Musikfest 3: Feeling the Spirit

This was, as they say, the real thing. Although Sir Antonio Pappano and the strings of Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia delivered a perfectly good performance of Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht (in the revised version for string orchestra), it was the towering presence of Busoni’s Piano Concerto, with Igor Levit as soloist, that transformed the evening from merely pleasant to wholly unforgettable. 

Those unfamiliar with the work were probably converted, while those who worried that they might go their lives without ever hearing the concerto in a real concert hall must have been close to ecstatic: between Sir Antonio’s vivid conducting and Mr Levit’s herculean feats of pianistic brilliance it was the kind of once-in-a-lifetime performance that left no possibility of being unimpressed or unmoved.