Igor Levit

Winner of numerous “Record of the Year” awards worldwide, Igor Levit’s cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas is “unfailingly alive, thoughtful, and rewarding at every turn” (Financial Times). Tonight’s program—part three of Levit’s complete cycle at Carnegie Hall—begins with Beethoven’s dramatic first Op. 10 sonata (in C minor), followed by the compact Op. 49 sonatas. The popular “Appassionata” Sonata “sounds newly minted” in Levit’s hands, says Gramophone, “emphasiz[ing] the visceral thrill of Beethoven’s writing.” The brief Op. 54 sonata, Levit writes in The Guardian, is “frequently overlooked, and yet no other sonata compares … [it] literally redefines the minuet.”