The Cosmos of Paul Ben-Haim (CPO)
★★★★☆
In case you are on the lookout for uncared for shares in these shaky occasions, you might 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 in all places. This 145-minute compilation beneath evaluation mingles orchestral and chamber music to optimistic impact, prompting this listener at the least to rethink some features 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 title 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 of 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 assorted allusions to the Davidic Psalms, ‘To the Chief Musician’ is an arresting reflection on who’s in control of an orchestra, touching frivolously on Mahler, Bartok, Hindemith and others, simply as Erich Wolfgang Korngold might need executed. It’s nearly a concerto for orchestra, solely extra unique.
This set is filled with fascinating discoveries, made in Germany by the effulgent Staatskapelle Weimar. I cherished 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 an everyday presenter on BBC Radio 3 and a contributor to the Wall Road 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 in opposition to human abuse and acts of injustice within the cultural industries.