Fantasia

Igor Levit's double album 'Fantasia' features a wide range of works spanning a period of almost two centuries from 1720 to 1910 and showcases key compositions by Franz Liszt, Ferruccio Busoni, Johann Sebastian Bach and Alban Berg. The starting point of the four paradigmatic works featured on the double album is the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Levit has chosen Bach's exceptional 'Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor' and combined it with Liszt's 'B Minor Sonata', a highly charged piece that at the time of its composition looked far ahead into the future (which Levit is currently performing to great acclaim all over the world), together with Busoni's 'Fantasia Contrappuntistica', in which Busoni perpetuated the Bach tradition, and Alban Berg's only 'Piano Sonata'. These four major works are complemented by four shorter pieces including Alexander Siloti's arrangement of the famous 'Air' from Bach's 'Third Orchestral Suite', Liszt's transcription of Schubert's song 'Der Doppelgänger', Busoni's 'Nuit de Noël' and an early piano piece in B minor by Alban Berg.

CD 1:

1. Suite for String Orchestra No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068: Air (Arr. for piano by A. Siloti)
2. Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903 / I. Fantasia
3. Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903 / II. Fugue
4. Piano Sonata in B Minor, S. 178 / I. Lento assai - Allegro energico
5. Piano Sonata in B Minor, S. 178 / II. Andante sostenuto - Quasi adagio
6. Piano Sonata in B Minor, S. 178 / III. Allegro energico
7. Der Doppelgänger, S . 560, No. 12 (Arr. for piano by Franz Liszt)

CD 2:

1. Klavierstück in B Minor
2. Piano Sonata, Op. 1
3. Fantasia contrappuntistica, BV 256
4. Nuit de Noël, BV 251