
Erik Levi
Recent articles by Erik Levi

Review: Edge of the Storm (Telegraph Quartet)
Erik Levi is gripped by the Telegraph Quartet’s album uniting three 20th-century masterpieces from Bacewicz, Britten and Weinberg

Review: Shostakovich – Piano Trios; Piano Quintet
Erik Levi voyages through Shostakovich’s kaleidoscopic chamber works in the company of violinist Julia Fischer and friends

The venerable London Philharmonic went on tour to Nazi Germany. What happened next?
In 1936, conductor Sir Thomas Beecham and his London Philharmonic Orchestra visited Germany and became pawns in a Nazi propaganda coup, as Erik Levi explains

Review: Shostakovich – String Quartets Nos 2, 7 & 10 (Jerusalems)
In his review, Erik Levi goes on a real rollercoaster of musical emotions thanks to the Jerusalem Quartet’s winning survey of three of Shostakovich’s mighty quartets

Franz Schmidt: the brilliant composer cancelled for pleasing the Nazis
A cataclysmic decision in his final year led to this masterful late-Romantic symphonist being cast out into the cold, explains Erik Levi

'The rebellion of a very ill man against a very sick society': why critics shunned the Shostakovich Second Cello Concerto
British critics were slow to appreciate the qualities of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich's Second Cello Concerto, as Erik Levi explains

Death and the Maiden: Schubert's harrowing string quartet and most emotive recordings
Erik Levi picks out the finest recordings of Schubert's Death and the Maiden, a piece in which the Austrian composer plumbs the very depths of despair

Review: Exile (Patricia Kopatchinskaja et al)
In his review, Erik Levi enjoys a brilliant melting pot of discoverable works by exiled composers from Patricia Kopatchinskaja and friends’ eloquent performances of lesser-known works

Review: Block: Chamber Works (ARC Ensemble)
In his review, Erik Levi enjoys discovering the life and music of exiled Austrian composer Frederick Block in this superb ARC Ensemble album

Fauré • Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande
In his review, Erik Levi believes Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Symphony to be right at home in Schoenberg’s epic Pelleas und Melisande

Hindemith • Schnittke: Piano Concerto etc

Bartók • Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 etc

Ferruccio Busoni: the underrated Italian composer who 'breathed the air of other planets'
Although the piano virtuoso’s roots lay firmly in the Romantic era, Busoni’s instinct for pushing musical boundaries won him the respect of Schoenberg and Webern, says Erik Levi

Stravinsky was an incredible ballet composer. We've ranked the Stravinsky ballets you need to hear
Over four decades, Stravinsky revolutionised the world of ballet. He elevated the artform, taking its music in drastic new directions and drawing on influences from the past to create a unique series of works

Schoenberg: Expressionist Music (Review)

George Enescu: multi-faceted composer, Romanian national hero
Meet George Enescu, labelled by one famous performer ‘the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart'

The Golden Age of Hollywood

Debussy • Stravinsky: Petrushka etc

Songs of Fate

The Passenger

Schmidt: Symphonies Nos 1-4 etc

Reger • Senfter: Clarinet Quintets

Fathers & Daughters
