61: Robert Levin 

0:00 Start 2:05 Hans Swarowsky telling him to improvise in Mozart Piano Concertos 4:13 How old were you at the time? What was your musical training? 7:01 Studying under Nadia Boulanger 8:10 Did she play the organ? 8:17 Were you a composer when you started out? 9:06 Do you have perfect pitch? 11:16 Organists have to improvise 11:29 Did you learn thorough bass with Nadia Boulager? 12:58 Was thorough bass an integral part of the training? 14:46 Reacting to Schoenberg's negative comments about thorough bass 18:13 Listening to Friedrich Gulda's recordings and self-teaching himself 22:25 Mozart left over 140 unfinished works 24:01 What was Mozart's training and how he learned music 25:30 CPE Bach's "Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments" 27:57 Fux's Counterpoint Treatise Gradus Ad Parnassum and Bach 31:07 Different ways to learn counterpoint and improvising fugues 33:48 Mozart's improvisations in Piano Concertos 35:39 Levin's sensational performance at the 1989 Mozart Conference 36:27 Did the attendees know that you were going to improvise? 39:21 What has been the reaction by your peers to your improvising? 40:20 Being the only improvising classical pianist for 25 years 41:48 Being able to improvise in classical music is a completely different way of thinking 43:22 There are many ways to do a cadence 43:59 Do your professional peers, concert pianists, know figured bass? 44:38 Improvisation as interpretation instead of playing notes 48:06 What do you do when you see a repeat in a piano sonata? 50:10 The element of risk has disappeared from classical music performance 53:31 Did audiences during Mozart's time expect improvisation? 55:30 HOT SEAT - Top 3 Piano Sonatas of Mozart 55:53 HOT SEAT - Top 3 Piano Concertos of Mozart 56:36 HOT SEAT - Top 3 Piano Sonatas of Beethoven 57:13 HOT SEAT - Top 3 Symphonies of Mozart 58:06 HOT SEAT - Proudest Musical Moment 58:58 HOT SEAT - If you could meet Mozart, what would you talk about? 1:00:57 Do you play Jazz? 1:01:37 Who are your Top 3 Jazz Pianists?

This is eye opening. Will turn music education upside down if taken seriously.

Absolutely marvelous! Robert Levin is one of my favorites to listen to!

Thanks for this. Great interview.

Merci

Great stuff, I did an interview with Robert only a couple of weeks ago on improvisation (it's been posted), but somehow missed this one which covers some similar territory. Fortunately it is different however, and Robert also plays and improvises. Thank you

Oh, it's a shame you didn't ask him what he thought of Glenn Gould's opinion that Mozart became a bad composer at the end of his life. He would have had very concrete counter-arguments against him, I think.