United Kingdom Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven: Igor Levit (piano). Royal Competition Corridor, London, 27.9.2024. (MB)
Bach – Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903
Brahms – Ballades, Op.10
Beethoven-Liszt – Symphony No.7 in A significant, Op.92, S 464/7
The Royal Competition Corridor can appear too giant for a solo piano recital. It wants a pianist to fill it, which, as anybody acquainted with the monstrous Royal Albert Corridor will testify, is extra a matter of drawing one in to pay attention than of exterior projection. Luckily, Igor Levit confirmed himself absolutely ready to take action, in an enchanting programme, given with out an interval, of Bach, Brahms and Beethoven, the latter organized by Liszt.
A extremely declamatory opening to Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue offered it unabashedly as ‘Steinway music’. Equally noteworthy, although, was the sense of its chromaticism, of all twelve notes of the chromatic scale coming into play. Not for nothing did Schoenberg name Bach the primary twelve-note composer. This was not merely a matter of Bach, however of Levit too, inviting us to immerse ourselves in melodies, harmonies, within the workings of Bach’s modulatory tonal plan, each in a correctly improvisatory fantasia and in a fugue whose topic emerged tenderly, wandering, to construct and in the end discover decision. Featherlight, nearly Mendelssohnian taking part in mixed with grander rhetorical supply, as composer and pianist patiently and capriciously mixed the discovered and the mercurial.
Twilight, skilled in sure Bach passages, characterised a lot, although not all, of the 4 Ballades, Op.10, of Brahms, certainly one of its biggest kindred spirits. The primary, in D minor, proved gravely stunning, Ossianic in spirit, with tantalising hints already (1854) of the Schoenbergian future. Its rhetoric grew to become surprisingly (but faithfully) Lisztian earlier than withdrawing into the shadows. In its D main sibling, it was Chopin’s flip to be revealed, not as an eccentric visiting stranger, however summoned from Brahms’s personal materials. It was an intimate, at instances nearly diffident portrait that led to extra ardent, Schumannesque Romanticism. The B minor Intermezzo sounded in context as if its predecessor had been turned inside out, in a wierd, Gothic transformation, solely to show itself inside out subsequently. All three appeared indirectly to organize the way in which for the fourth, in B main, a extra mature Brahmsian butterfly rising from its chrysalis. There was a deeper disappointment right here, which one may examine to Chopin, however which was in actuality very a lot Brahms’s personal. If there was a reluctance to fly freely within the solar, that was maybe as a lot the composer’s as pianist’s. It was a markedly inside imaginative and prescient, which some could have felt a little bit too introverted, however I discovered it compelling.
Liszt’s Beethoven symphony transcriptions are fascinating tributes, which take a peculiar mixture of abilities and insights to carry alive. The piano can after all solely imitate the orchestra, however in some circumstances that may be a great factor. In spite of everything, one factor an orchestra can not do is imitate an orchestra; it may well solely be one, at the least earlier than the later twentieth century. Right here we heard the Seventh Symphony, which Levit gave (rightly, I believe) as a symphony on the piano, not a sonata manqué. The chords saying the primary motion’s introduction essentially sound totally different; Levit relished that distinction with ear-catching indifferent taking part in, recapturing a component of shock. And but, thereafter, there was an more and more Lisztian (and sustained) sound and magnificence to chords and octaves, propelling us towards the exposition, whose provenance grew to become unusually clear. The motion developed and returned because it ought to, but heard anew. If something, the coda sounded all of the extra of Weber’s ‘madhouse’.
Even on the piano, the opening chord of the second motion sounded gray because the North Sea. It was given comparatively swiftly, the marking Allegretto taken at Beethoven’s (disputed) phrase, with out sounding rushed. Certainly, one felt in addition to noticed the processional aspect at work in all its multifarious glory — and dignity. Line was maintained all through, and we had been handled at instances to just a bit – a Goldilocks quantity of – Lisztian grandiloquence. The ghostly high quality to the fugato was spot on, making me eager to listen to Levit within the third motion (and the remainder) of the Fifth. Outstanding in its pianistic success, the scherzo’s efficiency was based on nice virtuosity that was nonetheless a mere starting, a essential given. Its Tiggerish high quality and propulsion nearly had one remorse that Beethoven didn’t provide one more reprise. The Trio relaxed, as of outdated, the Austrian pilgrims’ hymn really felt in addition to heard.
It took my ears a short time to regulate for the finale: most likely essentially the most tough motion to carry off, whether or not from orchestra or piano. I’ve heard some horribly cruel renditions, incomprehensibly praised, which have sacrificed the humanity with out which Beethoven is traduced. Levit confirmed that one can have an exciting journey, imbued with Lisztian spirit, which is able to in the end develop into Beethoven’s too. His alternative of encore was good, each in itself and for highlighting the distinction between Beethoven organized for the piano and the composer’s personal piano writing. The Adagio cantabile from the ‘Pathétique’ Sonata wedded lyrical impulse to Haydnesque roots in a efficiency at the least as transferring as something heard beforehand.
Mark Berry
