Robert Levin

Robert Levin is an American pianist and Mozart scholar renowned for reviving the eighteenth-century practice of improvising cadenzas and embellishments rather than playing them from the printed page. Born in 1947, he taught for decades at Harvard University and has recorded extensively on both modern piano and fortepiano, including complete cycles of Mozart's piano sonatas and concertos. He is also known for completing several of Mozart's unfinished works.

On the fortepiano, expect a lighter, more transparent sound than a modern grand, with quicker decay and distinct registers between bass and treble, well suited to Beethoven's early-period concerto writing on this program. Levin's signature is spontaneity: he treats cadenzas and ornamented repeats as opportunities to improvise in period style rather than repeat fixed text, so no two performances of the same concerto sound quite alike. His long study of Mozart's own manuscripts and of the composer's finished and unfinished scores informs a historically grounded but unpredictable reading, and his scholarly background means the printed notes rarely trump what he hears the music asking for in the moment. Expect phrasing that breathes and a performer visibly thinking through the music as it happens.

Robert Levin was born in 1947 and studied with Nadia Boulanger while still in high school before attending Harvard University, where he earned his undergraduate degree with a thesis on Mozart's unfinished works. He built a career as both a concert pianist and a musicologist, becoming a leading authority on Mozart, including completions of unfinished pieces such as the Requiem. He taught at Harvard from 1993 to 2014 and served as artistic director of the Sarasota Music Festival from 2007 to 2017. His recordings include complete Mozart concerto cycles with period-instrument ensembles and complete Mozart piano sonatas performed on Mozart's own fortepiano.