Release date: January 2016 Website:  bethlevinpiano Running time:  64:37 Buy music on: amazon

Robert Schumann Davidsbündlertänze (Pp. 6); Anders Eliasson Disegno 2 for piano; Frédéric Chopin Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor (Op. 35) – Beth Levin: pf.

“You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then you practice, practice,  practice. And then you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all  that and just wail.” These words, or other to that effect have been  ascribed to jazz legend Charlie Parker and they apply most appropriately  to Beth Levin’s Schumann, Eliasson and Chopin. While the pianist has  obviously scrutinised the programme with a fine-tooth comb, she  basically hangs loose and flies free, letting the detailed niceties fall  into place without sounding the least bit studied or calibrated. It’s a  performance, not a lecture.

The Schumann Davidsbündlertänze (Op. 6) is an eighteen-part composition  comprising short pieces specifically titled to describe the vividness of  the moods and manners in which they must be rendered by the performer.  Some are on the slow side (dragging? Never!) And there are others that  sprint from the starting gate, buoyed by perky left-hand accents. If VI  does not sustain its opening pace, other cross-handed numbers fuse light  ‘harpsichord’ touch with unabashed pianist bravura. Note too the Chopin  Sonata No.2 in B-Flat Minor’s inflected embellishments, the  woodwind-like left hand articulation and in the Eliasson, the pianist’s  flexible, vocally-oriented phrasing of the Disegno long-limbed cantabile lines. And going back to Chopin for a minute, note her gorgeously tinted three-part texture throughout the sonata.

In contrast to interpretations that seek unity and continuity through  rigorously considered relationships (in pieces like this, Levin  apparently aims to reveal each composer’s work by emphasising its  individual character. You especially hear this in the Schumann and the  Chopin, abetted by appropriately grandiose octave reinforcements, and in  the unorthodox elongating of certain chords. In sum, Beth Levin is a  fresh voice whose ingenious pianism and genuine musicality warrants  placement in the top tier of classical music.

Label: Navona Records