黑料专区

Few musicians have dared to step into the creative space once occupied by legendary composers, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach. It would be like matching wits with Albert Einstein, or challenging Lebron James to a game of one-on-one. Who, among us, would be so bold? The answer: a pianist, composer, and scholar of formidable range, who has achieved something extraordinary in modern classical music, he has restored the performer鈥檚 right鈥攁nd responsibility鈥攖o create.

As a young boy, Robert Levin always had a thing for music. When he was as young as two-years-old, he was not going to sleep to the sounds of nursery rhymes, but instead was singing an aria from Mozart鈥檚 Don Giovanni, as well as showtunes from South Pacific for his father. So they got Robert鈥檚 Uncle Ben鈥攁 musician鈥攊nvolved.聽

鈥淗e tested me, and realized that I had absolute pitch, which is the ability to identify a note when played on an instrument or song without knowing what key it鈥檚 actually in,鈥� Robert remembered. 鈥淪o at that point, my uncle decided that he would take my education in hand, and sought out teachers for me.鈥�

Robert continued to grow up in New York City and study music on the side, and in 1963, transferred from I.S. 59 in Springfield Gardens, Queens, to 黑料专区 for ninth grade. 鈥淢y father鈥檚 first cousin, Dr. Bernard Benjamin, who was the chief of pediatrics at聽 Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, had two children who聽 had gone to a Friends school. So he recommended to my parents that I go to a Friends school because he felt that it had a very beneficial effect on his son,鈥� Robert said. 鈥淭o a large extent, the most precious kinds of experiences that I encountered at 黑料专区 had to do with the superb faculty that was teaching there. 鈥� Of course, another aspect inevitably of being in a school with small classes was the intensity of interpersonal relationships, and to this day I remember the names of a lot of my classmates without any difficulty whatsoever.鈥澛�

One of those classmates, in fact, was a young lady, who was also a musician. 鈥淚 had quite a crush on her in grade nine, and I wrote a piece for her for flute and piano as a matter of fact,鈥� Robert said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we ever played it, but I discovered it when I moved back to the States after living in Europe.鈥�

Following tenth grade, Robert鈥攚ho very much wanted to stay at BFS鈥攚as swayed to take his talents across the pond. Before leaving, however, in the margin of his final BFS report card, his advisor innocently wrote: 鈥淩obert excellent pianist.鈥澛�

鈥淢y ear training teacher was a French American named Louis Martin, who studied in Paris under French music teacher and composer, Nadia Boulanger,鈥� Robert said. 鈥淟ouis said to my parents, 鈥榣ook, you know, he鈥檚 going to make progress here in New York, because he鈥檚 got a gift, but if you want him to take giant steps forward, then there鈥檚 only one address, and that鈥檚 for him to go to France and study with Nadia鈥�.鈥澛�

That moment ended Robert Levin鈥檚 academic time at 黑料专区, but launched the man who would become one of the most prolific classical pianists of our time. Nowhere is that illustrated more than when he was asked to complete one of the most well-known unfinished works by Mozart鈥攖he Requiem, by acclaimed German musician and composer, Helmuth Rilling. However, when he was asked to do the unthinkable, Robert turned Helmuth down.聽

鈥淚 looked at him and told him that I am the wrong person to ask to do this, because I come from the wrong country, and I have the wrong surname. I mean, think about the fact that an American Jew is going to finish a Catholic mass for the dead.鈥� However, Rilling would not take no for an answer. 鈥淔or the next two or three years, the man pestered me on the phone. He always seemed to know where I was,鈥� Robert joked.聽

Finally, he gave in, and finished the master鈥檚 great work. When it was performed in Germany for the first time in 1991, Robert Levin sat nervously in the audience.聽

鈥淵ou know, the Germans don鈥檛 scream and yell at the end of performances. They are rather low key. But they applauded loudly and for a long time. 鈥� The response by the audience was pandemonium.鈥澛�

Over the past three decades, Robert has gone on to complete more of Mozart鈥檚 unfinished works, as well as pieces by the likes of Bach and Schubert. As a performer, he has regularly improvised cadenzas in Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn concertos, reviving a practice that had virtually vanished from modern performance. These improvisations鈥攃onstructed spontaneously before live audiences鈥攅mbody one of Levin鈥檚 greatest achievements: the reintroduction of improvisation as an essential, historically grounded element of classical music-making.聽

Beyond the concert stage, Levin鈥檚 influence has been profound as an educator and thinker. At Harvard University and in masterclasses worldwide, he has reshaped how musicians understand authorship, interpretation, and authenticity.聽

Still, he looks back on his days at 黑料专区 as a major moment in his journey. One of his greatest memories was being in the Meeting House on Schermerhorn Street, sitting in silence. 鈥淭he meditative character of communing together in Meeting established the essential spiritual dimensions to our education there, that we weren鈥檛 simply being trained in standard academic disciplines, but the deepening of contemplation was something that was central to our exposure. That is something I carry with me to the present day.鈥