The sound of Beethoven spills down a staircase backstage at Wigmore Hall. Up in the Gerald Moore room, Igor Levit is playing the Waldstein Sonata, as if it were the easiest piece in the world. Balanced at one end of the Steinway baby grand’s keyboard is his mobile phone, set to film. He finishes the excerpt mid-phrase, saves the clip and immediately shares it via Twitter, tagging fellow concert pianist James Rhodes. They’re engaged in a Beethoven relay race, answering each other’s videos with the following bars of the piece. It’s a game, and Levit, shaking his head in mock exasperation, is amused.
As if to say, that’s enough, he plugs in his mobile to charge, out of reach. Phone addiction? ‘I know that feeling well!’ the slim pianist, dressed…