Yoav Levanon’s debut in Canada
Bach / Siloti: Prelude in B minor. Bach / Busoni: Chaconne. Chopin: Preludes op. 25 nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12. Liszt: Transcendental Execution Studies Nos. 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 12 and 4. Yoav Levanon (piano). Church of St. Bartholomew, Wednesday, July 17.
On Wednesday at the Saint-Barthélémy church, as part of the Lanaudière Festival, we expected great things from the Canadian debut of Israeli pianist Yoav Levanon, 20, a former young prodigy, protégé of Daniel Barenboim and new Warner pianist. The glaring limitations of this pianist, combined with the absence of music emanating from his fingers, left us with a boundless disappointment.
Two months ago, the Montreal International Music Competition was held, an edition dedicated to the piano. How many of those who failed the first round had more to say about a keyboard than Yoav Levanon. Ten? Fifteen?
If we were able to travel 200 kilometres round trip on Wednesday to discover a pianist surrounded by such a ” buzz » (let us recall that the artistic director of the Festival, Renaud Loranger, declared to Le Devoir on July 6th “He is the last disciple of Barenboim. I heard him in Berlin several times after the pandemic and I consider him to be someone very interesting”), we were certainly not ready to drink such a chalice to the dregs and consider enduring hearing this nocturnal din in Liszt (eight of the 12 Transcendental Execution Studies in 2nd part).
So you will not read any commentary on Liszt, because the works after Bach and eight of the 12 Studies Chopin’s first half said it all about the gaping shortcomings and limitations of Yoav Levanon, who one really wonders what could justify seeing him lead an international career in this state.
Sing
First point: touch, or at least sound production, is of no interest. This sound production is vertical, a sound stiffness which is coupled, which is very rare at this level, for a pianist embarking on a career, with a stiffness in the vocalization of the music. In fact, Levanon has little idea, if any, of vocality, of sing music, and this is very noticeable in his left hand playing, whether in Bach/Busoni or Chopin, which almost turns into a gag in theStudy op. 25 n° 6 and sinks into absolute futility in the“Cello” study (No. 7).
As the left hand plays instead of singing and tying, the musical transitions are not brought about (passage to the last section of theOp. 25 No. 10 or passage to the central section of theOp. 25 No. 5). And since the sound production is stiff and does not feed “from within”, Levanon inflates the decibels by making excessive use of the pedal, which was appropriate to be tamed in this acoustic.
Obviously, fantasy and depth are absent from the Chaconne. We were alerted to the pianist’s limitations from the Prelude in B arranged by Siloti. Levanon overarticulates it, while disarticulating the right synchronization of the hands. He loses the fluidity that makes the magic of the piece under the fingers of Emil Gilels or, recently, Bruce Liu.
There is no doubt that Yoav Levanon was in his very early years (debut at age 7, 2nd Concerto Rachmaninoff’s with the Israel Philharmonic at 13) a gifted youngster. In short, he was the Israeli Lisiecki. Being a technically gifted kid never meant becoming an interesting artist at 20. And in this distressing musical massacre on Wednesday night, he was very far from it.