# What's your opinion of the new Levit Beethoven cycle?



## Itullian

How do you like it?
:tiphat:


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## realdealblues

Love it. I just posted on the other thread about it as another member said he said it felt "safe" but I will copy and paste it here as it sums up what I feel the strengths are:

"I think Levit's cycle is more classically infused so it doesn't have as much personality as say someone like Arrau who is on the opposite end of the spectrum to me, but I wouldn't consider it "safe" in the way of Lewis or Brendel is. Levit's amazingly clear playing and sonority brings out more inner details and phrasing lines marked in the scores than anyone I think I have heard in a complete cycle. I think Levit was really concerned with bringing many of those details to life which makes it easy to overlook it as being something that isn't personal but I think that is his personality. Being able to actually articulate some of those rhythms, syncopation, off beat accents, etc. with that clarity and detail without making anything sound micromanaged is his style. They aren't stylized just to try to be stylish or different. It's really trying to get to the fine details at the heart of the scores and bring them to life without sounding like a computer or a robot. He might toss stuff off so easily that it sounds like he isn't struggling to play it but I can't fault him for being that virtuosic."


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## D Smith

^^ What RDB said. It's so clear and clean and you get to appreciate all those small compositional details that are sometimes glossed over by others. It would never be my only set but I'm glad I have it.


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## Allegro Con Brio

I haven’t spent too much time with Levit’s Beethoven cycle but I think he’s one of the most promising young pianists on the scene today. His album of Bach partitas is amazing for its nuanced poetry, as are his Goldbergs and Diabelli Variations. He is certainly one of the prime candidates to become a great pianist of the 21st century.


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## Itullian

The knock on it seems to be that it has tempi that are too fast and that his plating leaves one cold.


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## Helgi

I love it, I think he's brilliant. It's an exciting set and very well recorded. I'm still in the process of getting to know the sonatas and so my opinion may change, but at the moment I'm just waiting for a good deal on it 

What I've read into some of the criticism is something along the lines of: "he's a young artist with a huge advertising budget, and it can't be that good so I'm not buying into it". People don't want to look like they drank the kool-aid.

Edit: of course, I'm not saying that everyone who finds faults with it is doing so as a reaction to marketing hype, but you know — it's a thing.


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## VitellioScarpia

I will offer a dissenting voice. I bought the set of late piano sonatas upon reading accolades from many critics. I do admire his pianism (I would kill to be able to play the piano like he does and I am sure many pianists would feel the same way). Unfortunately, in his desire to not interfere with the music seems to have taken him completely out of the picture as a person. Levit gives an aseptic reading that leaves me cold: I admire it but I do not love it as it does communicate _nothing_ to me.


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## Animal the Drummer

Agree. I'm not generally a fan of over-personalised performances but for my taste Levit goes too far in the opposite direction.


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## Helgi

I suppose what draws me in is the sense of enthusiasm and energy — it doesn't leave me cold at all.

But different people hear different things; another one that leaves some people cold is András Schiff, but I enjoy his Beethoven set on ECM a great deal.


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## WildThing

Helgi said:


> I love it, I think he's brilliant. It's an exciting set and very well recorded.


Yup, I'm in total agreement. I enjoy Levit in this repetoire quite a bit. I've heard some of the same criticisms -- too "cold" -- about another one of my favorite sets, Gulda's Amadeo cycle, but don't hear it that way myself.

Of course not all of the criticism to the set has been negative. It received a glowing review from Jed Distler, and David Hurwitz said he believed it was a great cycle in his survey on the sonatas.


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## Helgi

A Hurwitz endorsement and ads everywhere, what's not to like? :devil:

I hope I didn't offend anyone with my little outburst above. I've seen Levit's Beethoven described as anodyne, anonymous, dull, lacking in character, etc. When Víkingur Ólafsson's _Debussy Rameau_ came out the other day I saw the same criticisms, which didn't make any sense to me either. So my (probably unfair) reaction is to see it as a knee-jerk reaction to anything new that's been hyped by the media.


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## VitellioScarpia

To each his own... I like Beethoven a bit gruffer, more ill-tempered, sarcastic, and ultimately more human than Levit's. As I said earlier, Levit's pianism is enviable and the recording quality is fantastic. Being irreverent, I wish he had restrained the ideological in his interpretation and let himself go, with that technique he could have destroyed a grand piano. It is a valid interpretation, it just does not engage me as I wished it had engaged me. For example, with Op. 111 the heavens didn't storm cataclysmically in the first movement, and the variations did not take me to heaven and then back to earth at the end with the consolation that others have found. Again, I am basing these opinions on my assessment of the late sonatas only. I have not listened to the full set.


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## Allegro Con Brio

VitellioScarpia said:


> To each his own... I like Beethoven a bit gruffer, more ill-tempered, sarcastic, and ultimately more human than Levit's. As I said earlier, Levit's pianism is enviable and the recording quality is fantastic. Being irreverent, I wish he had restrained the ideological in his interpretation and let himself go, with that technique he could have destroyed a grand piano. It is a valid interpretation, it just does not engage me as I wished it had engaged me. For example, with Op. 111 the heavens didn't storm cataclysmically in the first movement, and the variations did not take me to heaven and then back to earth at the end with the consolation that others have found. Again, I am basing these opinions on my assessment of the late sonatas only. I have not listened to the full set.


Yes, I hear great talent and lots of potential in Levit, but often feel that he is being too mannered and safe for his own good, and is afraid to really put it all out there.


