Bloch/Ben-Haïm - Violin Music - Shaham, Hagai (violin)

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‘Mix Bartók, Debussy and a dash of Lisztian bravado and you’ll get something very close to Bloch’s 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 Shaham’s first disc of Bloch’s music for violin and piano on CDA67439. With this new release
Hagai completes his survey and adds further delights such as Bloch’s suites for solo violin and music by Israeli-born
composer, Paul Ben-Haïm.

The Baal Shem Suite, composed in 1923, is unmistakably Bloch, and one of his best-known works 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 Bloch’s suites for solo violin. Commissioned by—and dedicated to—Yehudi
Menuhin, these short works are latter-day Bach Partitas and elaborate exercises in contrapuntal technique: full of
passion, virtuosity and rhythmic dynamism.

Paul Ben-Haïm’s most popular work recorded here is the beautiful lullaby Berceuse sfaradite; the violin’s sensuous lilting
melody is repeated in different registers and you can almost picture a balmy Eastern Mediterranean evening.

Hagai Shaham’s thrilling virtuosity and lustrous tone are perfectly suited to these vibrant and passionate works.
Hagai Shaham, violin
Arnon Erez, piano
ERNEST BLOCH
Baal Shem Suite
Three Pictures of Chassidic Life
1 Vidui
2 Nigun
3 Simchas Torah

Suite hébraïque
4 Rapsodie
5 Processional
6 Affirmation

Suite No 1 for solo violin
7 Prelude
8 Andante tranquillo
9 Allegro – Andante
10 Allegro energico

Suite No 2 for solo violin
11 Energico, deciso
12 Moderato
13 Andante
14 Allegro molto

PAUL BEN-HAÏM
Sonata in G minor for solo violin Op 44
15 Allegro energico
16 Lento e sotto voce
17 Molto allegro

18 Berceuse sfaradite
19 Improvisation and Dance Op 30