When Liszt’s work was published in 1854, it divided the European musical establishment. In his Sonata in B Minor, Liszt created a vibrant dramatic scenario with rewards comparable to Hector Berlioz’ earlier Symphonie fantastique–but without the crutch of a literary narrative. Transcending those clearly established structures of the four-movement Classical piano sonata, he created a massive single-movement sonata in which major musical themes come and go freely at the inventive whim of the composer. With Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B Minor, the composer revolutionized the genre. Levit underscored his devotion to transcriptions with a solo keyboard version of Richard Wagner’s Prelude to his opera Tristan und Isolde, and he proved his allegiance to contemporary music with Fred Hersch’s “Variations on a Folksong,” a substantial solo work Levit commissioned the eminent jazz artist to write for him. Busoni slipped into Thursday’s recital with transcriptions of six organ chorale preludes from Johannes Brahms’ “Eleven Chorale Preludes,” Op. In 2018, we heard him deliver an astounding transcription by Ferruccio Busoni of Franz Liszt’s great organ solo Fantasia and Fugue on “Ad Nos, ad Salutarum Undam,” and Thursday he topped that with a spellbinding account of Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B Minor, S. Like Levit’s 2018 recital, Liszt dominated his Thursday recital. We experienced the Russian-German virtuoso play his first recital here in 2018 and a second time this Thursday at The Conrad. ![]() Thanks to the La Jolla Music Society, San Diegans have caught glimpses of this future. “I have never known a young Russian pianist with a promise like Levit’s. After hearing Igor Levit play a piano recital in 2015, Los Angeles Times Music Critic Mark Swed ended his glowing review with this statement:
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