YOAV LEVANON – New Generation Piano Recital
© Nir Slakman
- Date
- 15 December 2023 – 8:30pm
- Duration
- 1h30
- Hours
- 8:30 pm
THE YOUNG ISRAELI PIANIST YOAV LEVANON WILL BE GIVING A RECITAL AS PART OF THE "PIANO NOUVELLE GÉNÉRATION" PROGRAMME.
This concert is available on replay on FLV Play, medici.tv Mezzo and Radio Classique.
By the time he came to the Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2021, his youth and maturity had already left audiences wonderstruck. Israeli pianist Yoav Levanon has since signed with the Warner Classics label and been invited to perform at Europe’s major venues and festivals. Now 19 years of age, he returns to the New Generation Piano series with a romantic recital.
From the legendary couple formed by the Schumanns, many of whose works cite or respond to one another, he will first perform Clara’s Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 20, followed by Robert’s fiery The Symphonic Studies, Op.13. For the second segment of this recital, Mr Levanon will take us deep into the Slavic world of Sergei Rachmaninoff with the composer’s Études-Tableaux, Op. 39, which combines pianistic virtuosity with the illustrative power of Russian music.
The programme
- Clara Schumann
- Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 20
- Robert Schumann
- Symphonische Etüden in C sharp Minor, Op. 13
- Sergei Rachmaninov
- Études-tableaux, Op. 39
The artist
Yoav Levanon
“At the age of 19, Israeli pianist Yoav Levanon already shows tremendous power and maturity”, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung commented on the young pianist’s impressive appearance at the 2022 Europa Open Air in Frankfurt where he performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Alain Altinoglu. The televised concert took place in front of an audience of 25,000 at site and almost half a million viewers worldwide.
Following on from his recital debut at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London in early 2022, the 2022/23 season sees Yoav Levanon perform solo recitals at Boulez Saal in Berlin, Grand Auditorium de Radio France in Paris, Munich’s Prinzregententheater, Settimane Musicali di Ascona and the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad as well as on a tour of the US for the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Invitations from orchestras will lead him to the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Israel Chamber Orchestra and the North Netherlands Orchestra on tour in the Netherlands to include a stop at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Previous appearances include a solo performance in a “Piano Summit” presented by Martha Argerich at Schloss Elmau followed by a recital at the Piano aux Jacobins Festival in Toulouse and a recital at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. His performance was highly praised in a critic in Diapason: “Yoav Levanon is not only a stunning virtuoso. His assertive interpretative choices already make him an authentic musician, who has everything to become one of the major pianists of this century.”
At the beginning of 2021, Yoav Levanon took part in a filmed project with Daniel Barenboim and soon after he signed an exclusive recording agreement with Warner Classics. His debut album A Monument for Beethoven with the label was released in May 2022. It attracted great attention from reviewers worldwide and garnered many excellent reviews.
Yoav Levanon first appeared on stage at the age of 4 and soon became a winner of his first National Piano Competition in Israel. He won his first Gold Medal at an International Piano Competition in the USA a year later and performed on the prestigious stage of Carnegie Hall in New York. Following his orchestral debut with the Israel Chamber Orchestra he went on to take part in the Tsinandali Festival, Georgia, where he played Mozart and Bach Concertos for Two Pianos and Orchestra with acclaimed pianist Sergei Babayan. Later he received the ‘”Young Talent Award” of the Fundación Excelentia and performed in a ceremony at the National Auditorium Madrid in the presence of Queen Sofia. During 2018 Yoav performed Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2019, Yoav appeared as one of the youngest pianists ever in the festival history of the renowned Verbier Festival and was celebrated a "discovery". His debut solo recital, broadcast globally on medici.tv, gained the largest online audience of any of the 2019 Festival’s events.
Yoav Levanon is guided by top piano professors and musicians in Israel and abroad. He was privileged to take part in the ‘Piano Program for Outstanding Young Pianists’ at the Jerusalem Music Center, working with the prestigious American concert pianist Murray Perahia as well as working under the guidance of distinguished pianist Sir Andras Schiff in his artist performance studio at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin.
