Mr. Le Van's recordings of Brahms and Scriabin have commanded widespread critical attention. His readings of Brahms' Sonatas no.1 & no.3 for Gallo Records drew international acclaim, while his survey of Liszt's chamber music, with cellist Guido Schiefen for Arte Nova (BMG), earned Neue Musik Zeitung's coveted award for Best Chamber Music Disc of the Year in 2000.

Likewise, his recent release of the complete Scriabin Mazurkas, also for Music & Arts, has astonished critics. Fanfare magazine, citing "artistry of the highest order", described Mr. Le Van as " uncannily sensitive to Scriabin's nuances of phrase and harmonic subtleties." In both the St Petersburg Times and Clavier, critic and Scriabin authority John Bell Young called him "a Scriabinist to the manner born," adding that "more vivid, imaginative music making than this would be hard to find, no matter what the repertoire."

In the last decade, Eric Le Van has performed as both soloist and chamber musician throughout North America and Europe. His recitals and concerto engagements have taken him to Paris, Berlin, Munich, London, Bern, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. In 2002, both the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress presented him in recital in Washington, D.C. He has participated in major music festivals, including Fêtes Romantiques in Nohant, the Bayreuth Festival, the Mettlach Festival, the Franz Liszt Festival in Weimar, the Bach Festival in Boulder, and the Beethoven Festival in Bonn.

He has performed, too, at the Darmstadt Theater, at the prestigious Salle Cortot in Paris, and at Debussy's home, now a museum in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Additionally, he has played for the Athenaeum Concert Series in San Diego; for the Principia Artist Series in Illinois; for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center; and for the Sundays Live Program in Los Angeles.

Recent concerto engagements have included appearances with the Weimar Staatskapelle, the Sudwestdeutsches Kammerorchester, the Orchestre Symphonique de Nancy, the European Philharmonic, the Liepaja Symphony, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse.

Long a familiar artist on radio and television, Eric Le Van is a frequent guest on KMZT-Los Angeles, KKHI-San Francisco, Radio France, France Musique, DRS2-Bern, Bayerischer Rundfunk, and WDR3-Cologne. On television he has been a featured performer on France-3, Sudwest and 3 SAT Europe.

Mr. Le Van is also a keen archivist of unusual repertoire. In a new recording for the Tudor label he re-introduces the neglected music of the once celebrated 19th century composer, Joachim Raff. Joined by violinist Michaela Paetsch, his readings of Raff's Sonatillen and Six Morceaux de Salon were praised by the distinguished broadcaster, composer, and former host of ABC's 20/20, Hugh Downs, "I am impressed! I enjoyed Raff's compositions, the composer's style as well as the skill and sensitivity of Le Van."

Born in Los Angeles, Mr. Le Van made his debut there at age sixteen in a program of Brahms, a composer with whom he has a special affinity. After studies at the University of Southern California, he entered the master class of Rudolf Buchbinder in Basel, Switzerland. Shortly thereafter he won a Fulbright scholarship to continue his training with Professor Karl-Heinz Kämmerling in Hanover. For several years he lived in France, where he was Artistic Director of the International Franz Liszt Festival. His forthcoming CD, for Gallo, is devoted once again to the music of Brahms, and includes the Sonata No.2, the Ballades and Scherzo.

Recordings

Johannes BRAHMS

Sonates No.1 & No.3.
Gallo CD-946
 

Franz LISZT

Complete Works for Cello and Piano. Guido Schiefen, cello.
Arte Nova 74321 76809 2
 

Joseph Joachim RAFF

Sonatillen for violin and piano op. 99 & 6 Morceaux for violin and piano op.85. Michaela Paetsch, violin.
Tudor 7109
 

Franz LISZT

Complete Works for Cello and Piano. Guido Schiefen, cello.
Oehms Classics OC 246
 

Alexander SCRIABIN

Complete Mazurkas.
Music & Arts CD-1125

Reviews

BRAHMS CD:

Bernard Jacobson in FANFARE MAGAZINE :

Both sonatas are played with massive conviction matched where appropriate by lyrical fancy, and they are realized in a sonority of enormous range and thrilling ring. ... Profound understanding ... a sovereign technical facility ... excitement and momentum are irresistible. ... In direct comparison, good as Biret (Naxos) is, I find Le Van even better ... And Le Van's own highly intelligent booklet notes add the final touch of quality to a production that is admirable in every respect. "
 

John Bell Young in THE AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE :

Mr. Le Van is a major Brahms interpreter ... he plays one of the most affecting, subtly inflected readings of the andante espressivo on record ... The brief biography that introduces us to him says nothing about international piano competitions; evidently this is not the route he took to pursue his career. And yet he plays circles around most contest winners ... he does precisely what Cliburn Competition winner Jon Nakamatsu could not in his debut recording ... not since Walter Klien have I heard a more convincing reading. "
 

LE MONDE DE LA MUSIQUE (Paris):

"His generous lyricism and sincerity of expression render all the wealth of youthful vigour to Brahms' universe. "
 

GLADYS N. KRENEK, wife of the composer:

"I was quite overwhelmed, to say the least, with the vitality which you brought to light in your interpretation of these works. "
 

REPERTOIRE (Paris):

"Rarely have I heard such varied and lively Brahms sonatas ... Richter does no better, Katchen is too harsh ... Biret too nervous. "
 

LA REVUE DE LA SUISSE ROMANDE (Switzerland) :

" ... superb virtuoso playing, eloquent warmth, beautiful tone, masterly elan and lyricism ... an artist of the greatest distinction. "
 

PIZZICATO (Luxembourg):

"A very personal interpretation ... I am in admiration before his inspiration, his persuasive force, his interpretative depth. Sheer emotion!
 

