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For God's sake.
Do you like to sit here or...?
Turn it that way. ['ll sit on that side.
I can always adjust it later,
but I feel like, I'll sit here.
So facing a bit into the room. But I can turn it.
All right then...
Thank you. Thank you.
Have a good weekend. - You too.
All the best to your boss. - Will do.
How are the neighbors, as a pianist?
We'll see. But generally, OK.
So they know what I do, of course.
But you didn't introduce yourself and ask?
Oh yes, I did. I told them what I do, of course.
All transparent.
Legally, I think — I might be wrong —
I am considered noise.
Right. Moving on.
Here. - But that's done. Second.
Yes. - Why is this marked?
Already recorded.
Right, but how do I know what we...? - I just know.
This should be all right.
Yeah, no. I've added something.
Read here. Grace note.
There's no grace note.
I'm inventing a grace note here.
Right? - It bothers you?
No. Is there another version?
It wouldn't bother me at all.
One of those situations where the performer corrects the composer.
There's a wholeness about it, a view of the whole thing.
It's just wonderful.
Yes. - Super.
Now ['ll take a quick break.
Come on. There.
What do you mean, break?
Andreas? - Yes?
Darling? - I'm here.
Seriously, it's 1 pm.
We can eat, we're on schedule.
I don't mean that. - Well?
If we go on like this, we'll be done tonight.
Yes.
So I can fly home tomorrow morning.
You see?
Do we need to revise or just listen?
The 31st. - That one needs revision.
Yes.
Listen to the Waldstein again then Opus 26 and Opus 2/1.
Then we're done. That's not much.
I don't understand why he hasn't added a sforzato here.
Call him and ask.
Beautiful. - Very good.
Piano sounds great, right? - Fantastic.
Brilliant editing.
The text error is gone.
I love this bass sound. It's...
so manly.
Great.
There. - You heard Lang Lang got married?
Yes.
Where did that come from?
What made you think of that?
Don't know. Why Lang Lang? I don't know.
He's a good pianist too.
True. - It's true.
Right. That was my...
But, at this ending, you think of Lang Lang's wedding?
What's this say about you?
I heard him play Schubert sonatas in rehearsal.
He is a fantastic pianist.
I thought it was brilliant.
Here. That's it. - Beautiful.
Ciao, love you.
You too. Take care.
IGOR LEVIT BEETHOVEN, COMPLETE PIANO SONATAS
Igor sat there just now. - Here?
Yes. - OK, then we'll sit here.
We'll talk about Beethoven... - Gosh.
...Beethoven, Beethoven, then questions.
Go for it. - Good. OK.
One sentence: Beethoven today. Why?
Why not?
But did you have to play all 32 of them?
Couldn't you have left out number 2, or something?
We don't... I mean, seriously, we don't have to do anything.
Right? We have to eat and drink. And sleep.
Inspirations. Who are your inspirations?
Artur Schnabel? - For Beethoven?
For Beethoven, your playing.
Well, I mean, recordings... - Yes, right.
My two favorite recordings of the complete cycle
are Schnabel and Gulda.
I sense that it's a special recording technique,
They sound vivid, sculptural
and the bass sounds huge... - I have a great sound engineer.
So it's the sound engineer? Nothing to do with you?
Well, I trust Andreas completely.
I only have one wish: uncomplicated sound.
I'd like a quick, clear, uncomplicated sound.
That's all.
I'm not wandering into...
into the monitoring room
to listen to ten different microphone setups.
He's a professional. I trust him.
We've known each other long enough. He just does it.
A new year has begun, Igor.
Any New Year's resolutions?
Nope.
Anything that should change?
Getting through.
- Yes.
What are your plans?
A lot of performances.
You know...
these Beethoven Sonatas and the concerts and...
No idea.
How many concerts, do you know?
108.
108 concerts!
One every three days.
Yes.
Yeah, it's just a little...
Has it ever been this much before?
Yes, once. - When was that?
2014 was the first year when I really played a lot.
That was like this too.
And how did you get through it?
Honestly, I don't remember. I...
I was in a different place then. Honestly, I can't remember.
Maybe it was partly the thrill, like...
Wow, so many concerts!
Absolutely. It was the first year with really a lot...
Sorry, I'm a little...
