German Federal President Steinmeier hosts Levit to play Beethoven's 'Waldstein' sonata at Palace Bellevue
Igor Levit launched his daily house concerts from his living room on March 11th, in an act of solidarity during these difficult times. The night of April 2nd his host was the German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Palace Bellevue. The concert started at 7pm (CET) and was streamed on the President's Instagram.
Igor Levit explained: 'Empty concert halls. The idea of listening to and experiencing music together is gone – for now. It's necessary, yet so sad. But it's ok. Still: I'd like to continue sharing music with you. Listening. Experiencing. Whatever works. So I'm going to try something: private concerts. You're the audience … It's an experiment. Social Media House Concert until we meet again to do this in real life.'
President Steinmeier released a statement (in German) about that night's event.
Igor Levit, German-Russian, is one of the major pianist of his generation, an activist, committed to leftist politics and Jewish. Mr Steinmeier used to be what we call a conservative politician, but he is obviously a lot more than that!
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