brahms’s First Piano Concerto at Vienna’s famous Musikverein in April 2024: “During these fifty minutes, an irresistible dose of emotion was conveyed – but at the same time the sophisticated structure of Brahms’s masterpiece remained crystal-clear.” Levit and Thielemann had already performed the Second Piano Concerto with the same orchestra in December 2023; the headline in Die Presse at the time ran: “Igor Levit sets a new gold standard for Brahms.”
These two concertos make up the first joint recording by Levit and Thielemann, which will be released as a triple album with Levit’s recording of Brahms’s well-known solo works opp. 116–119. Levit’s and Thielemann’s first meeting was quite unplanned, although both had been curious about each other for a long time. In 2015, Levit spontaneously stepped in for a colleague who had fallen ill and performed Mozart’s C major Concerto K 467 with Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden in Munich. Despite an extremely short rehearsal period, the two hit it off straight away: “We have such a similar way of thinking that it is not necessary to discuss many things,” says Thielemann. And Levit adds: “When the piece begins, I simply have complete confidence in you. I know I can’t take a wrong turn. Having such unconditional trust is extraordinary.”
The two do not have to discuss individual passages – a common understanding is attained without the need for words, simply through listening and responding. Instead, they prefer to talk about performers and composers. And they are always amazed to discover how similarly they perceive so many things. Sometime after their initial meeting, it was during a walk together near Berlin that the conversation turned to Brahms – and thus they conceived the plan to record the two piano concertos as part of an upcoming Brahms cycle with Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic. “I’ve known the Wiener Philharmoniker for thirty-five years,” says Thielemann, and adds: “I’ve always been fascinated by how this orchestra can react to conductors and assimilate even the smallest details. And then there is the concert hall, the Wiener Musikverein, with its acoustic properties that Brahms knew so well.” “And what a sound!” Levit exclaims. “I was sitting in the first rehearsal and the horn began to play. You do not really want to start playing, but rather to say to the hornist: Can you please play that again? It was so beautiful.” For Levit the addition of Brahms’s beloved solo works opp. 116–119 on the album just felt right. Levit says: “Brahms’s music cannot leave you untouched. It’s just physically and emotionally not possible. Take op. 118 no. 2, for example, it’s like an arrow shot straight into your heart. It’s simply the most beautiful, touching, and tender music imaginable.”
The album concludes with a special encore – the four-hand rendition of Brahms’s charming Waltz op. 39 no. 15 played by Levit and Thielemann. Levit explains: “It’s taken me some years to get to the point of having the courage to play and record this music, and Christian Thielemann has been instrumental in getting me here. Unlike Beethoven’s music, where you go emotionally from peak to bottom almost continuously, here Brahms is often the steadiest of music, with very long breaths and a steady heartbeat. Now that I feel right placed with this music, you couldn’t find me happier than I am right now.”
Photo credit: Amar Mehmedinovic