Are you reasonably OK? No.
Did it begin just now or earlier?
Earlier... but now it's bad.
Oh, what's going on?
Pressure here? - Yes.
Solar plexus? - Yes, a bit.
Also, I feel so uneasy in a suit,
like I'm in disguise.
Like wearing an old life on my body.
I don't want it any more.
It just isn't my life any more.
I feel 15 years older,
and 20 kilos heavier.
Ah fuck, honestly.
One more time.
When I travel alone, which I usually do,
you can set your watch by it; this always happens after concerts. Always.
Namely,
I play,
and it goes great,
and after the concert, in private, I'm thinking,
what a great night!
But I haven't talked to anyone I trust,
because they weren't there.
Back at the hotel I'm pitched into such fathomless insecurity,
I can't describe it.
Because I don't know what I did half an hour ago.
I literally don't remember what the concert was like.
I have this insecurity very often.
Not during the concert,
but afterwards.
Can we go from 170 again, please?
At your entry.
You're in eighths?
In eighths. - Great.
I think that's the first time I counted this right.
Yes great. Very good.
You were through it a little fast. - Where?
So I didn't count it right! - Five eighths.
Measure 173.
Ah, they're not... - Exactly.
They're not triplets. You are playing triplets.
OK?
Reading is overrated. Not...
Can we do it again? - Of course! In a moment.
I've always played triplets.
Four after G, please,
where the violins have that subito fortissimo,
please, don't make it a sudden accent,
but launch immediately, full and beautiful,
and it really takes off.
One more time, same place, 170, please.
Those sixteenth notes aren't triplets either, are they?
Exactly. - Right. So I am too fast.
I think the despair one sometimes feels
is a fundamental crossroads.
Several times in my life I've had crises
where I've seriously considered...
quitting. - Quitting, yes.
But the feeling with me, as I think I've said, I've...
I've literally spent half my life,
with Beethoven and...
everything else came from Beethoven.
I feel like it's occupied a huge space in my life,
and now it's time to say, I...
It'll be good for these sonatas if I don't touch them for maybe two years.
But then this huge chunk of life is gone.
How do you fill it?
The calm before the storm.
All good.
It gets strenuous, right?
It's OK. There's a fairly strenuous bit, then more strenuous,
then it's OK for a while.
Then starting from page 88, a never-ending nightmare.
OK? - Yes.
No, again. - Igor, quick suggestion?
Could you maybe play it with a bit less pedal?
Or is it intentional?
Play it yourself with no pedal!
I'd love to play it myself. Just to show you how it's done.
Like that?
Better.
It's just that at the moment it's like a huge bank of fog.
Hard to hear if all the notes are there.
I wasn't quite sure, second system, second bar.
Yes, ['ll start, second system, upbeat to the second bar.
Exactly.
That was it.
That was it. Now the next.
OK, now ['ll start on the third system. - Yes.
You know, this hand starts really hurting.
What hurts? - The hand. All the stretching.
Oh, shit. - OK, moving on?
There are a few scares coming. Three or four.
Three or four. Not so bad.
That is some tough stuff, my friend. - It is.
Was he out of his mind? - No!
Can we... very funny. Can we do page 80?
No, but I mean, he's really venting everything, isn't he?
Yes. But it sounds good, right?
Yes, it sounds wild.
So page 807?
Next three systems are one of the hardest passages for me.
I thought we'd done those.
Wait and see.
It's so...
shit.
But it was great.
To here, right? - Yes, great.
This sounds a little fudged.
What, this bar? - 106, first bar.
Yes, yes. - Transition from one to two.
This page is the worst of the whole piece for me.
Just this page. No.
This page and 108. These two.
Actually, 111 too. And 112.
I don't know how to play that.
Let's get it over with.
I really like you.
What do you want me to say?
Unfortunately I can't sit down and play it for you.
OK.. Listen. Let's take two bars at a time.
And again.
Well done, Igor.
Igor, take a quick break.
Your poor hands. - They're fine. One second.
OK.
Thank you. - That was OK, right?
That was great. Let's stop for today,
and do some listening tomorrow.
Don't mock my belly.
It's good.
It'll be good.
It'll be very good. - You think so?
All we need now is to patch it together.
Igor, what more do you need? - Nothing.
