Encounter

Featuring

Igor Levit
Ferruccio Busoni
Johannes Brahms
Max Reger
Morton Feldman

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Morton Feldman, a 20th-century American composer, rejected traditional compositional elements, focusing instead on timbre, color, and atmosphere, and aiming to break from Central European musical perceptions.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The album features only one original composition for piano; the other works are arrangements that transform the keyboard into a medium for vocal communication, even without words.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The album's program is designed to create a "stretched diminuendo," a slow retreat from the external to the internal, guiding the listener towards introspection.

Performer Biography

Pianist Igor Levit's approach to repertoire was influenced by the 52 house concerts he streamed online during the 2020 coronavirus lockdown, where he spontaneously chose pieces that offered inner strength.

Compositional Technique

Ferruccio Busoni, a composer and pianist, transcribed Bach's organ chorale preludes for piano, enriching them with octaves and chord tones to achieve an orchestral effect.

Historical Context

Morton Feldman, a 20th-century American composer, was taught by Vera Maurina Press, a Russian émigré pianist who had studied with Ferruccio Busoni in Berlin, linking him to earlier European traditions.

Composition History

Johannes Brahms's Vier ernste Gesänge (Four Serious Songs) were composed in response to the deaths of close friends and family, and anticipated the passing of Clara Schumann, whom he loved.