Exactly on the 125th birthday of Paul Ben-Haim, who studied as Paul Frankenburger at the Akademie der Tonkunst (today Hochschule für Musik und Theater) in Munich and worked in Munich and Augsburg until he emigrated to Palestine in 1934, there will again be a celebratory concert in of the music academy.
In accordance with the Jewish birthday wish “Until 120!”, that’s how old Moses was, the Jewish Chamber Orchestra played in Arcisstraße in 2017, now it’s the Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic with the works for string orchestra, the “most distinguished of all instruments” (Ben-Haim) that the ensemble has already excellently recorded for a CD. All of the works were created in the decade after 1945, when the world of Ben-Haim had consolidated again, not least after the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, even if the experience of displacement and exile was not forgotten.
Exceptionally tonal and characterized by baroque forms, Ben-Haim repeatedly takes up Jewish melody. And so the two pieces with a solo voice had the most beautiful and characteristic effect: First, there was Bettina Aust’s magical clarinet and harp in the “Pastorale Variée” (1945) with its alternation of impressionistic colours, rhythmic conciseness and fine dance elements. The other time the preciously timbrated soprano of Cathrin Lange (standing in for Talia Or), which she performed exquisitely in the vocalises of “Three Songs Without Words” in a “tone painting with an oriental mood” (Ben-Haim).
The pure string pieces, on the other hand, were sometimes quite compact in structure and sound, apart from the delicate lamentation of the “Intermezzo lirico” in the “Concerto for Strings” (1947) and the aria and the finale from “Music for Strings” (1956). Here, as if by the way, there was a beautiful duet of the first viola or the solo cello with concertmaster Gabriel Adorján, who also conducted the Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic from the podium.