I need to relax.
But look, the stuff you used to wear, you say you won't wear it any more.
You used to like it.
Yes, but it was a protective armor.
Against what?
I'm trying to figure that out.
I don't know yet.
I used to think that...
I had to dress like in Grande ... Grande Bellezza? What was that movie?
Grande what?
Grande Bellezza. - Right.
I know the guys who made the suits for that film.
If you need me...
I think you like it. It feels too small to me.
No. I have it in all sizes, and...
This is very, very... - Yes, but it's stretch.
It must have that slim fit.
Will it loosen?
Sit down and do this.
Look. - Well, that's a different matter.
"A different matter," he says!
Can I try a larger size? - Please don't.
I started to really enjoy it after I lost weight.
Starting in 2011.
Do you have this heavy black boot?
What made you resolve to lose weight?
I never told you the story? - No.
You have it?
Great. What?
Great!
I never told you this story? - No.
There was a store in Hanover. I won't name it.
I went in there, August 2009.
And I saw a pair of pants that I thought were really cool,
I really liked them.
So I went in and it was
a store like, you know, this.
And the salesman is standing there.
I'll never forget this.
Like this.
So in I go, and there's no "Hello!" No "Welcome!" Just this:
"We've got nothing for you."
I'll try this one now. - It's the same story here.
We've got nothing for you. That was his greeting.
And that for me was...
That's when I flipped out.
I flipped out completely.
Ran straight into the next fitness studio
and just said, "Fuck you."
OK, that's fun.
This is hot, isn't it?
I was in Granada last week,
mostly in my hotel room, watching a lot of movies and documentaries.
And I watched a wonderful documentary about Keith Richards.
The first half of the film he keeps talking about a musician who,
shame on me, I'd never heard of. Muddy Waters.
And he keeps talking about Muddy Waters, and I have no idea who this is.
When it's over, I start...
listening to old Muddy Waters recordings, with this...
razorblade sound, you know? This... this...
Like this. Just like that, in here.
And that really threw me into such turmoil.
Because I thought,
Just once, I'd like to play a note that sounds like that.
I mean it. - Yes, yes.
Because in such moments I think the piano isn't enough for me.
This instrument is not enough.
Why is it that I just can't...
and then I'm spiraling. - I like that you say
you want to sound like Muddy Waters. - Right!
Or, say, you want to evoke a sadness on the piano
like the voice of Chet Baker. - Exactly!
But it's good that you don't say you want
to make the piano sound like the oboe, because that's impossible.
A piano will always be a piano. - Right. That's bullshit.
But I heard this and I'm completely...
It makes me like this...
Awesome.
And it just stays there, right?
And on top, only improvisation.
It's almost painful.
And then I went to rehearsal.
And there I am with these 300-year-old Beethoven sonatas. That's how I felt.
Just going...
Ehh. What even is it?
In that moment I feel like I'm only saying 10% of what I want to say,
I'm capable of saying. And I despair of the piano.
We have to send you to make-up.
Yes, I need to get changed.
Right. - Could I get a snack, before...
I can ask if they have something more substantial.
Yeah, that would be great.
Are these washed?
I hope so. - Well, if not...
I'll check. - Great.
Sandwich: vegetarian, vegan, meat?
Vegetarian or vegan, both fine.
Igor? - Yes?
This is Mrs. Beyer, she wanted... - Yes!
Great to see you. - Delighted. Good you're already here.
Yes, I just... - Just relax, you'll need to tweet.
Mr. Levit. - Pleasure.
Good to meet you! - You too!
Good evening! - Hello.
What's expected of us tonight?
The constitution. - Excuse me?
Federal constitution tonight.
The constitution?
So we're having a conversation?
That's a shame.
How about, instead of talking, he plays?
In Mr. Schäuble, we have a politician
with a keen interest in the arts,
especially classical music.
And in Mr. Levit, we have an artist with a keen interest in politics.
We have a Jew here, we have a Christian.
And both, as well as me and probably many of you,
are citizens of this country,
of a state that has committed itself to the constitution.
Mr. Levit, you are marginally a child of socialism,
born in Nizhny Novgorod, then Gorky. - Yes.
On paper, a child of...
born a child of true socialism. I had...
I think I'd just turned three when it ceased to be that.
