This is a fascinating release. I’ve never heard of any pianist with the courage or confidence of Igor Levit to tackle nearly all Brahms late piano works in three consecutive opus numbers in one recording, let alone at a single recital which he gave at London’s Wigmore Hall, and no doubt other venues, recently. 

These miniature masterpieces (and masterpieces is undoubtedly what they are) have always have a whiff of the mysterious and enigmatic about them. The Opp. 116-118 offer a rare breadth of thought and are expressed with a concentration and economy akin to Chopin before him and Webern since. More happens in most of these Ballades, Romances, Intermezzi and Rhapsodies than in many works of considerably greater length. Much of the music is muted in colour and consolatory in tone, although it’s not an exaggeration to suggest that in Levit’s vision, Brahms’ disillusionment and restrained pessimism anticipate so much 20th-century music.  

As if to emphasise the fact, Brahms actually described the Op. 117 bracket as “the lullaby of my...