Sony Classical is happy to announce the release of Igor Levit’s new album “Tristan”. Known for his unique recording projects, the pianist “like no other” (The New Yorker) explores the great questions of life and existence, illuminating both famous and extremely rare repertoire. The album is now available as a double CD.

The pianist has sculpted a singularly original programme from both familiar and virtually unknown pieces. In this album, he explores nocturnal themes of love and death, fear, ecstasy, loneliness and redemption in the music of Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, Gustav Mahler and Hans Werner Henze.

The five works, including Liszt’s Liebestraum no.3 and Harmonies du soir, as well as transcriptions of Wagner’s Prelude to Tristan und Isolde and Mahler’s Adagio from Symphony no.10, span a period of 135 years (1837 to 1973) and represent very different genres. Only one of these works was originally conceived for piano solo, but Igor Levit’s exploration of borderline experiences in our lives – death in Life (2018), spirituality in Encounter (2020) and now, with Tristan, the link between love, death and our need for redemption – inevitably means that it is not just masterpieces for the piano that are central to his concern but, above all, compositions in which certain thematic associations find their most personal expression.

Henze’s work Tristan, which is the album’s central work, represents Levit’s first solo-album recording with orchestra. He recorded it with the internationally renowned Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under conductor Franz Welser-Möst. The work is inspired by Wagner’s great opera Tristan and Isolde, from which the legendary Prelude appears here in the popular transcription by pianist Zoltán Kocsis.

Igor Levit is one of THE most relevant and in-demand pianists out there today. Known for his cool and unique recording projects, often monumental in scope, but always accessible thanks to Igor’s brilliant and persuasive communication. His recordings often win top industry awards (Grammy nomination, Opus Klassik Bestseller, Gramophone Artist of the Year, Musical America Recording Artist of the year etc.), they make countless critics’ “best of the year” lists and regularly land on Germany’s top 20 album charts. He champions rare and sometimes politically motivated repertoire both in the recording studio and on stage.