MUSICA E DISCHI (Italy) :

"Extraordinary technique and touch. A Brahms not at all on the beaten path ... recorded from within. "
 

LISZT CD:

Donald Vroon in THE AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE :

" ... the pianist here is better than on any chamber music of these pieces. So is the sound. (...) Miklos Perenyi is a fine cellist, but La lugubre gondola is much better here. If you love the cello you may want these 51 minutes... "
 

Adrian Corleonis in FANFARE MAGAZINE :

" These transcriptions yield so much pleasure--no less in the effusive Petrarch Sonnet 123 than in the second version of the oracular La Lugubre gondola (...). Indeed, the recitativo declamation with which the latter begins and ends, taken by the cello with almost vocal eloquence, strikes just the right de profundis tone too often missed by pianists (...). The nostalgia of the Elegies and the Romance oubliee, too, are more richly rife, suavely edged in the cello's mellifluous croon. And the Consolations (...), swarm with riper rapture. Without the consummate artistry and hand-in-glove collaboration heard here, of course, these transcriptions would be merely another interesting novelty dredged from Liszt's sprawling, labyrinthine catalog--Schiefen and Le Van have give us performances to live with and thereby made a significant contribution to the Liszt discography. And the use of the unique, mellow, 1873 Bayreuth Steingraeber piano, said to have been played by Liszt himself, confects a final elegance. Transparently immediate sound. Fine annotations by Le Van. Superbly realized. And enthusiastically recommended. "
 

CRESCENDO Magazine (Munich, Germany) :

" An astounding and immaculate interpretation… Highly recommended. "
 

RAFF CD:

Media celebrity , composer and Former Host of ABC-TV's 20/20, HUGH DOWNS :

"I am impressed with Eric Le Van... I enjoyed these Raff compositions, the composer's style as well as the skill and sensitivity of Le Van."
 

Mark Thomas from the JOACHIM RAFF SOCIETY (London):

" If you plan to buy only one Raff recording this year, then this is the one… moments of ravishing beauty and tender introspection alternate with episodes of wry wit and quick excitement… a model of its kind... Recommended without any misgivings.
"Michaela Paetsch Neftel and Eric Le Van have already treated us to scintillating performances of these delightful miniatures in their pioneering Tudor issue [review]. There is little to choose between the two performances [Tudor and CPO], although the Tudor duo do seem more relaxed and better convey the works' charm, perhaps because Turban has a rather cooler tone than Neftel…"
 

PIZZICATO (Luxembourg):

" …An excellent recording… brilliant and exuberant! "

SCRIABIN CD:

Peter J. Rabinowitz in FANFARE

" This is Scriabin on an exalted plane - and it makes even the very fine collections by Deyanova and Long (not to mention the bland contribution by Fergus-Thompson) seem run-of-the-mill.
Granted, Le Van’s are provocative readings. In his excellent program notes, the pianist points to Scriabin’s own rhythmic freedom, as well as to that of such favored interpreters as Goldenweiser and Feinberg - and he mirrors that flexibility in his own playing, which changes tempo to a degree rarely heard today. (…) [Yet] he’s got such a sure sense of the ebb and flow of Scriabin’s phrasing (what Bernard Jacobson called a " pervasive control of tension and release ") that even when the barlines seem to have dissolved completely, the playing sounds neither mannered nor static nor eccentric.
Besides its rhythmic imagination, Le Van’s playing has a number of less controversial qualities too : a singing legato, an exceptional sensitivity to harmonic nuance (try op.3/9), an exquisite sense of the weight of secondary voices (especially valuable in the more intricate works of op.25 and op.40), and a delicate sense of color (try the roiling darkness in the closing episodes of the A sections of op.3/5 or the sunny ecstasy of op.25/4). Then, too, he has a superb identification with Scriabin’s quirky idiom : whether in the fractured phrasing that begins op.25/1 or the stutters that dot op.40/1, Le Van manages to convey the music’s strangeness without sounding awkward himself – a rarer quality than you might think, considering the increasing number of Scriabin recordings in the catalog.
Strongest recommendation
 

David Mulbury in THE AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE :

" Each year I review two or three releases that might be models for producers of CDs to emulate. This is one. Only positive criticism can be applied here.
LeVan's pianism is quite mesmerizing. It has everything: sensitive, expressive tone, shading, superb finish, and faultless taste and style. He projects very well the elusive spell of these 21 Mazurkas (Collected in three opus numbers).
The recording itself has everything, too - clarity, resonance, balance - and the notes by the artist are as interesting and informative as one could wish.
The listener should not expect Polish mazurkas in the style of Chopin or even Szymanowski. These pieces have an eroticism and exoticism all their own, and those characteristics become more pronounced as the series progresses."
 

