Another Single-Word-Title Album from Igor Levit

Igor Levit on the cover of his latest album (courtesy of Jensen Artists)

Those that have been familiar with this site for some time probably know that it has given a generous amount of attention to pianist Igor Levit. For the most part the articles have provided commentary for his recordings, most (if not all) of which have single-word titles. However, here in San Francisco this was a banner year for Levit, since he gave four performances in Davies Symphony in his capacity as Artist-in-Residence for the San Francisco Symphony (SFS).

From a personal point of view, I have to say that I took considerable satisfaction in having an opportunity to listen to a concert performance of Ferruccio Busoni’s Opus 39 piano concerto, which Levit performed with SFS. Those familiar with the work of pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk probably know of his reputation for presenting “monster” concerts, which featured outrageously flamboyant technical challenges. Busoni’s concerto is a “monster” in its own right; but it “goes to the next level,” framing all of that flamboyance in an overall architecture, which I had described as “symmetry within symmetry” when I wrote about the structure of the score.

One week from today Sony Classical will release its eighth album of solo piano performances by Levit. The title of the album is Fantasia; and, as in the past, Amazon.com has created a Web page to process pre-orders. Over the course of two CDs, Levit serves up fiery performances of three major virtuoso undertakings. The first of these was a keyboard composition by Johann Sebastian Bach, his BWV 903 “Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue.” This is given a “back-to-back” performance, coupled with Franz Liszt’s B minor piano sonata. However, the demands that must be met to provide convincing accounts of these two pieces are dwarfed by those of the “main event” on the second CD, Busoni’s “Fantasia contrappuntistica.” This was composed about six years after the piano concerto. While many will probably find it more accessible than the concerto, there is no questioning the magnitude of technical challenges posed by both compositions.

Too be fair, one must also take note of one more demanding composition on this new album. This is Alban Berg’s Opus 1, a single-movement piano sonata composed during his studies with Arnold Schoenberg. However, where technical challenges are concerned, the bar is relatively low. (I say this because I was able to get my own fingers around this piece, back in the days when they were more agile!) More significant are the ways in which Berg found his own path for working with the absence of a tonal center. Furthermore, it would be fair to characterize this as a “cerebral” composition, which can also be said of BWV 903 (Bach being the ultimate pedagogue of his day) but not of the flamboyant rhetorical turns found in both Liszt and Busoni.

It is also worth noting that my past recital encounters with “Fantasia contrappuntistica” have been performances by two pianists. As a result, Levit’s new solo recording deserves a special place in my catalog of recordings. Mind you, having experienced his solo work in the Opus 39 piano concerto, I cannot say that I was particularly surprised to find that the “Fantasia contrappuntistica” would also get solo treatment.