Monday evening, Bourgie Hall hosted Igor Levit, one of the most fascinating pianists of the last 20 years. A recital mainly composed of orchestral transcriptions which reached unsuspected heights.
Born in 1987, the Russian pianist who grew up in Germany is notably at the origin of a complete discography of Beethoven’s sonatas which, if it is not necessarily unanimous, remains one of the most original of recent years with that by Jonathan Biss.
The pianist with 175,000 subscribers on .
The room was almost full to welcome him four days after Carnegie Hall in New York and the next day at Koerner Hall in Toronto in an almost identical program, since the pianist changed the Suite 1922 of Hindemith for Klavierstücke, op. 119, by Brahms, preserving the Adagio of Symphony no 10 of Mahler and the Symphony no 3 in E flat major, op. 55, by Beethoven, respectively transcribed by the Scottish pianist Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015) and Franz Liszt.
The Brahms were not the only Montreal exclusive. Unwell due to a foot injury, Igor Levit was forced to play without shoes. To hear him play with so much imagination, you would have thought he had just put on seven-league boots.
The concert began under the best omens with one of the most beautiful Intermezzo, op. 119, no.o 1 by Brahms that we never had the chance to hear, perhaps with that, on the disc, of Rudolf Serkin.
A Intermezzo of breathtaking concentration and loving slowness (a real Adagio!). The rest of the cycle was consistent, although the final Rhapsody could have been more “risoluto”, as the score requires.
The highlight of the evening, however, was the transcription of the first movement of the Symphony no 10 by Mahler, the only excerpt from the symphony nearly completed by the Austrian composer before his premature death.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Russian pianist Igor Levit
Stevenson’s transcription, recorded by the musician at Sony, is not necessarily very pianistic, since the long note values, sustained in the orchestra (it’s an Adagio in addition), are not filled by more detailed figurations. idiomatic. That said, it is a fault that the density of Levit’s playing, which plays with score, quickly makes us forget.
Because the sound alloys skillfully crafted by the pianist transport us to a climate impossible to have in the orchestra. In this, it is pure piano. Playing throughout with wild lyricism, Levit displays a true narrative sense.
After the break, it was Beethoven’s turn, of whom we would perhaps have preferred to hear a “real” sonata, since that is Levit’s specialty, rather than a transcription of a symphony. L’Eroica, it is undoubtedly immense music, but such a piano-orchestra quickly saturates the sound space of the intimate Bourgie Hall (this is not Carnegie Hall) and dazes the audience. And it’s not that the pianist, who is distinguished by a full but never forced sound, plays too loudly.
This one comes out of this tour de force rather well (it’s a chore to play), even if we sometimes feel it tense in the first and third movements. Very interesting funeral march, carried out in sepulchral slowness.
Despite the loud applause, Igor Levit, who gave his all in Beethoven, did not give an encore. We will gladly forgive him for that.
Consult the Bourgie Room program