Yoav Talmi
CONDUCTOR
"Guest conductor Yoav Talmi led the orchestra with assurance, without score for all three works, with forthright phrasing and adamant closing gestures...Talmi demanded full voice as the work came to its exciting, succinct conclusion [Brahms: Serenade No. 1]."
KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY
KANSAS CITY STAR
BIOGRAPHY
Well known on both sides of the Atlantic, Yoav Talmi is celebrated as one of Israel’s most distinguished conductors on the international scene. Conductor Emeritus of the Quebec Symphony in Canada and Head of the Orchestral Conducting Department at Tel Aviv University's BuchmannMehta School of Music, he is in demand worldwide for concerts and master classes in the U.S., Europe, South America, and Israel. In addition to his 13-year tenure as Artistic Director of the Quebec Symphony, he has also held positions as Music Director of the San Diego Symphony, Chief Conductor of the Hamburg Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. Additionally, he was the first Music Director of the New Israeli Opera and Music Director of the renowned Israel Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Talmi’s long and impressive guest conducting career spans several continents. His European engagements include all the major London orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the symphony orchestras of Vienna and Prague, the philharmonic orchestras of St. Petersburg, Oslo, Stockholm, Warsaw, and Israel, l’Orchestre National de France, Zurich’s Tonhalle, Rome’s Santa Cecilia, and numerous radio orchestras in Israel, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland and Sweden. He has also made several appearances with the NHK Symphony and the New Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan. In North America, Mr. Talmi has appeared with the orchestras of Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Madison, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Seattle, St. Louis, Toledo, and Vancouver, as well as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall. His summer activities have included the Aspen Music Festival, Mostly Mozart/Houston, Chautauqua/Buffalo, Casals/Puerto Rico, Bergen/Norway, Helsinki, Jerusalem and the Lanaudière Festival in Montreal. Also a seasoned recording artist, Yoav Talmi has collaborated with Chandos, Decca, EMI, Naxos, Teldec, CBC Records (Toronto), Analekta and Atma Classique (Montreal). His recording of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony with the Oslo Philharmonic won the prestigious “Grand Prix du Disque” in Paris. His last two recordings with the Quebec Symphony of Debussy and Bach orchestrations won the Joker Prize by the Magazine Crescendo in Brussels. His recording of Schoenberg and Tchaikovsky with the Israel Chamber Orchestra for Teldec was chosen as “Record of the Month” by Germany’s Fono-Forum magazine. The London Penguin Guide gave this same recording its highest rating. His recording French Showpieces, with the Quebec Symphony and violinist James Ehnes, was chosen “Record of the Month” by the French media magazine Repertoire, which gave this recording a perfect rating. Mr. Talmi’s Naxos recordings with the San Diego Symphony feature an all-Berlioz cycle that includes the complete overtures, Symphonie fantastique, Roméo et Juliette, Harold in Italy, Rêverie et Caprice, excerpts from Les Troyens, and more. He has also recorded as a pianist, accompanying his wife, flutist Er’ella Talmi. In 2008, Yoav Talmi was awarded the Frank Pelleg Prize of the Israeli Cultural Ministry, for his high level of artistic achievement through many years of activity; in 2013, he received the Israeli Prime Minister’s Prize for Composers. Named “Officer of the National Order of Quebec” in 2009, he was also awarded the “Quebec City Medal,” honoring his special contribution to the city’s 400th Anniversary celebrations. Born in Israel, Mr. Talmi is a graduate of the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv and The Juilliard School in New York, where he earned degrees in both composition and conducting. A recipient of the Koussevitzky Memorial Conducting Prize at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 1969, he also holds an Honorary Doctorate from Laval University in Quebec.
