Death threat against Igor Levit: "It's about systematic anti-Semitism"

Pianist Igor Levit claims to have received an anti-Semitic death threat. The musician received an email in November threatening him with a murder attack at a concert in a city in southern Germany.

According to his spokeswoman, Levit turned on the police. He gave the concert anyway - under personal protection and extensive security measures.

In a guest contribution for the "Tagesspiegel am Sonntag", the artist once again warns of racism, anti-Semitism and extreme right-wing terror. These dangers would continue to be systematically underestimated in Germany.

The country is "in the middle of a massive shift in norms within our democracy, which will not be the same if we let anti-Semitism, racism and hatred of women gain more and more space".

Anti-Semitism: Igor Levit reports of death threat https://t.co/hzVByxvgl2

Levit says that it has long ceased to be isolated cases. "It's about victims, over and over and over again. And it's about systematic anti-Semitism and racism, right-wing extremism, terror and ethnic violence."

According to Levit, the authorities are overwhelmed and still understaffed due to the tasks.

Levit had already spoken out explicitly against right-wing terrorism and brutalization when the Opus Klassik 2019 music prize was awarded in October. At the time, he said with regard to the attack on a synagogue in Halle with two deaths: "After the NSU, after countless attacks on mosques, synagogues, Jewish cemeteries, refugee homes, etc., what happens here is no surprise."

The musician, born in Russia, is considered one of the most important pianists of his generation. Most recently, he recorded all Beethoven sonatas. At the same time, he has become a prominent political voice (read a portrait about the artist here).