Pianist - Igor Levit's new album as a reaction to anti-Semitism
Berlin pianist Igor Levit released an album on Friday in response to the worldwide rise in anti-Semitism. "My heart is still broken. I'm not doing well, but I'm taking action and gaining a sense of purpose as a result," the 36-year-old told the German Press Agency.
He wants to donate all the proceeds from the album, which will initially only be released as a download, to two organizations that fight anti-Semitism: the Ofek advice centre for anti-Semitic violence and discrimination and the Kreuzberg initiative against anti-Semitism.
"The idea for the album came very spontaneously, it was based on the question: What can I do to bring meaning to this despair? How can I help the people who are doing more important things than me?" Two months have now passed since October 7 - the day Hamas carried out a massacre in Israel.
"Only two months", as Levit emphasizes. "I am no longer trapped in speechlessness. But the pain is just as great as it was on the first day." The relationships with his friends are important to him: "I only have trust in individual people - who see the suffering on all sides." He has lost faith in political movements and ideologies, he says. "I'm standing in front of a pile of broken glass." Music alone cannot heal. "Only people who show empathy and act accordingly can do that."
His album contains a total of 15 pieces, mainly Felix Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words" and a prelude by French Romantic composer Charles-Valentin Alkan. "The pieces have a certain melancholy, and I've been playing them a lot recently."
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Source: www.stern.de
