Igor Levit, piano

Igor Levit's solo recital journeys from the jazz sounds of Fred Hersch's Variations on a Folk Song to the symphonic scope of Richard Wagner's sweeping Prelude from Tristan and Isolde, heard here in an arrangement for piano. Johannes Brahms' delicate Six Chorale Preludes take inspiration from Lutheran hymns that contemplate themes of mortality and eternal life. The program concludes with Franz Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor, a bold, impetuous tone poem for solo piano hailed as one of the composer's greatest achievements.

PROGRAM

* Six Chorale Preludes
Johannes Brahms (arr. Ferruccio Busoni)

* Variations on a Folk Song
Fred Hersch

* Prelude from Tristan and Isolde
Richard Wagner (arr. Zoltán Kocsis)

* Piano Sonata in B minor
Franz Liszt

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Born in Nizhni Nowgorod in 1987, Igor Levit at age eight moved with his family to Germany where he completed his piano studies at Hannover Academy of Music, Theatre and Media in 2009 with the highest academic and performance scores in the history of the institute. Igor Levit has studied under the tutelage of Karl-Heinz Kammerling, Matti Raekallio, Bernd Goetze, Lajos Rovatkay and Hans Leygraf.

As youngest participant in 2005 Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv, Igor Levit won the Silver Prize, the Prize for Best Performer of Chamber Music, the Audience Favorite Prize and the Prize for Best Performer of Contemporary Music. Previously, he had won the First Prize of the International Hamamtsu Piano Academy Competition in Japan.