The celebrated and controversial pianist allows himself a lot of freedom with the sonatas at the end of the cycle – and a joke with the audience.
Igor Levit polarizes – after all. The discussion keeps the engagement with art and questions about musical interpretations alive. It’s not literally about the emperor’s beard, but about elementary things: How far can the interpreter go, what is still allowed, what is frowned upon? Where do traditions and traditions play a role? Can’t anything shake the creed for the freedom of art? Or are there areas in which personal taste and show have not lost anything?
The finale of the Beethoven cycle in the Großer Festspielhaus in Salzburg was about the real thing: the last three sonatas from the years 1820/22. A lot of demands and challenges. Levit approaches it cautiously, almost shyly, at room volume. Tonal shades in a very small space outline the intimate jargon of the E major sonata, op. 109. A multi-colored tone puzzle, interrupted only by rugged figures or brutal chords. A sound bath, as if it were a play around what Beethoven might have meant.
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