RECORDINGS
Yoav Talmi
PRESS ACCLAIM
KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY
"Guest conductor Yoav Talmi led the orchestra with assurance, without score for all three works, with forthright phrasing and adamant closing gestures ... Talmi demanded full voice as the work came to its exciting, succinct conclusion." [Brahms Serenade No. 1]
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
ISRAEL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
"… In Puccini’s I Crisantemi, transcribed for string orchestra by Yoav Talmi, the ecstasy of the beautiful melodies put the hall on edge. The strings muttered the Andante mesto’s yearning, sad ending in a soothing ritual. Seven minutes in which God was present on the main floor of Bellas Artes."
LA NACION (Costa Rica)
SCOTTISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
“… [Yoav Talmi’s] carefully measured overview appropriately reflected Bruckner’s granite-like structural blocks, but there were remarkable elements of insight and flexibility which, particularly in the concluding slow movement … reached astonishing heights of passion and emotion.”
SCOTSMAN (Glasgow)
MUNICH PHILHARMONIC
“It is not always that the Munich Philharmonic works under a guest conductor with such an animated and disciplined manner, as it did in the last subscription concert. It was immediately evident that the Israeli conductor Yoav Talmi developed a good link with the musicians and induced them with his temperamental, sweeping manner to an impressive achievement.”
MÜNCHNER MERKUR
ISRAEL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
"Silky sonority, perfect intonation, exact and resolute arch strokes in the strings, refinement and richness in the winds section, distinguished the executions of the Israel Chamber Orchestra from the technical aspect. At the same time, on the interpretive side of the performance, conductor Yoav Talmi molded the musical phrases with sensitivity and elegance, while balancing the sections, handling the rhythmic agility and caring for the fluency and unity."
EL UNIVERSO (Ecuador)
ROCHESTER PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
“Haydn’s Symphony No. 96 (The Miracle) and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 … both received breathtaking readings under the baton of guest conductor Yoav Talmi.”
DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE (Rochester, NY)
SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY
“Talmi’s control of the orchestra’s attacks was a blessed refinement in the Mozart [Violin Concerto No. 3, K. 216] and a cause for huzzahs in the Bruckner Symphony No. 4 … this might have been a recording-ready performance …”
SANDIEGO.COM
DISCOGRAPHY
BERLIOZ
Symphonie Fantastique
San Diego Symphony Orchestra
Naxos
BRUCKNER
Symphony No. 9
(completed version by W. Carragan)
Olso Philharmonic
GRAND PRIX DU DISQUE (PARIS)
Chandos Chan
BRUCKNER
Symphony No. 9 in D Minor
(original version)
Olso Philharmonic Orchestra
Chandos Chan
TCHAIKOVSKY
Symphony No. 1 (Winter Dreams)
Piano Concerto No. 1
with André Laplante, piano
Quebec Symphony
Radio-Canada
BERLIOZ
Harold in Italy
Rêverie et caprice
Les Francs-Juges, Ouverture
with Rivka Golani, viola
and Igor Gruppman, violin
San Diego Symphony Orchestra
Naxos
BRUCKNER
Romêo et Juliette, symphonie dramatique, Op. 17 (excerpts)
From “Les Troyens”: Les Troyens à Carthage / Royal Hunt and Storm
San Diego Symphony Orchestra
Naxos
BERLIOZ
