DESCRIPTION:
Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 119 by Johannes Brahms - Beth Levin, Piano
1. Intermezzo: Adagio
2. Intermezzo: Andantino poco adagio
The poetic mood of the first intermezzo from Op. 119 belies its vague title. In a letter from May 1893 to Clara Schumann, Brahms wrote:

"I am tempted to copy out a small piano piece for you, because I would like to know how you agree with it. It is teeming with dissonances! These may [well] be correct and [can] be explained—but maybe they won't please your palate, and now I wished, they would be less correct, but more appetizing and agreeable to your taste. The little piece is exceptionally melancholic and 'to be played very slowly' is not an understatement. Every bar and every note must sound like a ritard[ando], as if one wanted to suck melancholy out of each and every one, lustily and with pleasure out of these very dissonances! Good Lord, this description will [surely] awaken your desire!"

Clara Schumann was enthusiastic and asked him to send the remaining pieces of his new work.

Beth Levin is an acclaimed recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and recording artist. A pianist of rare qualities and the highest professional caliber, states pianist Paul Badura-Skoda of Beth, and throughout her celebrated career she has approached both the Romantic repertoire and contemporary composers with equal facility and grace.

At age 12, Beth made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and soon after was selected to study with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute of Music. Mr. Serkin was an inspiration the moment he walked into a room, she recalls, a single word evoking the eloquence of a poem.

Beth made her New York solo recital debut in 1982 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2007, she performed Johann Sebastian Bachs Goldberg Variations at Steinway Hall in New York City, a return for her to a composer in the first repertoire I had studied as a child.

As a concerto soloist, Beth has appeared with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Boston Civic Symphony, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and numerous other symphony orchestras throughout the Americas, working with noted conductors such as William Smith, Arthur Fiedler, Benjamin Zander, Tonu Kalam, Sidney Rothstein, Milton Katims, Silas Huff and Joseph Silverstein.

Chamber music festival collaborations brought her to the Marlboro Festival, Casals Festival, Harvard, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Ankara Music Festival and the Blue Hill Festival. As a Music From Marlboro artist, she toured the United States and Canada.

A founding member of the Gramercy Trio, the American Arts Trio and Vista Lirica, Beth has also collaborated with the Audubon Quartet, the Vermeer Quartet, The Reykjavik Woodwind Quintet, the Daniel Quartet, the Boston Artists Ensemble and the Saratoga Chamber Players, as well as touring Europe extensively with Trio Borealis. Her recordings include Bachs Goldberg Variations, released on Centaur Records in 2008.

As a soloist, chamber musician and interpreter of contemporary music, Beth performed and recorded works by Alan Campbell, Marc Eychenne, Brian Fennelly, Steven R. Gerber, Henryk Górecki, Louis Karchin, Michael Rose, Allen Shearer, Scott Wheeler and David Del Tredici. Beth Levins musical education began with Maryan Filar at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, and in addition to Rudolf Serkin, her teachers included Leonard Shure at Boston University and Dorothy Taubman in New York City.