Robert Levin
Although expected to appear last season, the American
pianist Robert Levin was unable to honour his
commitment with the Laudamo Philharmonic (as well
as other European venues) due to health problems
he has now entirely overcome. His first performance
in Messina comes after reaching a new agreement
with the prestigious German label DGG. His first
recording of all Mozart’s Sonatas, which
Levin plays on a copy of the Viennese Stein fortepiano
the composer preferred due to its light and brilliant
mechanics, has been on sale in Italy for some
time. In this CD which is part of his vast collection
of recordings (Levin also record for Sony Classical
and ECM) he is confirmed as a philologically expert
musician as well as an original artist. He is
in fact today the only pianist who uses extemporaneous
improvisations of embellishments and cadences,
a normal practice in the Classical Era and the
early 19th Century. For this reason his interpretations
of Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schubert
are always received with interest both by audiences
and the most severe critics. As well as being
a pianist, Robert Levin is also a musicologist
and teaches at Harvard University.