Just the age when I starting to reach up and tickle the piano keys.
When did your family come to Germany? - December 4th, 1995.
So late? - Dusseldorf Airport.
I remember, like it was yesterday. I remember it all.
I went to school.
I wanted to learn German faster,
and speak German better than all my classmates.
I started by announcing that at home.
I literally fell in love with this language.
Head over heels.
And, I was really just...
aiming for the stars.
But at some point, the first cracks appeared
in this perfect world.
Undoubtedly related
to gradually increasing recognition.
But also to things happening in this country
that I hadn't known about before.
And the first cracks, if you like...
The first big crack for me came late in 2010,
when someone said to me...
So at dinner, a gentleman
looked deep into my eyes and said this.
I was never to forget that,
although I was living in a country I'd grown up in...
and he was "totally OK with that", unquote...
I belonged to an ethnicity no longer meant to live here.
What?
I belonged to an ethnicity no longer meant to live here.
Who said that? - Well.
And it's irrelevant who said it. It does something to you.
It leaves a wound.
I only later realized how deep.
Mr. Schäuble, what do you say to what Mr. Levit told us?
We do not live in paradise. We live in this world.
And as to what Mr. Levit has said,
of course, his destiny has been a most unusual one,
but...
to some degree, there is no perfect world.
So maybe it was just about you growing up.
Thank you. Yes. Right.
"Happy Birthday," please. In G.
My first conducting gesture ever!
I'll do the third, and we'll do the fifth differently.
That was my first conducting gesture ever and it was really shit.
Not at all!
What do you mean? They stopped 10 seconds before they did.
Should I stop? - No. It's wonderful.
Who else is coming today? - Friends.
Family too? - No, they won't, because of the virus.
Quite right too. Unpleasant.
You need any food or drink? Sure?
What about the tickets?
We're accepting returns. Well, starting tonight we are
because of what's happened in the last three hours.
So the Elbphilharmonie...
has announced that people with acute symtoms
should not attend and granted a refund.
Still a good house? - Yes, sold out.
You know how it feels, right now?
In English I'd say grim.
Dark and sinister.
You know how all this feels?
Nothing will be the same after. Nothing. - Right.
It feels like a sea change type of situation.
And afterwards it's different. - Yes.
I feel anxiety. Trepidation.
But I have faith in people. - Yes.
And very appropriate that we're playing Beethoven.
Enjoy.
Thank you!
How wonderful.
Birthday boy!
All the best, my friend.
Congratulations! - Thank you.
Great! So good! - Lovely to see you.
Hey! - I'm dust beneath your feet!
My goodness, that was good!
Hello rabbit!
This was so wonderful, thank you.
We're doing it all wrong, hugging everybody.
I'm not infected.
Today I had Beethoven's 5th canceled for Sunday in Darmstadt.
It begins.
I rang this morning to check if it was on or not.
It's over. From tomorrow, nothing.
The last concert. Tomorrow we're all unemployed.
Yeah, right. - Yes!
Listen, I'm sticking with these pants.
I'm not in the mood to get changed.
No way. - According to the BBC,
the UK has stopped outpatient testing, tracing, and isolation.
The plan is for 95% of corona infections in the next ten weeks.
There are 5,000 intensive care beds. A storm is brewing.
Can we have a few notes? To check?
I'd like to just start.
But can I...? - That's just nonsense.
What's that? You're kidding me!
You're kidding me!
Can I hug you? Can I? - Of course! Of course you can!
You're ready?
Everything and everybody is just falling apart.
I know. We decided to rehearse
and then we were told that our premiere couldn't take place.
I honestly just want to curl up with friends and go home.
That's how I feel. I just want to go home.
In January we talked, you said " have 108 concerts this year."
It'll be 30 less in one fell swoop.
What has been canceled so far?
It's coming bit by bit. Rome is off.
Heidelberg's off.
Finland.
What about Carnegie Hall?
Safe to assume it won't happen.
How long have you ever been in your apartment without interruption?
A week?
So if you imagine being at home four weeks straight?
That won't happen,
but right now, I'd love it.
Is it scary at all? - No.
No.
No, not scary at all.
My friends.
I'm still in Munich. The day was what it was.
My program choice is going to be entirely decided now
by how the days are.
