1998 disc on the ASV label of three 20th century violin
concertos from Israel, in different styles. Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1983) is
my favorite Israeli composer, by a long shot. He wrote in a romantic
style that ignored the academic trends of modernism and instead
resembled Howard Hanson crossed with Zoltan Kodaly: melody-driven,
chromatic, and eminently listenable. Noam Sheriff's is a programmatic
depiction of the Jewish Diaspora; as such it's highly emotional, and
written in a language that gets fairly modern in places, swinging from
late-19th-century to post-Bergian. Oded Zehavi's 1998 Concerto is
polystylist, mixing a lot of traditional Israeli modal writing with (in
the first movement) lots of angry atonal outbursts. it gets a lot
sunnier in the latter two movements. Michael Guttman is the soloist,
with the London Philharmonic Orchestra led by David Shallon.
From the Gramophone review:
An enterprising triptych, spanning three generations. Born Paul Frankenburger in Munich, Paul Ben Haim (1895-1984) was an assistant to both Knappertsbusch and Walter before the rise of the Nazis forced him to relocate to Palestine in 1933. His Violin Concerto (written for Zvi Zeitlin in 1960) is a consummately crafted, richly communicative outpouring, whose lively, rather Hindemithian outer movements frame a central Andante affettuoso of rapt beauty. Anyone who has ever responded to Bloch's masterly Violin Concerto or Schelomo should certainly lend it an ear, especially in as committed and sensitive a rendering as the present one. True, Michael Guttman may not quite match Itzhak Perlman in terms of absolute technical security, but EMI's live 1990 Mann auditorium taping now sounds uncomfortably pinched and lacking in bloom next to Tony Faulkner's glowingly natural sound picture for ASV. A pupil of Ben Haim and Boris Blacher, Noam Sheriff (b.1935) is one of Israel's most distinguished pedagogues and composers. Begun in 1983, his Violin Concerto was completed in 1986 and premiered that same year by dedicatee Michael Guttman. ASV's excellent annotator Malcolm Miller writes of Sheriff's "Modernist synthesis of East and West, in which the rich blend of oriental and Eastern- European Jewish features combine with the harmonic richness of Berg, Strauss and Stravinsky", a description which certainly applies to this particular piece. Though it draws strongly on cantorial influences (the finale's main idea is, Miller tells us, taken from "a traditional oriental Sephardi setting of the 'Kol Nidre' prayer of the 'Day of Atonement'"), the concerto also displays a fine sense of proportion and exquisite craft, while Sheriff's richly textured, yet luminous scoring offers plenty to beguile the ear. Certainly, the LPO sound as though they enjoyed the experience. That just leaves the Violin Concerto by Oded Zehavi (b.1961), commissioned earlier this year by Guttman. Zehavi studied with George Crumb in the United States and has also served as composer-in-residence to both the Haifa SO and Israel CO. Even more than Sheriff, Zehavi delights in stylistic unpredictability. So we find that, after the tolling Angst of the opening Andante ma non tanto, the second movement "Lullaby" acts as a perfect foil, the soloist's memorably tender and serene A minor cantilena penned immediately following the birth of Zehavi's daughter. The work concludes succinctly with a colourful snapshot of "an oriental wedding with visitors from central Europe" (to quote the composer). Another terrific performance rounds off an impressive issue. --Andrew Achenbach
Disc, booklet, and case are in mint condition.
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