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This very rare, out of print box set of 11 CDs that brings together recordings for which the pianist is internationally renowned, as well as a large portion of his output as a composer. Issued in 2011, made in the EU (France likely) and FACTORY SEALED. See pictures with this listing as they are of the actual item.
Internationally recognized in the fields of creation and interpretation, the double profile, of pianist and composer, these variables impart Michael Levinas as a remarkable peculiarity within the French and International musical life.
Born in Paris, Michael Levinas went through the classical and high level teaching of the National Superior Conservatory of Paris, running at the same time the studies of piano, the famous class of accompaniment, orchestra conducting and composing. In that institution he met the great musicians who made the deepest impression on him, in particular, the pianists Vlado Perlemuter, Yvonne Lefébure, but also Yvonne Loriod to whom he showed his first works. She got him immediately in Olivier Messiaen’s famous class of composing, developed also his piano repertoire and taught him the great repertoire of the XXth century, that is the one of Messiaen, but also his pupils’ works, Boulez and Stockhausen.
Besides those classical studies at the National Superior Conservatory of Paris, his musical training was marked from his very early childhood by another musical tradition, the Russian school of piano, thanks to his mother, the pianist Raissa Lévy. Coming from Moscow and Lithuania, she had studied several years in Vienna, in particular with the virtuosi and teachers Sirota, Isserlis and some other great piano masters of Central Europe.
Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod encouraged Michael Levinas’ double vocation, a real demanding program for a musician leading simultaneously the careers of composer and pianist.
At the end of his studies, trained by these two great personalities, who created a powerful movement of artistic revival and modernity in France and all over the world, Michael Levinas went on his first tour as a pianist. Later, still encouraged by Olivier Messiaen, he was appointed as a scholarship student at the Villa Medicis in Rome, directed then by the painter Balthus, another of his great encounters.
Levinas helped create the nevralgic movement in 1973, along with his classmates of Messiaen’s class, Tristan Murail and Gérard Grisey, the ensemble Itinéraire, founder of the spectral movement.
Between his first works, like Arsis et Thésis (1971), Clov et Hamm (1973), Appels (1974), Froissements d’ailes (1975), Ouverture pour une fête étrange (1979), Concerto pour un piano espace (1977-1981, including his great works for orchestra, like La Cloche fêlée (1988), Par-delà (1994), Évanoui (2009) or very recently Amphithéâtre (2012), Michael Levinas is a pioneer regarding the new ideas of instrumental writing and the development of the sound range by using technological environments. His works for ensemble, orchestra and soloist are created and repeated by the most famous ensembles, festivals and institutions in France and abroad: Festival of Donauschingen, International meetings of de Darmstadt, Ircam, Cité de la Musique, Ensemble Inter Contemporain, Ensemble Ictus, Ensemble Itinéraire, Klang Forum, Le Balcon, Radio France, Multilatérales, Biennale de Venise…
Let us add that within the contemporary musical scene, Michael Levinas is above all characterized by an undeniable dramatic gift, a connection with the text, the theatre and the scene. Michael Levinas is well known as a composer of operas and was commissioned by important European theatres. Since La Conférence des oiseaux (1985), he wrote not less than three great lyrical works, all of them created in important European theatres: Go-gol (1996), adapted from Gogol’s novel, (Le Manteau) ; Les Nègres, adapted from Jean Genêt’s text; La Métamorphose (2010), adapted from Kafka’s story. This closeness with the text, literature and poetry is central to the close relation which Michael Levinas maintained all his life with his father, the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, who passed on to him the interest of languages, thought, risk, interpretation and writing.
A new opera, adapted from Saint Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince (commissioned by both operas of Lausanne and Lille) will be created in 2015 in these two theatres as well as in the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Chatelet in Paris, and then in Liège.
Michael Levinas’ career as a concert pianist is also significant by his choice of repertoire Discovered very soon by his recording of Schumann’s Kreisleriana and Fantasy, which was acclaimed from the press, he signed a contract with Lucien Ades, thanks to which he was the first French performer of his generation after Yves Nat to record the complete set of Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas.
Some years later, Michael Levinas recorded the complete set of J.-S. Bach’s Well- tempered Clavier on a modern piano.
Michael Levinas pursued an international career as a pianist with this repertoire, to which he often joins works from the end of the XXth century.
Michael Levinas excels in the classical and romantic German repertoire, and thus may be considered as a “Beethovenian”, in the great tradition of the XXth century pianists. He also recorded several CDs with French music and the contemporary repertoire (Debussy, Messiaen, Ligeti, Boulez…). His whole discography is at Universal Musique, who wanted to enhance Michael Levinas’ double career as pianist and composer, with the production of a presentation box entitled « Double-Face » (2011), including extracts of his discography.
Michael Levinas teaches at the National Superior Conservatory of Music of Paris and is Member of the Beaux-Arts Academie of the Institut de France.
This listing is for a very rare, out of print Boxed Set of 11-CDs - a FACTORY SEALED box set, PRESSED and ISSUED by ACCORD / Universal Records of a highly collectible title from their catalog, featuring -
Micheal Levinas
11-CD Boxed Set Title -
Double Face
Track Listing -
CD 1 & 2 - J.S. Bach: The Well-tempered Clavier, book 1
CD 3 & 4 - Beethoven : Piano Sonatas Nos. 14, 21, 23, 29, 32
CD 5 - Schumann: Carnaval, Etudes symphonique, Papillons
CD 6 - Fauré: La bonne chanson, Vingt Mélodies-deuxième recueil, Après un rêve
CD 7 - Scriabin: The piano etudes
CD 8 - Ligetti / Levinas: Piano Etudes
CD 9 - Levinas: Quatuor à cordes No.1, Les Lettres entrelacées, Froissements d’ailes. Arsis et Thésis, ou La Chanson du soufflé, Les “Aragon”
CD 10 - Levinas: Ouverture pour une fête étrange, Les Rires du Gilles, Concerto pour un piano-espace No. 2, Clov et Hamm, Contrepoints irréels – Rencontres
CD 11 - Levinas: La Conférence des oiseauxOther Information -
Michaël Levinas - Double Face
Michaël Levinas (piano) various soloists and orchestras
Box Set, 11 x CDs
Format: Audio CD
catalog # 476 4269
barcode: 028947642695
The 11-CD Boxed Set is from the rare ACCORD / Universal Records series of CDs.
The CDs, OUTER BOX and INSERTS are all assumed to be in MINT
overall condition as this item is FACTORY SEALED!
Comes complete - a superb collectible!
This CD is an
audiophile quality pressing (any collector of fine MFSL, half speeds,
direct to discs, Japanese/UK pressings etc., can attest to the
difference a quality pressing can make to an audio system).
Do not let this rarity slip by!