Igor Levit
Pianist Igor Levit emerged as a star in the 2010s after winning several major awards and honors, including designation as a BBC New Generation Artist. His rise has been due in part to bold programming in his concerts and on his recordings.
Levit was born on March 10, 1987, in the Soviet Russian city of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod, Russia). His mother was an opera rehearsal pianist. He took up the piano at age three, and a year later, he was already performing a Beethoven Ecossaise in public. At six, Levit performed a Handel keyboard concerto with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Nizhny Novgorod. His family moved to Hannover, Germany, in 1995, and in 1999, he enrolled in classes for a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and then moved to the Hochschule für Musik, Drama und Medien in Hannover. He remained a student there until 2010, studying with Bernd Goetzke, Karl-Heinz Kammerling, and Matti Raekallio. Even before his graduation, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung pronounced him one of the greatest pianists of the century. He won the Luitpold Prize for young artists at the Kissinger Sommer Festival in Bad Kissingen, Germany, and from 2011 to 2013, Levit was a BBC New Generation Artist. In 2013, Levit was signed to the Sony Classical label and made his recording debut with an album of Beethoven's weighty last piano sonatas.
Levit made concerto solo appearances with the likes of the Düsseldorf Symphony, the London Philharmonic, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Levit has given solo recitals across Europe, the U.S., and Israel, and he has played chamber music with cellist Mischa Maisky, violinist Sergei Krylov, and violist Kim Kashkashian, among others. Levit has been outspoken about anti-Semitism on social media, and he received a death threat as a result in 2019. That year, he was named to the faculty of his alma mater, the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. Levit has continued to record for Sony Classical, issuing albums of music by Beethoven, Bach, and Frederic Rzewski. Increasingly often, he has also issued thematic albums with musico-philosophical themes, such as Life in 2018 and Encounter in 2020. His 2022 album Tristan explored the ramifications of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, and he followed that up in 2023 with the double album Fantasia.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
20 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Fantasia
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 29 Sep 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 15 Dec 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven : Complete Piano Sonatas
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 13 Sep 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Encounter
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 11 Sep 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Johann Sebastian Bach : Partitas, BWV 825-830
Solo Piano - Released by Sony Classical on 15 Aug 2014
Gramophone: Recording of the Month24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tristan
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 9 Sep 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
On DSCH
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 10 Sep 2021
Gramophone: Recording of the Month24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Life
Solo Piano - Released by Sony Classical on 5 Oct 2018
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Goldberg Variations - The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 4 Nov 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: The Late Piano Sonatas
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 16 Aug 2013
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Für Elise, Bagatelle No. 25 in A Minor, WoO 59
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 20 Mar 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, Beethoven, Rzewski
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 9 Oct 2015
Gramophone Record of the Year24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5
Classical - Released by Naxos on 1 Nov 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Suite for String Orchestra No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068: Air (Arr. for piano by A. Siloti)
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 23 Jun 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 13 Sep 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ode to Joy (from Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Op.125)
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 18 Dec 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (Live)
Igor Levit, Xiaohan Wang, Kölner Kammerorchester, Helmut Müller-Brühl
Classical - Released by Naxos on 12 Feb 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Diabelli Variations - 33 Variations on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 4 Nov 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The People United Will Never Be Defeated! - 36 Variations on ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 4 Nov 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -