CD of the week: Yoav Levanon's impressive debut

Virtuoso works played by a 17-year-old pianist: the young Israeli Yoav Levanon has released his debut CD with Warner Classics. Promising or "just" very nimble on the keyboard?

by Chantal Nastasi

Franz Liszt's Sonata in B minor is technically demanding, but also a challenge in terms of design. A Mount Everest of piano literature. Anyone making their debut with it and putting the piece at the beginning of the CD knows that the bar is set high. That must be really good.

Despite his 17 years, Yoav Levanon shows a great tonal and technical security and sophistication: the rhythmically unyielding, the diabolically lurking, the fire, the frenzy, the melancholy introspection.

Creative power, rhythmic precision and impressive contrasts

Levanon convinces with creative power as well as with rhythmic precision. It would be almost presumptuous to play every note of such a delicate and complex work perfectly.

It depends on the big picture, on the throw, not necessarily on every chord, on a single note in a virtuoso run. And the young Israeli is amazingly mature to work out the essentials. He also shows this in the other romantic solo works. Liszt forms the bracket: at the beginning the sonata, at the end the Campanella etude, in between works by Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann.

Whether in Mendelssohn's "Variations sérieuses", Chopin's Prélude or in Schumann's voluptuous fantasy - Yoav Levanon sets impressive contrasts between a lyrical narrative tone, dry virtuosity and tone design weighed down to the gram.

Intense and challenging works

"A Monument for Beethoven" - with this title Yoav Levanon refers to the inauguration of the Beethoven monument in Bonn in 1845 on the 75th anniversary of his birth, for which all the composers on the CD campaigned and thus showed artistic solidarity.

That doesn't really reveal itself as a bracket of the program. An informative booklet that, apart from the names of the composers, lacks the musical reference. But that is beside the point. They are all intense and challenging works by composers who took their cues from Beethoven, like the post-Beethoven music world in general. The bottom line is: Yoav Levanon plays these works with effortless virtuosity. Technically there seem to be no limits. And with all this, there is also a high understanding of his interpretations, emotion, sound sensitivity and depth that amazes.

A Monument to Beethoven

Warner Classics

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NDR Culture | Classic on the go | 05.06.2022 | 3:20 p.m