She was born in 1941, he in 1989: two generations stand between the legendary pianist Martha Argerich and the young Israeli maestro Lahav Shani — yet when they meet, sparks fly. When they first appeared together in Tel Aviv in 2019, with Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto, the applause seemed endless. Since then, they have made music together regularly: she at the keyboard and he on the podium. Or even in recitals for two pianos, or for four hands in encores — for Shani is himself a pianist of distinction. “When piano and orchestra toss their punchlines back and forth with such brisk, feather-light wit, it recalls the humor of a classic Katharine Hepburn screwball comedy,” wrote the Wiener Standard of their recent performance of Beethoven’s B-flat major Concerto. But there’s just as much anticipation around Shani’s take on Brahms’s ingeniously crafted Fourth Symphony with the Munich Philharmonic, the ensemble he officially takes over only days after his Lucerne appearance. When he performed at Lucerne Festival with his new orchestra last summer, it was immediately clear that these two are a perfect match.
