Last modified on Mon 11 Jan 2021 13.42 EST
The Wigmore Hall was the first British concert venue to return to live
music-making after the lockdown last spring, and it has continued to host recitals ever since. Though it has been forced to postpone its concerts for the coming week, it intends to continue, as far as possible, with its planned 2021 season during the latest lockdown, too, all streamed live on YouTube and the hallâs own website. A day devoted to the music of Morton Feldman, performed by members of Apartment House (which is now one of the Wigmoreâs associate ensembles), was an unmistakable signal of that serious intent.
Last modified on Sun 13 Dec 2020 05.07 EST Every recording from
Igor Levit, the Russian-born, Berlin-based pianist, is an event (in fact this âeventâ was launched in September but thanks to Covid delays only reached me late November). Heâs as skilled at dreaming up album ideas, always driven by musical purpose, as he is at tackling the major works of the repertoire, recently the complete Beethoven sonatas. Levitâs latest release, recorded in lockdown in May 2020, is
Encounter (Sony), a double album of Chorale Preludes by Bach and Brahms in the versions by Busoni, together with shorter works by Brahms (arr. Reger) and Reger (arr. Julian Becker) â you get the idea â and a work by one composer pure and simple: