Igor Levit (; born 10 March 1987) is a Russian-German pianist who focuses on the works of Bach, Beethoven, and Liszt, and has also recorded modern pieces, including Dmitri Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, Ronald Stevenson's Passacaglia on DSCH, Frederic Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, and Morton Feldman's Palais de Mari. He is also a professor at the Musikhochschule Hannover. He lives in Berlin.
Biography Born in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) to a Jewish family, Levit began playing piano at the age of three. He received piano lessons from his mother Elena Levit, a piano teacher, répétiteur and grand-disciple of Heinrich Neuhaus. As a child, he had his first successes on the concert stage in his hometown. His family moved to Hannover in 1995. From 1999 to 2000, he studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Hans Leygraf and, from 2000 to 2010, at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Matti Raekallio and .
Levit has appeared in major concert halls and music festivals around the world. During his studies, he won prizes in several international competitions including second prize at the International Maria Callas Grand Prix in Athens (2004), first prize at the 9th Hamamatsu International Piano Academy Competition in Hamamatsu (2004), the second prize at the piano competition Kissinger Klavierolymp (2004), the silver medal and three other awards at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv (2005). In October 2011, he appeared in a 45-minute documentary aired on 3sat about his love for the music of Franz Liszt. He was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist from 2011 to 2013.
Levit was appointed to a professorship at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover (Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media) starting in the winter semester 2019/2020. In 2021, Levit contributed a cover of the Metallica song "Nothing Else Matters" to the charity tribute album The Metallica Blacklist.
Awards 2009 Luitpold Prize for young artists at the Festival Kissinger Sommer in Bad Kissingen 2017 Beethoven Ring 2018 Gilmore Artist Award 2020 Gramophone Classical Music Awards – Artist of the Year and Instrumental Category Winner (Beethoven Complete Piano Sonatas) 1 October 2020 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 2024 Buber-Rosenzweig-Medal 2025 Kaiser Otto Prize
Hauskonzerte During the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020, Levit began streaming concerts from his home in Berlin Mitte. He posted these to Twitter as a series of Hauskonzerte:
12 March 2020: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 ('Waldstein') 13 March 2020: Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated! 14 March 2020:In Ross' article in The New Yorker (11 May 2020), Levit implied that he started posting Hauskonzerte on 12 March 2020. In the intro to the 2 May 2020 Hauskonzert, he made this explicit. Posts from 12 and 13 March are not accessible. Bach's Chaconne in a transcription for left hand by Brahms14 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 20 May 2020. 15 March 2020: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 ('Appassionata')15 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 20 May 2020. Also performed in the 22 April Hauskonzert. 17 March 2020:The 16 March 2020 Hauskonzert is not accessible. Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia" ('Moonlight')17 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 20 May 2020. 18 March 2020: Schubert's "Six moments musicaux"18 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 23 May 2020. 19 March 2020: Schubert's Piano Sonata in B-flat major, D. 96019 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 23 May 2020. 20 March 2020: Schubert's Piano Sonata in A major, D. 95920 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 23 May 2020. 21 March 2020: Schumann's Fantasie in C major, Op. 1721 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 24 May 2020. 22 March 2020: Shostakovich's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 6122 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 24 May 2020. 23 March 2020: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 11023 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 24 May 2020. 24 March 2020: Arrangements of Bach's Nun komm' der heiden Heiland, BWV 659, and Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639; and Busoni's Berceuse, BV 252, and Fantasia nach Johann Sebastian Bach, BV 25324 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 24 May 2020. 25 March 2020: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31/2 ('Tempest')25 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 24 May 2020. 28 March 2020:The 26 and 27 March 2020 Hauskonzerte are not accessible. Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 17 in B-flat major, K. 57028 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 24 May 2020. 29 March 2020: Transcriptions of Mahler's Adagietto, Billy Joel's "And So It Goes", Frederic Rzewski's "A Mensch", and Frederic Weatherly's "Danny Boy"29 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 25 May 2020. 30 March 2020: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-flat major, Op. 31/330 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 25 May 2020. 31 March 2020: Liszt's Sonetto 123 del Petrarca in A-flat major; Brahms' Intermezzo in A major Op. 118/2; and Liszt's transcription of Wagner's "Isoldens Liebestod"31 March 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 26 May 2020. 1 April 2020: Schubert's Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat major and Allegretto in C minor, D. 915; Brahms' Ballade in B major, Op. 10/401 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 26 May 2020. 2 April 2020: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 ('Waldstein'), streamed from the Schloss Bellevue concert room02 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 26 May 2020. 3 April 2020: Two of Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words"; Jobim's "Luiza"; Schumann's ""; and Janis Ian's "Stars"03 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 27 May 2020. 4 April 2020: Solovyov-Sedoi & Matusovsky's "Moscow Nights"; Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue"04 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 28 May 2020. 5 April 2020: Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons" (except "September")05 April 2020 Hauskonzert. Levit notes in the intro to this post that this is the twenty-fifth Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 31 May 2020. 