Paul Ben-Haim: Concerto for String Orchestra - Lahav Shani, conductor

Curator: Assaf Shelleg
Ben-Haim wrote his Concerto for String Orchestra for the Palestine Broadcast Service, which commissioned the work from the composer to mark his fiftieth birthday. If in the second movement of the Concerto one hears Ben-Haim’s exotic imagination (which his students, Avni and Sheriff, intensified to the point of distortion in their early works), the rest of the concerto features scattered quotations from his 1933 Oratorio Joram, which Ben-Haim composed in Germany, prior to his immigration.
Yet very few, if any, knew this, since the Oratorio was performed in Israel only in 1979. Moreover, Ben-Haim’s decision not to mention this fact in the score seems to be rather typical: he was too often hailed as the national composer, while he himself was avert to all expressions of nationalism ever since he served in the Anti-Aircraft Corps of the German army during the First World War. Ben-Haim, however, was favorably receptive of the manner by which the Bible had been read as a national Midrash in Hebrew culture, and had even set several biblical texts in such spirit, but nationalism was never an artistic criterion for him, while he always maintained a studied distance from ideological discussions on music.
Nationalism, one should remember, led to Ben-Haim’s forced emigration from Germany, the same Germany for which he fought in the First World War. Despite that, Ben-Haim perceived his emigration to British Palestine as temporary, and only when return to the ruins of Europe was no longer an option, did nostalgia fill the place he had once called home.
Text: Assaf Shelleg
0:00 I. Preambolo
4:41 II. Capriccio
9:28 III. Intermezzo Lirico
13:50 IV. Finale
First Violin:
Ilya Konovalov, Eleonora Lutsky, Polina Yehudin, Sharon Cohen, Yelena Tishin, Sivann Maayani
Second Violin:
Yevgenia Pikovsky, Amnon Valk, Olga Stern, Maria Rosenblatt
Viola:
Dmitry Ratush, Yoni Gertner, Evgenia Oren, Lotem Beider Ben Aharon
Cello:
Haran Meltzer, Dmitri Golderman, Gal Nyska
Bass:
Noam Massarik, Brad Annis
/ israel_philharmonic
/ israel.philharmonic
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Video Director: Yoel Culiner
Director of Photography: Dror Heller
Sound: Rafi Eshel, Yaron Aldema - Eshel Sound Studios
Creative Director: Elizabeth Culiner
Light Designer: Dani Rogovin
Production: Liz Fisher
Animation: Gavriel Izaky
#ArtMusicInIsrael #Bows #PaulBenHaim

[@ericdevaughn5941]

The last movement is not such a far cry from David Diamond Rounds for String Orchestra. This is a great Concerto for Strings. I love this live performance. Impeccable. Great Great Great ¡!!!!!