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## Helgi

I think I see what you mean with the late sonatas, even though I hear them differently. He's timid next to someone like Sviatoslav Richter, for sure.

If Igor Levit has yet to come out of his shell we have great things to look forward to! As with so many of his generation of pianists.


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## VitellioScarpia

Helgi said:


> I think I see what you mean with the late sonatas, even though I hear them differently. He's timid next to someone like Sviatoslav Richter, for sure.
> 
> If Igor Levit has yet to come out of his shell we have great things to look forward to! As with so many of his generation of pianists.


Levit is a young man. I am hoping for even greater things to come.


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## howlingfantods

I only have the late sonatas, which I mostly find pretty well-played but a little bland. I can see why critics like him though, a very safe pianist to get behind.


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## Itullian

i found a "like new" set on ebay for 35 usd so giving it a try.


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## DavidA

Itullian said:


> The knock on it seems to be that it has tempi that are too fast and that his plating leaves one cold.


Some reviewer said that he rushes through the sonatas so he can get on with his other job as a left-wing twitter-bore!

I'll stick to the beloved Annie Fischer whose set I'm working through atm


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## howlingfantods

DavidA said:


> Some reviewer said that he rushes through the sonatas so he can get on with his other job as a left-wing twitter-bore!
> 
> I'll stick to the beloved Annie Fischer whose set I'm working through atm


if annie fischer is the kind of beethoven you like, you probably wouldn't think that highly of levit. it's not underplayed, but it gets close. i think the word that keeps coming to my mind when i listen to Levit is "cute". i don't think it's accurate to say his playing lacks personality, it's just a kind of unthreatening and cuddly one. kinda reminds me of brendel, but not as pretty i think, but with better tech.


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## Allegro Con Brio

Deleted as I realized I already said pretty much the same thing earlier in the thread.


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## DavidA

howlingfantods said:


> if annie fischer is the kind of beethoven you like, you probably wouldn't think that highly of levit. it's not underplayed, but it gets close. i think the word that keeps coming to my mind when i listen to Levit is "cute". i don't think it's accurate to say his playing lacks personality, it's just a kind of unthreatening and cuddly one. kinda reminds me of brendel, but not as pretty i think, but with better tech.


'Cute' is not the word that comes to mind when one thinks of a Beethoven pianist


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## howlingfantods

DavidA said:


> 'Cute' is not the word that comes to mind when one thinks of a Beethoven pianist


i don't mean "cute" to be a critical or insulting term, i mean by "cute" something purely descriptive of something that is pretty in a diminutive way. i think of brendel and perahia's beethoven as cute too, and people love those guys.

but it's nothing like annie fischer who has one of the less pretty cycles around. hard tone, nervous and skittery. I like it a lot but to me, it's one of the polar opposites to cycles like brendel's and levit's.


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## CnC Bartok

I recently got Levit's cycle as a download. First impressions are not always right (!), but my first impression is beautifully played, a bit too fast for me at times, and a bit matter-of-fact. The latter comment is mainly aimed at Op.111, there's a really good Appassionata here, and a well-paced (for me) Waldstein.

Difficult to judge on a single listen to five or six sonatas.


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## Itullian

I'm finding out right now.
Just received it.

First 2 discs down. So far i'm liking it.


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## DarkAngel

VitellioScarpia said:


> To each his own... I like Beethoven a bit gruffer, more ill-tempered, sarcastic, and ultimately more human than Levit's. As I said earlier, Levit's pianism is enviable and the recording quality is fantastic. Being irreverent, I wish he had restrained the ideological in his interpretation and let himself go, with that technique he could have destroyed a grand piano. It is a valid interpretation, it just does not engage me as I wished it had engaged me. For example, with Op. 111 the heavens didn't storm cataclysmically in the first movement, and the variations did not take me to heaven and then back to earth at the end with the consolation that others have found. Again, I am basing these opinions on my assessment of the late sonatas only. I have not listened to the full set.





> Yes, I hear great talent and lots of potential in Levit, but often feel that he is being too mannered and safe for his own good, and is afraid to really put it all out there.


Yes I am in this camp, technically fine playing with great sound quality and deluxe packaging but never went to the next level of musical insight for me.......as a check I pulled out the old Schnabel set and right away more sparkle and heartfelt emotion did all the right things for me that are missing with a more controlled approach like Levit set


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## Itullian

Well, i find i am enjoying it quite a lot. i reach for it often. i love his touch and the sound. i reach for it often, maybe because it's new. i find i enjoy many different approaches of these great works. i guess i just listen and enjoy the music.


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## Animal the Drummer

DarkAngel said:


> Yes I am in this camp, technically fine playing with great sound quality and deluxe packaging but never went to the next level of musical insight for me.......as a check I pulled out the old Schnabel set and right away more sparkle and heartfelt emotion did all the right things for me that are missing with a more controlled approach like Levit set


This. Levit's playing is tremendously polished, but ultimately it comes across to me as anodyne.


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## starthrower

deleted........


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## Itullian

Animal the Drummer said:


> This. Levit's playing is tremendously polished, but ultimately it comes across to me as anodyne.


i might agree that its not the most emotive playing,
but why do i keep listening to it?
There is something about it that keeps me coming back.


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## Allegro Con Brio

Itullian said:


> i might agree that its not the most emotive playing,
> but why do i keep listening to it?
> There is something about it that keeps me coming back.


It's very beautiful playing, sweet as honey. In some ways he reminds me of Radu Lupu whose touch on the keys is to die for, but who sometimes just misses going deeper. But there's nothing wrong with it - it's just not as "raw" and daring as I would like.


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