Educational Media Reviews Online

Although still very much a young man, Igor Levit has been labeled by many as one of the greatest classical musicians of our time. His consummate devotion to his art is amply evident in the lifetime of accolades his career has garnered and is perfectly captured in Regina Schilling’s documentary film Igor Levit: No Fear.

The title is more than apt. Early in the film Levit describes Beethoven’s piano sonatas as “fearless music,” and he presents them with astonishing mastery and abandon. I can’t remember seeing anyone play with such intensity and focus as Levit does performing the final movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata #21. He has described the Waldstein as “the most life enhancing, life inspiring piece that I know for the piano solo…the real hymn of life,” expressing “how high flying we could all be together.” His tenderness and ferocity in engaging this music is truly remarkable. While he sweats like Louis Armstrong, he’s much too busy to pay attention to it. Fearless indeed!

Levit also refuses to back down offstage. Having grown up in Germany since the age of eight, when his family emigrated there from Nizhni Novgorod, he loves the German language and culture, yet is openly disdainful of its growing ultra conservative movement’s regression into antisemitism, and is not hesitant in making himself clear on the issue. He’s received anonymous death threats for it, and there is an increased police presence at his public performances, a telling indictment of the state of our current society.

Filmed over the course of two years, the film presents an intimate look at Levit’s total immersion in his art, his connection with his audiences, and his collaborations with his colleagues.

Chronicling his inspiring adaptation to the COVID epidemic’s devastating effect on the live arts, it shows his transformation from a performer with considerable preconcert anxieties into a man completely at ease with himself and his public. In the opening scene, he’s steeling himself before entering a packed concert hall, then later having a post-show anxiety attack in the back of a taxi, worrying about his busy roster of 108 concerts during the upcoming year – approximately one every three days. One wonders how anyone could accomplish such a task, then we follow the hipster on a clothes shopping spree before the next scene shows him plunged back into his very demanding schedule. He commiserates with Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Most about the pressure of the lifestyle and the temptation of quitting music, then puts himself through a grueling recording session with his close friend, recording engineer and producer Andreas Neubronner. They’re trying to capture the extremely demanding Passacaglia on DSCH of Scottish composer Ronald Stevenson. At one point, when Levit complains about the difficulty of the piece, the multi-Grammy award winning Neubronner lovingly cajoles that he wishes he could show him how it should be played. The session leaves Levit literally prostrate on the parquet floor of the studio.

Early in the epidemic, Levit performs a scheduled Beethoven Concerto for a packed house. The scene perfectly shows the intimate connection between Levit and his audience. As soon as he’s seated at the piano, someone offers a loud “happy birthday”, and the whole house is bonded from Levit’s responding “danke” right through to the final standing ovation. After the show, he sadly remarks to a green room guest that the following day, they’ll all be out of work due to COVID.

This introduces us to his remarkable response to the adversity of the situation. Instead of retreating into a private world, Levit performed fifty-two “hauseconcerts” which he livestreamed on the internet. Many of his online followers credit him for thus helping them get through the troubled time.

The final scene is of Levit, a member of Germany’s Green Party, performing solo in a forest being bulldozed for road construction. It’s a fitting conclusion for a film about a man so utterly devoted to the world around him.

Awards:
Bild-Kunst Schnitt Preis Dokumentarfilmm, Award Exceptional editing

Published and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Anyone can use these reviews, so long as they comply with the terms of the license.