Malakoff Kowalski, Igor Levit, Johanna Summer & Chilly Gonzales: »Songs With Words« at Philharmonie Berlin

About the Event

“Songs With Words” is the name of the new album by Malakoff Kowalski as a singer together with Igor Levit, Johanna Summer and Chilly Gonzales on the piano. Miniatures by classical composers, paired with sung American poems by Allen Ginsberg. In the style of Mendelssohn's “Songs without Words”, this extraordinary quartet presents a new kind of music, possibly a completely new genre, the likes of which has never before been developed in this form in classical music, jazz or pop.

You can hear twelve new singer‐songwriter pieces that are remotely reminiscent of Tom Waits, Jim Morrison or David Bowie — combined with Bill Evans, Kurt Weill or Michel Legrand. Timeless, vulnerable, introverted beat lyrics by Allen Ginsberg are interwoven with Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Aram Khatschaturjan, Maurice Ravel, Edvard Grieg, Amy Beach, Germaine Tailleferre, Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré. In this montage process, the poems are reinterpreted almost unchanged syllable by syllable, line by line, verse by verse into song lyrics. The quiet, introspective singing strictly follows the motifs and themes of the piano. The piano works, in turn, are also played in their unaltered original versions, with a few imperceptible exceptions.

In addition to “Songs With Words”, the evening's program includes further solo piano music selected by Igor Levit, Johanna Summer, Chilly Gonzales and Malakoff Kowalski. The concert on June 3, 2025 at the Philharmonie Berlin is the only performance in Germany to be played in this complete line‐up with the album “Songs With Words”.