Bloch & Ben-Haim: Violin Suites

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Both composers are served extremely well on this beautifully recorded disc, Hagai Shaham and Arnon Erez in particular giving a totally convincing performance of Bloch's well-known Baal Shem.... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2007, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 29th Jan 2007
Catalogue No: CDA67571
Label: Hyperion
Length: 74 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

March 2007

Chamber Choice

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Bloch, E: Baal Shem

Work length14:28

$3.00

$3.75

Hagai Shaham (violin), Arnon Erez (piano)

I. Vidui

Track length3:11

$1.00

$1.25

II. Nigun

Track length6:30

$1.00

$1.25

III. Simchas Torah

Track length4:47

$1.00

$1.25

Bloch, E: Suite Hébraïque

Work length11:34

$3.00

$3.75

Hagai Shaham (violin), Arnon Erez (piano)

I. Rapsodie

Track length5:51

$1.00

$1.25

II. Processional

Track length2:10

$1.00

$1.25

III. Affirmation

Track length3:33

$1.00

$1.25

Bloch, E: Suite for solo violin No. 1

Work length11:07

$4.00

$5.00

Hagai Shaham (violin)

I. Prelude

Track length2:43

$1.00

$1.25

II. Andante tranquillo

Track length2:56

$1.00

$1.25

III. Allegro – Andante

Track length2:46

$1.00

$1.25

IV. Allegro energico

Track length2:42

$1.00

$1.25

Bloch, E: Suite for solo violin No. 2

Work length11:17

$4.00

$5.00

Hagai Shaham (violin)

I. Energico, deciso

Track length2:52

$1.00

$1.25

II. Moderato

Track length2:26

$1.00

$1.25

III. Andante

Track length3:03

$1.00

$1.25

IV. Allegro molto

Track length2:56

$1.00

$1.25

Ben-Haim: Sonata for solo violin in G, Op 44

Work length14:33

$3.00

$3.75

Hagai Shaham (violin)

I. Allegro energico

Track length5:43

$1.00

$1.25

II. Lento e sotto voce

Track length5:01

$1.00

$1.25

III. Molto allegro

Track length3:49

$1.00

$1.25

Ben-Haim: Berceuse Sfaradite

Work length3:23

$1.00

$1.25

Hagai Shaham (violin), Arnon Erez (piano)

Ben-Haim: Improvisation and Dance, Op. 30

Work length7:50

$1.50

$1.85

Hagai Shaham (violin), Arnon Erez (piano)

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Mix Bartok, Debussy and a dash of Lisztian bravado and youll get something very close to Blochs folksong-inflected, post-Romantic sound-world. Intoxicating performances guaranteed to set the pulse racing is what BBC Music Magazine said in its review of Hagai Shahams first disc of Blochs music for violin and piano on CDA67439. With this new release Hagai completes his survey and adds further delights such as Blochs suites for solo violin and music by Israeli-born composer, Paul Ben-Ham. The Baal Shem Suite, composed in 1923, is unmistakably Bloch, and is his best-known work for violin and piano. It was inspired by Israel Baal Shem Tov, the eighteenth-century founder of modern Hassidism, a mystical movement that arose in Eastern Europe as a reaction against traditional Jewish Orthodoxy, and which placed great emphasis upon song, dance and ecstasy as channels for direct communication with God. Bloch recreates the feeling of ecstatic religious chanting and spiritual intensity with his use of deeply emotional Jewish-tinged melodies, gutsy rhythms and powerful dynamics. Its second movement, Nigun, is in itself a self-standing solo work: a popular choice in standard violin repertoire and with Grade 8 students. As the centrepiece of this disc we have Blochs suites for solo violin. Commissioned byand dedicated toYehudi Menuhin, these short works are latter-day Bach Partitas and elaborate exercises in contrapuntal technique: full of passion, virtuosity and rhythmic dynamism. Paul Ben-Hams most popular work recorded here is the beautiful lullaby Berceuse sfaradite; the violins sensuous lilting melody is repeated in different registers and you can almost picture a balmy Eastern Mediterranean evening. Hagai Shahams thrilling virtuosity and lustrous tone are perfectly suited to these vibrant and passionate works.

Reviews

March 2007

Both composers are served extremely well on this beautifully recorded disc, Hagai Shaham and Arnon Erez in particular giving a totally convincing performance of Bloch's well-known Baal Shem. Although on the evidence of this disc Ben-Haïm emerges as a less individual creative force than Bloch, the concluding Improvisation and Dance, brilliantly dispatched by both artists, would perhaps make a welcome alternative to Ravel's much-played Tzigane.

2010

Bloch's two unaccompanied suites date from 1958, the year before his death; they combine a chromatic idiom with a strong sense of tonality.
Occasionally the music seems to lack individuality – the third movement of the First Suite is almost like pastiche Bach and its final cadence is academically predictable – but more often one's attention is caught and held by the expressive melodic writing and, in both suites, by a compelling sense of continuity. Shaham revels in Bloch's demanding yet imaginatively idiomatic violin writing. In the solo suites, as well as the more extravagantly emotional pieces with piano on Jewish themes, he enters wholeheartedly into the feeling of the music yet retains a measure of balance and restraint – the vibrato isn't exaggerated and a feeling of rhapsodic freedom is achieved without sacrificing natural flow.
Bloch's popularity has waned somewhat in recent decades, and the Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim (1897–1984) is even more poorly represented in the CD catalogue. His Solo Sonata, written for Yehudi Menuhin, is, however, a masterly work, not at all original in form and idiom, perhaps, but full of memorable ideas.
Shaham's playing of the central Lento e sotto voce is stunningly beautiful. And the Improvisationand Dance, a folk-style showpiece after the manner of the Bartók rhapsodies, inspires both Shaham and Erez to brilliant feats of virtuosity.

Hagai Shaham possesses the ideal kind of silver-toned, narrow-vibratoed purity to make these occasionally melodramatic pieces ring true. Rather than fall back on a well-upholstered, opulent sound, he streamlines his tone, adding a special kind of intensity to Bloch’s soaring climaxes. Shaham strikes just the right balance between interpretative cool and swashbuckling bravado in Baal Shem … the recording is excellent throughout’

Bloch & Ben-Haim: Violin Suites

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