Yoav Levanon follows his solo recordings(including an enthralling disc of Rachmaninov's opus 39 Etudes-tableaux) with his first Concerto album, where the two Liszt Concertos are followed by the Totentanz, a macabre and substantial addition. Once more, the playing made me recall Alice Kezeradze(the late wife and mentor of Ivo Pogorelich) and her endearing and impulsive response to an outstanding performance, 'you see, I just adore talent.' But what is talent? Notoriously hard to define it is nonetheless a quality immediately sensed and reregistered. And talent is what blazes out in the playing of Yoav Levanon. His daunting technique(that astonishing finger strength) allows him the fullest imaginative freedom, an audacity taken nonchalantly close to the edge, something as personal as it is audacious. Already he is liberated from the cares and concerns of other lesser pianists, free to do virtually anything.
The Liszt Concertos have had many recordings, with high-flying performances by pianists of the stature of Richter, Brendel and Zimerman . Yet Levanon makes his own distinctive mark. He is powerful and rhapsodic in the E flat Concerto. Nothing is rushed, everything has weight and authority, creating a special sense of Liszt's rhetorical grandeur. Every virtuoso demand is met with musical authority and the same virtues apply to the A major Concerto. What military swagger from both soloist and orchestra at the launch of the final section, while in the Totentanz not even the most frantic and fevered ideas can tempt Levanon away from the breadth of his conception. Even so, the close is suitably cataclysmic. In all three works there is ample glitter and aplomb complemented by an infectious feeling for colour and nuance.
All this, and Levanon at the age of 20 has already amassed a formidable array of concerts and awards. Such early success is not without its dangers. But Levanon remains genial, relaxed and unperturbed in interview and, together with his many appearances as well as his recordings(I would cite a Chopin F minor Concerto of brilliance and affection in equal parts), the stage has long been set for the continuing advance of an already extraordinary career. As a French critic succinctly put it, 'quel pianiste!'
Bryce Morrison