From time to time a young pianist appears leaving an indelible imprint. Israeli Yoav Levanon, now twenty, is already a seasoned virtuoso naming Murray Perahia and Andras Schiff among his influences and with international acclaim and a wealth of awards behind him. And listening to his Rachmaninov, such early celebrity is brilliantly self-evident. Levanon has technique in spades, but so much more, his unnerving agitation and bravura in the opening C minor Etude always allowing for colour and nuance. There is fullness and weight without stridency in the climax of No 2 in A minor while in the manic whirl of No 3 in F sharp minor you are made conscious of a pianist who can turn Rachmaninov's teeming notes to expressive a well as dazzling advantage. Hear him, too, in the opening, graphic snarl of No 6 before Red Riding Hood's precipitate flight or in the 'lamentoso' cries and massive carillon of Moscow bells at the climax of No 7 in C minor, greatest and most startlingly modern of the Etudes. Levanon is warmly sympathetic to the insinuating, swaying charm and the surprise scherzo close to No 8 in D minor and ends with a thunderous performance of the final Etude in D with its rat-a-tat-tat volley of machine-gun fire conclusion. And here, his measured tempo allows him an overwhelming strength. Even from say Ashkenazy and Nicolas Lugansky and with unforgettable recordings by Van Cliburn in the fifth E flat minor Etude and Alonso Soldanov in the second A minor Etude there is no competition because Levanon's mastery and approach is so vivid and personal it forbids comparison. Here is a pianist born for Rachmaninov making me look ahead to further recordings of the Preludes, Moment Musicaux and, most of all, the Concertos.
Bryce Morrison