Are we dreaming the same dream
1.
last night i went to igor levit’s recital at hill auditorium. an understatement for this concert would be that, it’s so far the best live performance of solo piano i have been to in the past 3 years. the last time that i was awed by a soloist was in september 2019—the recital of my dear teacher arthur greene.
what makes a piano recital extraordinary? what qualities separate the lackluster concerts from the mind-blowing concerts?
before igor levit embarked his adventure onto the stage:
a glowing, somewhat peaceful, and gorgeous-looking hill auditorium.
before further discussing levit’s artistry, i would like to document my trajectory of listening to levit. levit’s music didn’t start to stand salient to me until his album life in 2019—more specifically, his liebestod in life. when i was younger, i was drawn to the withering away of high ideals (love is one form). in other words, i once fetishized the thought that we could never arrive at our dreams. liebestod, in a way, perfectly manifest the unreachability of dreams. liebestod shows us that we only achieve the dreams either after we decease or when we witness the deceased fulfilling dreams that they had bypassed in their past lives.
(ok, i don’t know what i’m talking about.)
zimerman, when launching his szymanowski album, tells us that there is absolutely no obligation for anyone to rehash the overly performed repertoire again and again. i also remember from kristie dotson—my icon in philosophy—that there’s no need to be like everyone else.
igor levit really started to draw my attention during the pandemic. alex ross’s portrayal of levit’s character in the new yorker certainly facilitates another added layer, that we got to know the personality behind the music.
also in the pandemic, levit released the people united will never be defeated. my reaction was, wow, what a character. levit’s faith in music’s transformative power may have been a slight overstatement. yet i still agree that music is capable of transforming our inner selves. under the influence of levit’s album, i even bought Rzweski’s score through Breitkopf & Härtel in the instrument exhibition in shanghai in 2020. i think i’ve never even heard of rzweski until igor levit sheds light on this composer.
i’m sharing these anecdotes to demonstrate the extent of charisma of igor levit as a person and as a musician.
pictures from google
i guess, a plausible calibre that could be used to assess a pianist is their potential to never cease to surprise the audience. in terms of levit’s choice of repertoire, formats of concerts, and political outspokenness, he never ceases to surprise me
2.
last night, igor levit introduced me to hindemith’s suite 1922, op. 26. in a word, i had so much fun during those 25 minutes when levit played this suite. levit’s execution is percussionist-like, witty, and at times penetratingly tender. fascinatingly enough, the program notes tell us a little tale that hindemith wrote to his publisher:
i think it is not necessary to reprint that awful suite 1922, neither with picture nor without. the piece is really not an honorable ornament in the music history of our time, and it depresses an old man rather seriously to see that…the sins of his youth impress the people more than his better creations.
in the middle of the suite, the lady next to me suddenly started to moisturize her lower legs and feet with fragrant lotions. i noticed the sound of her taking off her socks and rubbing her skin. speaking of which, several years ago in shanghai, a dude sitting behind me was cracking sunflower seeds while listening to the concert.
3.
after hindemith, levit pulled out two formidable symphonies and manifested them on piano through transcriptions: (1) the adagio of mahler 10th, (2) the entire symphony of beethoven 3rd.
—igor levit is such a riot.
some of my fav piano transcriptions of beethoven symphonies.
pictures from google
judging simply on the basis of his choice of repertoire, i’m inspired by his music vision. that being said, i can’t stand another performance of textbook piano pieces. after the year of beethoven, traumatized by the recycling of beethoven’s greatness, i have stopped going to piano recitals in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
since my undivided attention was given to the hindemith suite, i felt less struck by the rest of the recital. still, i commend levit the visionary. one reason is that i’m repelled by symphonies. i prefer the more intimate atmosphere of chamber music. another reason is that i’m not a fan of mahler 10th–yet. truth to be told, i find the majority of mahler’s symphonies extremely abstract and oblique. other than mahler 1st and mahler 6th, i find mahler long and excruciating.
that adagio is not a forgiving piece for me. the loose structure verges almost on non structure, giving me no sense of where and when this piece is going toward. it’s mostly dissonant, dwelling at no unambiguous keys. there’re no doubt moments of brightness, only to be eclipsed by the senselessness that continues to unfold.
this adagio lasts for at least 25 minutes.
at the very last few bars, i was craving for the adagio to end, only to hear the piano sound linger around and return back again and again.
i just wanted to go to the bathroom during the intermission before there would be a line.
4.
levit played through the beethoven eroica in the second half. as expected, levit is an expert on beethoven, since he has recorded and released all 32 sonatas of beethoven.
the ceiling of the concert hall:
despite a broken bulb that kept blinking every 3 second
—i’m surprised that levit was unaffected, since the blinking light bulb was right on the side of the score.