On the ‘Sony Classical’ label – Longing and its fulfilment at the same time: Igor Levit’s new double album “Encounter” is the pianist’s sixth disc released on the Sony Classical label and conveys the urgent desire for encounter and human togetherness – at a time when isolation is the order of the day. The result is a very personal recital. While speaking touchingly of the hardships and unexpected feelings of liberty resulting from social distancing, musically the recital stands out for the objective spirit of its carefully crafted form. For an artist who essentially views music-making as communicating with a responsive counterpart, the sudden inability to be close to others in a physical space is a fundamental test which threatens to strip away the foundation of all personal actions. Igor Levit reacted to this situation at once by performing a total of 53 recitals over the Internet from his home since mid-March 2020 – with an audience that in total will soon number in the hundreds of thousands. As he played the piano he reflected on the music, which poses the basic questions about human existence in a perpetually valid way. Surprisingly, the strongest responses from the virtual community were to the performance of a piece that was probably known to only a very few listeners – Morton Feldman’s meditative and in musical terms radically reduced work Palais de Mari from 1986. With “Encounter” Levit presents several of the works featured within his concerts given from home, works rarely heard in the concert hall as a cycle such as Ferruccio Busoni’s transcriptions of Bach Organ Chorale Preludes or Busoni’s selection from the Eleven Chorale Preludes op. 122 by Johannes Brahms. After having fallen out of fashion today, music culture within a Christian and liturgical context is being given renewed focus by the interpreter of the highly acclaimed cycle of 32 Piano Sonatas by Beethoven. Much of it still sounds familiar although it is only rarely experienced in a live context.