What do you think about Paul Ben-Haims Violin Concerto?

[Toni Bernet]

Paul Ben-Haim, born Paul Frankenburger in Munich, was an artist caught between two worlds. He made his first career as a conductor in Germany (as assistant to Bruno Walter and Hans Knappertsbusch, among others), eventually becoming first Kapellmeister at the Augsburg theatre, where he was dismissed as a Jew in 1931. He became unemployed. And so he moved to Palestine, where he developed as a pianist, conductor and composer. After the Second World War, his music was not experimental enough for some, not Jewish or Arab enough for others. In Israel, he changed his name from Paul Frankenburger to Paul Ben-Haim (son of Haim). Haim is reminiscent of his father Heinrich and also means life in Hebrew.

 In 1960, he composed his violin concerto in the "Mediterranean style", traditionally shaped but with some references to Middle Eastern and Jewish elements. At the time, Ben-Haim was one of Israel's most important composers and increasingly attracted international attention. The critic of the San Francisco Cronicle wrote at the American premiere of the Violin Concerto in 1962: "It is wonderfully written for the violin as a lyric and virtuoso instrument; it weaves the solo line in and out of a symphonic whole with masterly effect; and it uses a few Orientalisms with the utmost tact and elegance."

Today, in view of the warlike excesses of violence in Israel and Palestine, Ben-Haim's 22-minute violin concerto can only make people dream of a Jewish-Arab synthesis in culture and life.

Here you will find a listener-guide of Ben-Haims Violin Concerto:
https://unbekannte-violinkonzerte.jimdofree.com/e-4/ben-haim/

[vandermolen]

I like it very much and have at least two recordings of it. I often find his music to be spiritually moving - rather like the music of Bloch.