Yoav Levanon performs Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Rachmaninov
New Generation Piano Recital at the Fondation Louis Vuitton
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Cast
Yoav Levanon — Pianist
Program notes
Israeli pianist Yoav Levanon first took the stage at age four, and his evident talents were quickly rewarded with international prizes and concerts in legendary halls—including a Carnegie Hall debut at seven! After training at the Jerusalem Music Center with Murray Perahia and at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin with Sir András Schiff, Levanon gave his first solo recital at the 2019 Verbier Festival, broadcast to record numbers on medici.tv. Still just 19 in 2023, he headlines a sold-out event in the New Generation Piano Recital series at Paris's Fondation Louis Vuitton, performing virtuosic variations and etudes by the Schumanns, Clara and Robert, and Sergei Rachmaninov.
Clara Schumann's Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 20, one of her final compositions, present a cycle of seven variations based on the fourth of Robert's Bunte Blätter (Colorful Leaves). Demonstrating her compositional finesse, especially in the final variation that sees the motif transform into a cascade of arpeggios, the work even inspired Brahms's own set of variations on the same theme. Next up, Robert's much-loved Symphonic Etudes (1834), 13 technically demanding short pieces, evolve from a somber funeral march to a triumphant song, appealing to a deep sense of musicality. Levanon concludes his program with the Op. 39 set of Rachmaninov's Études-Tableaux, emblematic of the stylistic invention and musical intensity that color the composer's greatest works. This second suite of evocative tableaux, composed between 1916-17, requires pianists to "paint for themselves what [each piece] most suggests," leaving our minds brimming with music and images.
