Igor Levit: Resistance - Beethoven Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" (Liszt Transcription) & Schoenberg: Ode to Napoleon

With Resistance, Igor Levit presents a compelling program exploring freedom, power, and political resistance. The album brings together Beethoven’s groundbreaking Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” in Franz Liszt’s virtuosic piano transcription and Arnold Schoenberg’s politically charged masterpiece Ode to Napoleon. Originally dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte, Beethoven’s symphony became the “Eroica” after Napoleon crowned himself Emperor. For Igor Levit, the work continues to embody human resilience, inner strength, and artistic independence. Liszt’s extraordinary transcription translates the symphony’s orchestral power to the piano and remains a landmark achievement in the art of transcription. Levit places Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon alongside it. Written in exile in 1942 and based on a text by Lord Byron, the work stands as a powerful musical indictment of tyranny and oppression. Together with the Kammerakademie Potsdam under Antonello Manacorda and acclaimed actress Dörte Lyssewski as narrator, Levit delivers a performance of striking intensity and contemporary relevance.