Overtures
Benvenuto Cellini, Waverley, Beatrice and Benedict,
King Lear, Rob Roy, Le Corsaire, Roman Carnaval
San Diego Symphony Orchestra
Naxos
RACHMANINOV
The Isles of the Dead, Op. 29
Five Etudes Tableaux (Orch. by Respighi)
Capriccio Bohemian, Op. 12
Vocalise for Orchestra, Op. 34, no 14
San Diego Symphony Orchestra
PRO-ARTE / lntersound CDS
BRAHMS
Orchestral Transcriptions
Sextet No.1 in Bb major, for String Orchestra
Transcribed by Yoav Talmi
Four Serious Songs, for Baritone and Orchestra
Orchestrated by Erich Leinsdorf
Five Hungarian Dances
Orchestrated by Dvorak
with Kevin McMillan, baritone
San Diego Symphony Orchestra
PRO-ARTE / lntersound CDS
GLIERE
Symphony no 3 in B Minor, "Ilya Murometz"
San Diego Symphony Orchestra
PRO-ARTE/Intersound CDS
French Showpieces
Ravel, Debussy, Berlioz, Saint Saens, Chausson, Milhaud, Massene
with James Ehnes, violin
Quebec Symphony
Analekta
Dancing for 100 Years
DVORAK
8 Slavonic Dances
BRAHMS
Hungarian Dances
BARTOK
Rumanian folk Dances
CHAMPAGNE
Danse
For the Centennial of villageoise Dompierre - Les Diableries
Quebec Symphony
Analekta
Cities CONCERTOS
MATHIEU
Concerto de Quebec
ADDINSELL
GERSHWIN
Piano Concerto in F
with Alain Lefevre, pianist
Quebec Symphony
Analekta
Live from Carnegie Hall
GRIEG
Piano Concerto Op. 16 in A Minor
with Dudley Moore, piano
Orchestra of St-Luke's
EMI
TCHAIKOVSKY
Souvenir de Florence
Transcribed by Yoav Talmi
SCHOENBERG
Verklatre Nacht ("Transfigured Night"]
Israel Chamber Orchestra
Teldec
Romantic Music for Strings
BLOCH
Concerto Grosso No.1
PUCCINI
Crisantemi
Transcribed for String Orchestra by Yoav Talmi
GRJEG
Holberg Suite, Op. 4
BARBER
Adagio for Strings
Israel Chamber Orchestra
Chandos Chan
MAHLER
Blumine / Ruckertlieder
BRAHMS
Choral-Preludes, Op. posth. 122
Orch. by E. Leinsdort
Four Serious Song
Orch. by E. Leinsdort
with Jard van Nes, Mezzo-Soprano
and Robert Holl, bass
Arnhem Philharmonic, Netherlands
Ottavo
NORD HElM
Magma
Tenebrae
with Truls Mork, cello Oslo Philharmonic
Aurora ACD
Israeli Contemporary Music
A VNI
Two Psalms
HAJDU
Of Light and Depth
AMIR
Music for Strings
GILBOA
Three Lyric Pieces in Mediterranean Style
Israel Chamber Orchestra
MII
Horn Concertos
C. STAMITZ
Horn Concerto in E Major
Michael HAYDN
Concertino for Horn
TEYBER
Horn Concerto
Leopold MOZART
Horn Concerto
with Hermann Baumann, Horn
Philharmonia Hungarica
Telefunken
Trombone & Horn
ADBRECHTSBERGER
Concerto for Alto-Trombone
W AGENSEIL
Concerto for Alto-Trombone
M. HAYDN
Adagio & Allegro .molto .r°r Horn & Alto-Trombone
with Hermann Baumann, horn
and Armrn Rosrn, trombone
Philharmonia Hungarica
Telefunken
SIBELIUS
Karelia Suite, Op. 11
Violin Concerto
with Patrice Fontanarosa, violin
Orchestre National de France
DECCA
WEBER
Clarinet Concerto no 1 in FMinor
Concertino for Clarinet in Eb Major
ROSSINI
Introduction, Theme & Variations for Clarinet & Orchestra
with Guy Deplus, clarinet
Orchestre National de Lille
DECCA
Sonatas & Sonatinas for Flute & Piano
SCHUBERT
Sonata in A Minor, "Arpeggione"
MOZART
Sonata in E Minor, K. 304
DVORAK
Sonatina in GMajor, Op. 100
SCHUBERT
Sonatina in D Major, D.384
Transcribed for Flute & Piano by Yoav Talmi
with Er'ella Talmi, flute
Fine Art Collection
Virtuoso Flute
SCHUMANN
Three Romances, Op. 94
DONIZETTI
Sonata for Flute and Piano
KUHLAU
Scherzo in A Minor, Op. 85
CHOPIN
Variations on a Theme
MOZART
Sonata No.6, K. V. 15 in B flat Major
with Er'ella Talmi, flute
Fine Art Collection
