Salzburg: Day 4, Igor Levit

The audience gathers in the Herbert-von-Karajanplatz

The Grosses Festspielhaus before the concert: a photo of an empty concert hall is like an audio recording of a painter's brushes in their jar!

Igor Levit, despite his youth, is a distinguished artist with many honors including 2020 Gramophone  Artist of the Year. In 2022 his Shostakovich album ON DSCH was BBC Music Magazines Recording of the year. I saw him here three years ago in the smaller Haus für Mozart, but last night he was in the big hall, the Grosses Festspielhaus and it was oversold! They had approximately seventy extra chairs placed on the wings of the stage and I didn't see an empty seat in the house.

The program consisted of the Chromatic  Fantasy and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903 by Bach, the Six Piano Pieces op 118 by Brahms and, in the second half, Liszt's piano arrangement of the Symphony No. 7 by Beethoven. This last was the show-stopper, a stunningly virtuosic achievement by both Liszt and Levit. It was so strange to hear this very familiar symphony transformed on the piano, as Liszt himself suggested, like an engraving of a painting with all the light and shade but missing the orchestral color. There was one encore, the Nocturne in C# minor by Chopin.

I saw Igor Levit three years ago and he was very fine then, though I didn't quite find his Mahler Symphony no. 10 transcription entirely convincing. But tonight was a success on many levels and the audience gave a standing ovation. In fact, some stifled clapping broke out after the haunting Allegretto movement of the Beethoven. Clapping between movements is unheard of in Salzburg--normally, but Igor Levit has won a following here.