John Bell Young in the ST PETERSBURG TIMES; CLAVIER; and MUSIC & VISION:

"In Eric Le Van, one of the most masterful interpreters of Scriabin to come along in decades, both the mazurka as well as the composer has an ideal protagonist. Indeed, Mr. Le Van, whose earlier recordings of Brahms sonatas were also impressive, is a Scriabinist to the manner born. His playing is always elegant, meticulously adjudicated, and discreetly inflected. Yet expressive intensity is neither compromised nor bogged down by Mr. Le Van's interpretive specificity. The sheer wealth of detail in these readings would be enough all by itself to recommend this disc, but Mr. Le Van goes even further, looking behind the notes to disclose the individual character of each work.
Mr. Le Van is not an artist to make a meal of any expressive gesture. On the contrary, he sees no need to indulge for mere effect the gentle melancholy and troubled wanderlust of these works. Instead, his approach is poetic. He gives pause to the underlying suggestiveness of Scriabin's fragmented, elusive rhythms and metrical crosscurrents.
… Mr. Le Van, like Samuel Feinberg long before him, grasps Scriabin's language as much as his compositional agenda, and particularly the role that silence plays in the music. It is precisely silence, and the many brief rests in the mazurkas … that propel a motive or phrase along and ahead, often setting an idea in a kind of frame. Such attention to detail, without making of it a fetish, is what sets Mr. Le Van apart from other pianists. But he goes beyond that, too: what he ultimately invests in these magnificent miniatures is a certain joy in playing them. And yet, in spite of all the critical aforethought that clearly informs his readings, he manages to avoid any hint of anticipating what's just around the next musical corner. Like a great actor who makes his lines seem new and natural, every note, in Mr. Le Van's capable hands, seems freshly invented. More vivid, imaginative music making than this would be hard to find, no matter what the repertoire."
 

Donald Satz on CLASSICAL NET :

" The tension Le Van applies is exceptional in every one of the 21 Mazurkas. In addition to making his performances more compelling, the consistent urgency of his readings renders the emotional outbursts natural and logical… His elasticity is hughly fluid with a great sense of Scriabin's long musical lines and structural coherence. Particularly effective is Le Van's horizontal elasticity, but the vertical lines also stream upward enticingly… he displays a fine degree of changes and also well handles the sudden nature of Scriabin's ever-changing natural landscapes… Le Van recognizes that melancholy is a pervasive element in Scriabin's music and conveys it with incisiveness and beauty. The highly melancholic pieces such as Op.3/3 and 3/5 are heart-stoppers in Le Van's hands… Add in a superb soundstage of clarity, depth, and richness, and we have one of the most successful Scriabin piano recordings in the past few years. "
 

Jerry Dubins in FANFARE MAGAZINE :

" Recently returned to the US..., Los Angeles-born pianist Eric Le Van was profiled in a feature article by Bernard Jacobson in Fanfare 25:3. Two years earlier, Jacobson reviewed Le Van's Gallo recording of the Brahms First and Third Sonatas, stating that Le Van displays not only "a keen enthusiasm for the music but a profound understanding of it." It was the absence of that profound understanding that left me feeling so disappointed in my review of Evgeny Kissin's recent Brahms recital (Fanfare 27:3).
... Since Bernard Jacobson already weighed in on the Brahms, I am not going to re-review it, other than say that I have listened to it and that I concur fully with Jacobson's very positive conclusions. If you are in the market for a recording of the First and Third Brahms Sonatas, I can recommend Eric Le Van's on the Gallo label (946) without reservations.
... Eric Le Van has steadily made a name for himself, concertizing widely, both as a soloist and chamber musician in Paris, London, Berlin, and Munich, and here in the States in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Recent appearances have included performances at the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center in Wahington DC. He is also well known to radio and television audiences here and abroad. Le Van's playing on this disc is uncannily sensitive to Scriabin's nuances of phrase and harmonic subtleties. This is artistry of the highest order. Moreover, the Music & Arts recording provides a warm and rich acoustic for Le Van's piano. A really fine and welcome release, Strongly recommended."
 

Bryce Morrison in GRAMOPHONE (June 2004):

"The feverish world of Scriabin needs a brillant pianist: it has one in Eric Le Van.
... Eric Le Van gives us youthful, ardent and communicative performances of Scriabin's Mazurkas. Music to 'tease us out of thought' ... The challenge for the pianist is exceptional and Eric Le Van, following the descriptions he quotes of Scriabin's own performance style - 'feverish, sumptuous, ethereal' - spins off an extraordinary sequence in a haunting and improvisatory manner, his rubato suggesting Scriabin's volatile and pent-up nature... And whether in the violent interjections of No.10, the melancholy withdrawal of No.13 or the surprising, starry resolution of so much darkness in No.21, he makes it clear that his recording was a labour of love... these finely recorded readings are magically fleet and affectionate."

Contact details and further information

Eric Le Van is a client of Identity Marketing for Concert Artists, Inc. a consultant to classical musicians.