Europa Open Air: Frankfurt's classics

Even as a one-year-old, Yoav Levanon says he enjoyed working with objects that could be used to create sounds and noises.

And I stopped crying immediately when a certain song with a saxophone melody was played to him.

At least that's what his parents told him.

The now 18-year-old Israeli pianist showed a certain disposition for the musician's profession early on.

His inclination was soon encouraged in the musical family home.

At the age of three he got his first piano lessons, he says.

And was immediately fascinated by the sound possibilities of the instrument.

Guido Holze

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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At the age of seven he played pieces by Chopin, at the age of eleven he appeared as a soloist in one of his concertos for piano and orchestra in Italy.

Chopin is actually the composer with whom he has a particularly long and close relationship, says Levanon.

The internationally sought-after Israeli, who studied with Murray Perahia at the Jerusalem Music Center and is currently continuing his education with Sir András Schiff at the Barenboim-Said Academy, will now interpret the Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21, on 25 September. August at the "Europa Open Air" of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the European Central Bank.

In front of a big backdrop and a huge audience.

12,000 visitors are expected with free entry at the Weseler Werft at the largest classical spectacle in the city, which is taking place again for the first time after a two-year break due to the pandemic.

Excited about the atmosphere

He is very excited about the atmosphere of the concert, says Levanon.

But also to his first collaboration with the Frankfurt Orchestra, which he appreciates greatly for its excellent recordings.

And to get to know its chief conductor Alain Altinoglu.

In the Second Piano Concerto, which Chopin wrote at the age of 19 before his first, which is counted as Opus 11, the almost equally young soloist has a leading role.

Chopin's concertos are very much determined by the solo part, says Levanon.

He likes playing in front of a large audience, for whom classical music is a new experience.

Even if the acoustics and the sound are not as good as in the concert hall due to the electronic amplification, the opportunity to reach a broad audience is appealing to him.

He also designs his programs in such a way that they also appeal to less experienced listeners and take them on “a journey”.

For his piano recital just a week earlier, on August 17th in Wiesbaden's Kurhaus at the "Burghofspiele" festival, he ended with a particularly unusual combination.

He wants to follow Franz Liszt's "serious, long, demonic and symphonic" Piano Sonata in B minor as a "positive ending" with Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue".

The contrast will certainly be an interesting experience for many listeners, says Levanon.

The "Europe Open Air" at the Wesel shipyard also offers a similar contrast.

From 6 p.m. the hr big band will play in front of the hr symphony orchestra, which will open its performance at 8.15 p.m. with Giuseppe Verdi's overture to the opera "The Power of Destiny".

Under the title "All About That Bass!" she invited the Polish electric bassist Kinga Głyk as a special guest.

The 23-year-old musician, who became a YouTube star with her version of Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven", has since released several albums.

Jörg Achim Keller, the former chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, has rearranged some titles from their current CD "Feelings" as leader of the first part of the concert.

With Alain Altinoglu, a maestro who has some experience with open-air concerts will then take the podium.

When he was newly designated as the new chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and successor to Andrés Orozco-Estrada, in 2019 he conducted the performance in front of the high-rise backdrop at the foot of the ECB Tower with great success.

For the Paris native of Armenian descent, that may have been a relatively small spectacle, given that just a few weeks earlier he had conducted the Orchester National de France in front of 500,000 spectators under the Eiffel Tower in the annual Concert de Paris on France's national day.

As in 2019, Altinoglu presents a rarity, this time an orchestral suite by the Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg, who died in 1996.

whose opera “The Passenger” caused a sensation when it was staged in Frankfurt seven years ago.

Live streams are available

,

, on Youtube and Arte Concert, recordings will start at 7.04 p.m. on the radio on hr2 Kultur and from 10.15 p.m. on hr television.

Europa Open Air, Frankfurt, August 25, admission from 4 p.m