Igor Levit - Tristan (2CD)

The repertoire of Igor Levit's new album "Tristan" spans some 135 years: the period from about 1837 to 1973. Very different genres meet; only one of the works was originally written for solo piano Levit's approaches to existential borderline experiences - death in "Life" (2018), the encounter with the spiritual in "Encounter" (2020), and now, in "Tristan," the connection between love, death, and the need for redemption - mean that, once again, the focus is not solely on masterpieces for his instrument, but above all on compositions in which certain thematic associations find the most personal form possible Levit's own thoughts in "Tristan" revolve less around the themes of love and death as such, but rather around experiences of the night and the nocturnal - as a dark counter-world to conscious activity during the day. Psychic states of emergency set the tone: "The night has so many faces. It can mean refuge and loss of control, it stands for love and death, and it is the zone of deep fears," says Levit In the Adagio of Mahler's Tenth Symphony, there is the famous outcry of the dissonant chord of pain, and Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" virtually stages a kind of emotional meltdown. All the essential events of the piece take place at night. Hans Werner Henze also speaks of nightmares and dreamlike hallucinations in his memoirs of the time when "Tristan" was written Henze's "Tristan - Préludes for piano, tapes and orchestra" - a rapturously sophisticated hybrid of solo piano, electronics, concerto and symphony - forms the centerpiece of the album. It is Levit's first orchestral production ever Igor Levit's highly individual program revolves around the themes of night and love. For the first time, the pianist can be heard with a studio recording of a work with orchestra, namely Henze's "Tristan - Préludes for piano, tapes and orchestra" with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst. Framed by Liebestraum No. 3 and Harmonies du soir (Liszt), the Tristan Prelude (Wagner / Kocsis) and the Adagio of the Tenth Symphony (Mahler / Stevenson).