Igor Levit back on road but post-pandemic far from normal
Igor Levit arrives at Carnegie Hall changed by the pandemic.
“We are not on our way back to normal. I don’t think we should be on our way back to anything. There is no normal out there,” the 35-year-old pianist says, citing uncertainty around the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, energy shortages and climate change. “It’s not like we’re going through normal. So I find traveling and playing both very intense and yet incredibly rewarding. I cherish every concert I play in a way maybe I was a little bit less aware of pre-pandemic.”
At Carnegie on Tuesday night, he plays Shostakovich’s 24 “Preludes and Fugues,” part of a quick U.S. tour that takes him to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Thursday and Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia, on Sunday.