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| Birmingham Town Hall (Photo: Andrew Morris) |
My long drive up to Birmingham was rewarded with an
intense and riveting performance of Shostakovich’s mighty Preludes and Fugues
from pianist of the moment, Igor Levit. Here’s the introduction to my Bachtrack
review:
Deep into Igor Levit’s monumental Birmingham Town Hall
performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s vast cycle of Twenty-Four Preludes and
Fugues, I wondered if this work was some kind of Everest for pianists. It’s
rare to meet it complete, in concert. The careful, transparent counterpoint
places exacting demands on its interpreters and although it’s never flashy,
there are devilishly difficult corners. Success here depends upon unwavering concentration from musician and listener alike. If you fell, there’d be no soft
landing, and certainly nowhere to hide. But the mountain analogy only gets you
so far. This isn’t music of lofty vistas, of high-wire daring or
summit-triumph. Shostakovich’s immaculate miniatures are spare, interior, and
their rewards quiet and very personal. When Levit reached the final page of the
last, defiant fugue – the effort and intensity registering on his face and his
hands pounding out its final unisons – it was clear that this was a long,
lonely and intensely moving pilgrimage to some of the subtlest landscapes the
piano can paint.
