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Pianist Igor Levit<\/a> has released a new album as his personal artistic reaction to the October 7 attacks on Israel, and to the current rise in anti-Semitism worldwide. <\/strong><\/p> The album contains a selection of Felix Mendelssohn<\/a><\/strong>‘s solo piano cycle \u2018Songs without Words\u2019 and concludes with a Prelude by the French Romantic composer\u00a0Charles-Valentin Alkan<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0Proceeds from the album will be donated to two German organisations fighting anti-Semitism – the OFEK Advice Center for Anti-Semitic Violence and Discrimination, and the Kreuzberg Initiative Against Anti-Semitism.\u00a0<\/p> Igor Levit explains, ‘I made this recording out of a very, very strong inner necessity. I spent the first four or five weeks after the attack on October 7 in a mixture of speechlessness and total paralysis. <\/p> ‘And at some point, it became clear that I had no other tools than to react as an artist. I have the piano. I have my music. And so, the idea came to me to record these works, the \u2018Songs without Words\u2019 and to donate my proceeds from this recording to two wonderful organizations that work in my hometown here in Berlin to help people who experience anti-Semitism and to help young people avoid falling into the clutches of anti-Semitism. <\/p>