Yoav Levanon

Shooting star Yoav Levanon plays pieces by Couperin, Rachmaninoff and Ravel as well as the rarely heard studies for the pedal piano by Schumann and Balakirev's highly virtuoso Fantasie Islamey.

The Six Pieces in Canonical Form op. 56 by Robert Schumann were originally composed for a musical curiosity: The extremely rarely used pedal grand piano supplements a conventional grand piano with a sounding pedal modeled on the organ. Knowing full well that not everyone would have this device for their grand piano, Schumann also created a version for piano without pedal. His composition is complemented by two pieces originally composed for the harpsichord from the French Baroque period by François de Couperin. The second half of the concert is again dominated by musical cross-references: In addition to a theme by Chopin, which Sergei Rachmaninoff took as the starting point for his variations, Maurice Ravel worked the letters of Joseph Haydn's surname into a characteristic five-note motif, from which he composed a minuet. Mili Balakirev's Fantasy Islamey, which was long regarded as the most difficult piece for piano due to its technical demands, is the evening's spectacular finale.