And today feels like a Beethoven day again.
His piano sonata, "Appassionata” in F minor, is...
infinitely more than just a piano piece.
It's basically
the grand drama of a human life, set to music.
A drama of a human life,
that reaches farther into the dark
and ends more apocalyptically than almost any piano piece I know.
Yet midway through, it offers a kind of quiet hope.
Was that OK?
And now straight on to Instagram? - Yes.
OK, let's do the same thing again.
Kiss my ass, you bastard.
I can't do this 60 days in a row.
I've never played the Appassionata twice in succession. Three minutes.
Hello
Salt then pepper? Or pepper then salt?
I'd say salt then pepper. - Right.
How often are you cooking these days?
Three times a day. - No!
Yes. Welcome to my new life.
Crazy stuff. How do you like your new life?
You're recording already? - Yes.
Truth or lie? - Truth, obviously.
I don't. Well, I say I don't like it.
It is what it is. I accept it for what it is.
But it's...
I'm home alone. Need I say more?
I lie awake some nights, thinking we'll never be allowed to perform again.
It's just everything at once, right?
How important are the home concerts for you?
Crucial to life.
The only unwinding of tension in my day.
So, dear friends, I'm glad you're back.
Another one of these weird days,
drawing to a close.
Everything very confusing. I...
want to play Schubert again today.
There's such a harsh loneliness in this piece.
You'll hear it.
I think it's Monday.
The days are getting weirder and weirder.
People are clapping outside.
I'm playing Shostakovich today.
Then I think a little Beethoven. Just a bit.
There'll be no Beethoven.
No Liszt.
No Wagner.
I'll... play Beethoven again today.
I'll begin with a piece by Franz Liszt.
Until 20 minutes ago, I didn't know what to play.
I'll play Tchaikovsky today.
Today I'd like to play Mozart.
To begin, two pieces by Erik Satie.
Scott Joplin, 3 ragtimes.
Beethoven, Diabelli Variations. Moscow Nights.
Modest Mussorgsky's piano cycle: "Pictures At An Exhibition."
Today I would like to play Gustav Mahler.
"Fantasia contrappuntistica" by Ferruccio Busoni.
So, dear friends. Welcome back.
As you see, nothing is as it was. I've made some changes.
I want to introduce you to Ronald Stevenson, the composer,
with his most important work.
The great, insanely brilliant,
fantastic "Suite 1922" by Paul Hindemith.
Hello sweetheart, how are you?
Good to see you. How are you? All right?
Depressed.
Depressed?
Why are you depressed?
No idea. Because I just, no idea...
Terrible sleep last night. - Really?
You look great. - Yes, I've lost weight.
A lot. - Well, not a lot. Four kilos.
Well, but it shows. It does!
I'm cycling a lot. - On trend. Everyone shaving their hair.
Are you recording with others? - No, everything's canceled now.
All canceled. - Didn't go to Dallas.
I was meant to fly to Dallas. Should have gone to Bordeaux.
Yes. - Tuscany too. All gone. All nothing.
Can we be done by 5.30 pm?
Yes. Do you need a ride home?
You're doing another home concert tonight?
Every night. - What's today?
Goldberg.
The whole thing? - Of course not! Just the theme,
and the first 4 variations, maybe 7. - How long are the recitals? 20 minutes?
What? - You play how long?
From 15 to 90 minutes. - All the Goldberg?
I played the whole of the Stevenson. - Did you?
And the most listeners...
Wait, let me rephrase that.
Can you guess which pieces got the most enthusiastic reactions?
Stevenson and Morton Feldman. - Really?
People are so open, it's great.
But that's terrific! - It's great.
You have 70 or 80,000 followers, right?
81. - 81,0007
So, for every...
I've never had fewer than 20,000 listeners within two days of a concert.
That's crazy. Terrific.
Well, the first time I got 340, but it was...
Well, obviously, it was...
Every night. And it keeps me sane, to be honest.
Sure it does. A musician must play.
I need to listen for a moment. - Tell me, how do you like...
I like this tempo. - The tempo is nice.
Not faster? - Absolutely not.
You think? - Beautiful.
Can you play something brighter, please? - Just a second.
You see the difference, right? With a church: it takes the bass
and swallows it. In a normal church,
the main mics would sound incredibly muffled.
