Igor Levit, Christian Thielemann, and the Vienna Philharmonic's New Album, "Brahms"

Released on Sony Classical, the release is a triple album with Levit’s recording of Brahms’ late solo piano works and a special encore

Sony Classical has released a new recording by Igor Levit, Christian Thielemann, and the Vienna Philharmonic of Brahms’s two Piano Concertos. The release is a triple album with Levit’s long-anticipated recording of Brahms’s late solo piano works. As a special encore, Levit and Thielemann play a Brahms waltz together.

To purchase and listen to the album, click here.

The two Brahms Concertos make up the first joint recording by Levit and Thielemann, which is released with Levit’s recording of Brahms’s solo works opp. 116–119. Levit’s and Thielemann’s first meeting was unplanned, although both had been curious about each other for a long time. In 2015, Levit spontaneously stepped in for a colleague who had fallen ill and performed Mozart’s C major Concerto K 467 with Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden in Munich. Despite an extremely short rehearsal period, the two hit it off straight away.

“We have such a similar way of thinking that it is not necessary to discuss many things,” says Thielemann. And Levit adds: “When the piece begins, I simply have complete confidence in you. I know I can’t take a wrong turn. Having such unconditional trust is extraordinary.”

Listen to the Andante from Brahms' Piano Concerto No.2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 83 below:

The album concludes with a special encore – the four-hand rendition of Brahms’s charming Waltz Op. 39 No. 15 played by Levit and Thielemann. Levit explains: “It’s taken me some years to get to the point of having the courage to play and record this music, and Christian Thielemann has been instrumental in getting me here. Unlike Beethoven’s music, where you go emotionally from peak to bottom almost continuously, here Brahms is often the steadiest of music, with very long breaths and a steady heartbeat. Now that I feel right placed with this music, you couldn’t find me happier than I am right now.”

Igor Levit's solo album for Sony Classical “Fantasia” was released in September 2023. In Spring 2021, Hanser published Igor Levit’s first book “House Concert”, co-authored by Florian Zinnecker followed in Fall 2022 by the release of the feature documentary “Igor Levit – No Fear” in cinemas and on DVD. Igor Levit was awarded the 5th International Beethoven Prize in 2019 followed by the award of the “Statue B” of the International Auschwitz Committee in January 2020.