Levi Conducts in Israel just Prior to War

When Yoel Levi answered a phone call last month, the voice from Israel was urgent and desperate. “Can you get on a flight to Tel Aviv tonight?” it asked. The caller explained that a guest conductor who was booked for a series of concerts with the Israel Philharmonic had cancelled at the last minute.

Perhaps the cancellation was due to talk of a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East or a personal emergency, but the orchestra was just three days away from an ambitious series of concerts. “We need you,” the voice from Israel emphasized.

Levi, who was having lunch with a member of Atlanta’s consular corps, agreed to begin preparations immediately. Booking a flight took another couple of days, and when he finally arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, he had only a day-and-a-half to prepare the orchestra for a week of concerts with the Swiss pianist, Francesco Piemontesi.

“The orchestra really took up the challenge,” Levi said. “Over the years, I’ve developed good vibrations, a good relationship. They know what I can do, and what I expect from the performance, and they really responded in a way that was even greater than I had hoped.”

Making music in the shadow of a developing conflict is nothing new for Levi, who was born in Haifa soon after the state of Israel was established.

“I grew up during the 1956 war, the 1967 war, the Yom Kippur war in 1973; even though I made my permanent home in Atlanta, I came back often, even during the tense period in 1991 when Saddam Hussein was threatening Israel with chemical weapons. The Israel Philharmonic used to call me their savior, because every time someone would cancel, they would say, come save us. And, for example, it was a very difficult situation in 1991. I was there four months but, luckily, Israel came through it well.”

A highlight of his stay this time was conducting the Haifa Symphony in the “Symphony No. 11” of Dmitri Shostakovich, also known as, “The Year 1905 Symphony,” which also deals with armed conflict. In this case, it is the Russian uprising against the Czarist government that anticipated the Soviet revolution in 1917 and 1918.

It was composed in 1957, soon after the Hungarian attacks against the Russian occupation of their country. It has often been described as a musical work that honors the spirit of revolt to overcome tyranny. This was the first performance in Israel of the work in almost 70 years. Ironically, it coincided with ongoing protest last month in Iran in which it was said that at least 7,000 Iranians were killed there in the streets.

A review of the performance in Haaretz by the critic Ido Tamari called the performance a great personal triumph for the conductor. Tamari went on to write that Levi’s achievement in conducting the Shostakovich symphony was the very essence of orchestral leadership.

“For over an hour, he conducted Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 entirely from memory, without a score,” Tamari wrote, “eliciting a breathtaking performance from the orchestra. To say he ‘conducted’ would be a dry, banal description; Levi commanded every musical phrase, every nuance, and every shift in mood.”

Despite all of the tension and anxiety in Israel prior to the war with Iran, the concert halls were filled during Levi’s stay in the country. Not only was their presence a testament to the artistry that Levi and his conducting achieved, it was, he believes, part of Israel’s attempt to come to terms with the immense pressures the nation has endured in recent years.

“Music that occurs in the concert hall gives people the chance they can, for a very short time, to relax a little bit, not completely,” Levi says, “but in a way that they can feel and listen to something that makes them happy. You come to a concert hall; you listen to Beethoven or to Brahms or Shostakovich. It doesn’t matter what you hear, the very act of listening makes life easier.”

With all that, Levi was able to enjoy all the accolades and still make the journey home on the last United Airlines flight just hours before Israel and the United States launched their first strikes against Iran.

It was an historic trip, perhaps unlike any he has experienced in recent years; its success has left him with a strong sense of having accomplished something important at an important time in history.

“It was not easy for me, and it is not easy for Israel. But hopefully, this war will change the life of people, everywhere and change it for generations.”