Igor Levit | Schubert | Schumann | Chopin

We know him and marvel at his interpretations of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Liszt. But when has Igor Levit played Chopin? At Lucerne Festival, he will dare to tackle this giant of the piano repertoire by playing the Third Piano Sonata, Chopin’s last, which is classical in form but encompasses a wide emotional spectrum from dreamy tenderness to rebellious protest. Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat major also represents a final statement in the genre, for it was written just a few weeks before his early death at the age of only 31. The otherworldly character of the work, which features a transfigured melody in the slow movement, seems to anticipate eternity. “Time, with its countless beauties, may not bring forth another Schubert anytime soon,” Robert Schumann remarked. Schumann himself was no stranger to spiritual border crossings. When he composed his Nachtstücke (“Night Pieces”) in 1839, he envisioned people bowed down by grief. Shortly afterwards, he learned that his brother Eduard had died at the same time. The four pieces were originally to be called “Leichenphantasie” (“Funeral Fantasy”). They are influenced by the world of E.T.A. Hoffmann and lead into the heart of Romanticism.