Igor Levit

Igor Levit

Igor Levit

Every pianist and soloist takes a risk with Franz Liszt's transcription of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. Few have dared to tackle this pianistic chunk, which demands everything at once: power, virtuosity, a sense of the piece's architecture, and a keen ear for detail. Igor Levit takes on this task. Liszt has long been a favorite in his repertoire. For a TV documentary, he already traced the composer's footsteps around 15 years ago. Levit's program for the Essen Philharmonic is brilliant: First, he takes us back to the starting point of all romantic piano virtuosity, Bach's "Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue".

Igor Levit

In the 19th century, piano arrangements played a crucial role in disseminating symphonic works, with Franz Liszt's arrangements of Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies considered the pinnacle. Igor Levit takes on this challenge. He performs Liszt's piano version, a feat that demands everything from a pianist. Levit also presents music by Johann Sebastian Bach and late piano pieces by Johannes Brahms.

Pianist Series: Igor Levit

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

Renaud Capuçon / Igor Levit

A long-awaited collaboration between celebrated French violinist Renaud Capuçon and the always-ambitious piano virtuoso Igor Levit. Together, they tackle Brahms’ three Sonatas for Violin and Piano—a concentration of poetry, brilliance and heroism.

Riccardo Minasi | Igor Levit

Over the last few weeks Igor Levit, one of the great Beethoven pianists of our era, explained and played all 32 Beethoven sonatas on BR-KLASSIK. Now he’s the BRSO’s artist-in-residence for the 2020–21 season! Levit has already thrilled audiences by playing four Beethoven piano concertos with the same orchestra, most recently the Second, with his idiosyncratic blend of stylistic fidelity and spirit of adventure. All that’s missing is the First, op. 15, which now stands on the programme to complete the cycle. At the head of the orchestra is Riccardo Minasi, the principal conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra and a champion of period performance practice. He’s giving his début with “Viennese classics”: Beethoven will be followed by Haydn’s Symphony no. 88, a French-inspired work that enchants us with its expressive Largo and its lilting dance movements, whether gruff in the Minuet or elegant in the Finale.

Riccardo Minasi | Igor Levit

Over the last few weeks Igor Levit, one of the great Beethoven pianists of our era, explained and played all 32 Beethoven sonatas on BR-KLASSIK. Now he’s the BRSO’s artist-in-residence for the 2020–21 season! Levit has already thrilled audiences by playing four Beethoven piano concertos with the same orchestra, most recently the Second, with his idiosyncratic blend of stylistic fidelity and spirit of adventure. All that’s missing is the First, op. 15, which now stands on the programme to complete the cycle. At the head of the orchestra is Riccardo Minasi, the principal conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra and a champion of period performance practice. He’s giving his début with “Viennese classics”: Beethoven will be followed by Haydn’s Symphony no. 88, a French-inspired work that enchants us with its expressive Largo and its lilting dance movements, whether gruff in the Minuet or elegant in the Finale.

Riccardo Minasi | Igor Levit

Over the last few weeks Igor Levit, one of the great Beethoven pianists of our era, explained and played all 32 Beethoven sonatas on BR-KLASSIK. Now he’s the BRSO’s artist-in-residence for the 2020–21 season! Levit has already thrilled audiences by playing four Beethoven piano concertos with the same orchestra, most recently the Second, with his idiosyncratic blend of stylistic fidelity and spirit of adventure. All that’s missing is the First, op. 15, which now stands on the programme to complete the cycle. At the head of the orchestra is Riccardo Minasi, the principal conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra and a champion of period performance practice. He’s giving his début with “Viennese classics”: Beethoven will be followed by Haydn’s Symphony no. 88, a French-inspired work that enchants us with its expressive Largo and its lilting dance movements, whether gruff in the Minuet or elegant in the Finale.

Riccardo Minasi | Igor Levit

Over the last few weeks Igor Levit, one of the great Beethoven pianists of our era, explained and played all 32 Beethoven sonatas on BR-KLASSIK. Now he’s the BRSO’s artist-in-residence for the 2020–21 season! Levit has already thrilled audiences by playing four Beethoven piano concertos with the same orchestra, most recently the Second, with his idiosyncratic blend of stylistic fidelity and spirit of adventure. All that’s missing is the First, op. 15, which now stands on the programme to complete the cycle. At the head of the orchestra is Riccardo Minasi, the principal conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra and a champion of period performance practice. He’s giving his début with “Viennese classics”: Beethoven will be followed by Haydn’s Symphony no. 88, a French-inspired work that enchants us with its expressive Largo and its lilting dance movements, whether gruff in the Minuet or elegant in the Finale.

Manfred Honeck & Igor Levit

“An orchestra of wailing and jubilant voices”: thus Robert Schumann described the piano playing of Johannes Brahms. Now Igor Levit, last season’s artist-in-residence, returns to the BRSO with Brahms’s First Piano Concerto, the very work with which the composer forged his path from chamber music to the symphony. Here the “voices” of the solo instrument and the orchestra blend into an intensive dialogue. Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony radiates the relaxed and cheerful holiday mood of the little village of Vysoká. “The melodies just drop into my lap”, the composer enthused, and indeed the symphony seems to “emerge directly from Bohemia’s natural surroundings and the Czech people”, to quote Dvořák’s enraptured biographer Otakar šourek. With this symphony Manfred Honeck conducts one of Dvořák’s most popular works, revealing him to be a Czech national composer to the very core.