Leçons de Bach

Pianist Robert D. Levin has been heard throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia, in recital, as soloist, and in chamber concerts. He has performed with the orchestras of Berlin, Birmingham, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Montreal, Tokyo and Vienna with such conductors as Bernard Haitink, Sir Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Joseph Silverstein. On fortepiano he has appeared with the Academy of Ancient Music, Handel and Haydn Society, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Christopher Hogwood, Sir Charles Mackerras, Nicholas McGegan and Sir Roger Norrington. He has performed frequently at such festivals as Sarasota, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Bremen, Locken- haus, Verbier and the Mozartwoche in Salzburg. As a chamber musician, partners include Steven Isserlis, Kim Kashkashian, Ya-Fei Chuang and Hilary Hahn.

Robert D. Levin is renowned for his restoration of the Classical period practice of improvised embellishments and cadenzas; his Mozart and Beethoven performances have been hailed for their active mastery of the Classical musical language. He has made recordings for DG Archiv, CRI, Decca/Oiseau-Lyre, Deutsche Grammophon Yellow Label, ECM, New York Philomusica, Nonesuch, Philips, and SONY Classical. These include the complete Bach concertos with Helmuth Rilling as well as the English Suites and the Well-Tempered Clavier for Hänssler’s 172-CD Edition Bach- Akademie. Other recordings include a Beethoven concerto cycle with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique for DG Archiv, as well as the complete Beethoven cello and piano works for Hyperion with Steven Isserlis, which was named Gramophone Magazine’s Recording of the Month in early 2014. Recent releases include the six Bach Partitas (Grand Prix International du Disque) and the complete Schubert piano trios with Noah Bendix-Balgley and Peter Wiley (Le Palais des Dégustateurs.) His recording cycle of Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra initiated in 1993 with Academy of Ancient Music and Christopher Hogwood saw its completion in 2022 under the artistic leadership of Laurence Cummings. His complete recording of Mozart’s piano sonatas released in 2022 by ECM earned the status of the BBC Music Magazine’s Recording of the Month.

Concluding a groundbreaking 30-year recording cycle, Robert’s most recent and final Mozart piano concerto disc with Academy of Ancient Music, featuring concertos nos. 25 and 27, was released in June 2024. Met with great critical acclaim, reviews highlighted the freshness of such a lengthy project.