6 April 2020: Tchaikovsky's "September" (from "The Seasons"); Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 ('Pathétique')06 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 1 June 2020. 7 April 2020: Satie's Gnossienne No. 3 and Gymnopédie No. 1; Fred Hersch's "Valentine"; and Beethoven's "Rondo alla ingharese quasi un capriccio" in G major, Op. 129 ('Rage Over a Lost Penny')07 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 2 June 2020. 8 April 2020: Shostakovich's 24 Preludes Op. 3408 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 2 June 2020. 9 April 2020: Three of Scott Joplin's Rags;"Original Rags", "Maple Leaf Rag", and "Peacherine Rag". Bolcom's "Graceful Ghost Rag"; Schubert's "Hungarian Melody"; and Curran's "For Cornelius"09 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 2 June 2020. 10 April 2020: Dessau's "Guernica"; Rzewski's "Which Side Are You On?"; and Cardew's Thälmann Variations10 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 3 June 2020. 11 April 2020: Liszt's "Il penseroso" in C-sharp minor and Dante Sonata in D minor11 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 3 June 2020. 12 April 2020: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 11112 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 3 June 2020. 13 April 2020: Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Op. 12013 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 3 June 2020. 14 April 2020: Beethoven's 6 Variations in F major, Op. 34; and Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10/214 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 4 June 2020. 15 April 2020: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major, Op. 81a ('les Adieux')15 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 4 June 2020. 17 April 2020:Levit did not play a Hauskonzert on 16 April. He notes in the intro that this is Hauskonzert no. 36. Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition"17 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 4 June 2020. 18 April 2020: Schumann's Arabeske in C major, Op. 18; transcriptionTranscription by Ronald Stevenson, per Levit. of Mahler's Adagio from Symphony No. 1018 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 5 June 2020. 19 April 2020: Bach's "Contrapunctus I" from The Art of Fugue; Busoni's Fantasia contrappuntistica19 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 5 June 2020. 20 April 2020: Stevenson's Passacaglia on DSCH20 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 5 June 2020. As of this Hauskonzert, Levit moved his piano across the room "because my bicycle needed space" (Guardian interview, 24 May 2020). The sun sets while he's playing this piece: the room starts in light at 19.00 CEZ and ends in darkness at 20.30 CEZ (the sun set that day at 20.14 CEZ in Berlin). 21 April 2020: Alkan's Prelude No. 8 in A-flat minor, Op. 31 ('The Song of the Madwoman on the Seashore'); Hindemith's "Suite 1922"21 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 7 June 2020. 22 April 2020: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 ('Appassionata')22 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 7 June 2020. Also performed in the 15 March Hauskonzert. 23 April 2020: Liszt's "Feierlicher Marsch zum heiligen Gral aus Parsifal", S. 450; Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 8323 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 8 June 2020. 24 April 2020: Liszt's "O du mein holder Abendstern", S. 444; Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 4 in C minor, Op. 2924 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 8 June 2020. 25 April 2020: Liszt's paraphrase of "Valhalla" (from Wagner's Das Rheingold); Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 9 in C major, Op. 10325 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 9 June 2020. 26 April 2020: Schumann's Theme and Variations in E-flat major for piano ('Geistervariationen'); Feldman's "Palais de Mari"26 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 11 June 2020. 27 April 2020: Reger's "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by J.S. Bach", Op. 8127 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 16 June 2020. 28 April 2020: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 2/228 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 16 June 2020. 29 April 2020: Three of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words; Debussy's Six épigraphes antiques; Second movement of Schubert's Piano Sonata in A major, D. 66429 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 16 June 2020. 30 April 2020: Beethoven's Ländler;Levit says in the intro that this Beethoven Ländler of "about 16 bars" has "just [been] found". Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109; Chopin's Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 3930 April 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 16 June 2020. 2 May 2020:There was no Hauskonzert on 1 May 2020. Levit tweeted that he was in Hanover that day to help celebrate NDR Radiophilharmonie's 70th anniversary. He notes in the intro that this is Hauskonzert no. 50. Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 98802 May 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 16 June 2020. 3 May 2020: Six of Brahms' Choral Preludes, Op. 122 (transcribed by Busoni)03 May 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 27 June 2020. 4 May 2020:Levit tweeted, "To gather strength from silence, not just music. I've been looking for a reason to 'stop', but there's no other than this: pause. Refill. Learn – and start again. And this 'again' will come soon. Therefore, tonight's 52nd house concert will be the last." Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 16 in G Major, Op. 31/1; Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 9004 May 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 18 July 2020. 24 May 2020:Levit posted no Hauskonzerte to Twitter from 5 May through 23 May. Ten of Bach's Chorale Preludes (transcribed by Busoni (BV B 27))24 May 2020 Hauskonzert. . Retrieved 22 July 2020.
Separately from these concerts, on 30/31 May 2020 Levit gave a solo performance of Vexations by Erik Satie, from a studio in Berlin, over a period of more than 15 hours. He played it again, this time in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, in April 2025.McCusker, Kate (14 April 2025). It is trance-like': pianist Igor Levit performs Erik Satie’s Vexations 840 times". The Guardian.
Discography