But they sound very bright.
That's that.
I'd like to get a few slow ones done right away.
Then they're in the can.
Yes!
OK? - Yes.
That's good.
Sounds beautiful. - That was good?
Want to listen?
You're a bit faster here, but that's OK.
It builds up.
Yes, that's... - You have that line up there.
This is wonderful.
Great! - This is truly beautiful.
Well done, the subito.
It sounds open, but no reverb. - Not at all.
It is so beautiful!
Listen, the beginning. I just want to make sure it isn't too slow.
Not much faster, though.
It works.
We get through it.
It opens up as it should. It's meant to be a steep arch,
"Let heaven open up!" The volume increases.
Do you know where this is, as well?
I love it... We've got it, right?
Yes, of course. - You know what I really love?
What?
Start of the St. John Passion, very very constrained,
and he sings "Lord... Ruler of all..."?
"Ruler of heaven, hear our inarticulate speech."
And it opens up.
...the moment he says, "Hear our..."
The score opens like that, then closes up again.
What now? - Pianists greedy for studio time. More!
One long arch... - It's actually quite beautiful.
Wonderful.
A never ending song.
May I say something? - Please do!
I find this opening of the theme almost a bit weak.
Much too weak! Yes.
Now.
That can also take a little time pressure.
Stay high.
Stay on it a bit more.
One second. Let me show you this.
What I mean by there being a line, then suddenly so, and so,
Polyphonic speech. You know where I learned a lot about it?
No. - That famous Baldwin speech of the 60s.
James Baldwin? - Yes.
Polyphonic speech. Inserted phrases. Listen.
The melody.
Listen now.
It's so...
Now!
And now...
Yes.
Polyphonic speech, right?
Did he invent the term?
No, but he speaks like music.
He speaks like music.
Incredible.
And again.
It is music.
Oddly, it was better before.
Yes. It was a bit too fast, right?
No, it's more like something that was there before is lost.
OK, again. - Just let it flow, don't think.
It has everything.
Maybe a little faster, but wonderful.
You can't do better.
Can't be done better.
What has happened to you in these last months?
In these last months, I have lived with maximum artistic independence.
There couldn't have been more.
I owed no one...
I was accountable to no one. No one.
I could have played one home concert, or three.
I played fifty-two.
I could have played at 7 pm, 4 pm, 11 pm, whenever.
Half an hour, 15 minutes, 3 hours.
Maximum independence.
How cool is that? That's what I always dreamed of.
So very, very strange. It's so...
It might come back,
but right now I have no...
I mean zero, zero, zero performance anxiety on stage.
Zero.
After these three and a half months. Zero.
It's so, So, so...
It's really wonderful that it's like this now, right?
I can't explain it, it's so...
It has no weight at all.
I mean, sitting on the stage and playing
is as easy as telling a Jewish joke.
Seriously. I'm serious.
So I'm just...
boom.
So free of everything from that whole...
"concert" thing.
The one thing that's really bothering me now compared to before
is that I've dressed up again.
That bothers me.
That you didn't stay in jeans and t-shirt?
Yes. Not that I want to be "cool".
But just because I don't want it.
So this is the last that remains of the old way.
How great is that!
Hi!
You can... - So this has just been felled?
Over there. And that's been felled.
Exactly. That's the route.
-H II-|| Igor.
Hi! Pleased to meet you.
May I please have...
Great. - What?
I need a photo.
What? - I simply must take a photo.
Where is this streamed? Twitter, and...?
The Greenpeace channel. - On the Greenpeace channel.
On Twitter, yes?
There's only one? - Yes: Greenpeace, underscore, de.
Can I say something?
I could cry. 18 months we've been filming this,
and only now do we get the best scene.
OK? - Yes.
May I just say, I'm very glad to be part of this.
And I really mean that. OK.
We're glad too.
If you knew what this means to me!
Right, once more...
OK? - The stream is live.
This is now for the activists in the forest.
Know the joke about the four?
Rabbi Teitelbaum teaching math to a five-year-old?
No.
So after a few months, he says to the five-year-old,
"Tell me, what's two plus two?"
"Seven?"
And he says, "All these months,
how often have I told you? Two plus two is four.
Five, maybe. But seven, no!"