The Cosmos of Paul Ben-Haim (CPO)
★★★★☆
In case you are searching for uncared for shares in these shaky occasions, you would do worse than sink a pair of ears into the music of Paul Ben-Haim. It appears to be heading for revival. Lahav Shani is recording the symphonies for DG and different works are popping up far and wide. This 145-minute compilation beneath overview mingles orchestral and chamber music to constructive impact, prompting this listener at the very least to rethink some elements of a much-misunderstood composer.
A conducting assistant to Bruno Walter in Munich, Paul Frankenburger fled to Palestine when the Nazis seized energy and altered his identify to son-of-life. He was a real revivalist, excavating misplaced melodies of Sephardic Jews and educating two generations of native composers, amongst them the eminent and profitable Noam Sherriff.
Ben-Haim was extensively thought-about a little bit of a Bartok for his ethnomusicological pursuits however nearer consideration reveals extra of a Korngold, a would-be populist who tempts and teases an viewers with movie quotations and different familiarities. Yizkor, his 1942 ‘poem for violin and orchestra’ is way extra lyrical than its memorial topic suggests, gloriously given wing right here by the violinist Liv Migdal.
Ben-Haim wrote flatteringly properly for stringed devices, much more so for the contralto voice. There’s a quasi-Elgarian ease to the way in which Hagar Sharvit immerses us in Mediterranean songs.
Amongst diversified allusions to the Davidic Psalms, ‘To the Chief Musician’ is an arresting reflection on who’s in control of an orchestra, touching calmly on Mahler, Bartok, Hindemith and others, simply as Erich Wolfgang Korngold might need accomplished. It’s virtually a concerto for orchestra, solely extra unique.
This set is stuffed with fascinating discoveries, made in Germany by the effulgent Staatskapelle Weimar. I beloved just about each minute and suggest it as a sound funding of anybody’s time.
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Norman Lebrecht is among the most widely-read commentators on music, tradition and cultural politics. He’s a daily presenter on BBC Radio 3 and a contributor to the Wall Avenue Journal, Bloomberg, Standpoint, Sinfini and different publications. His weblog, Slipped Disc, is among the many most generally learn cultural websites on-line, breaking unique tales and campaigning towards human abuse and acts of injustice within the cultural industries.