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CD: Paul Ben-Haim KABBALAT SHABBAT 15€
Paul Ben-Haim was born in Munich and worked at the Bavarian State Opera as assistant to Bruno Walter and Hans Knappertsbusch. In the 30s he experienced the increasingly antisemitic politics: he lost his job, had to flee from the nazis and emigrated to Palestine. His work was only rediscovered in the past years.
On this CD Daniel Grossmann and the JCOM present compositions from Ben-Haims years in Israel: the “Sonata in G”, written for Yehudi Menuhin, the oriental “Songs without words”, the psalm-setting “Machet die Tore weit” (Let your heads be lifted up), and as the main work, Ben-Haims “Kabbalat Shabbat”.
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CD: John Cage SEVEN - QUARTETS I-VIII 15€
“John Cages ‘Quartets I-VIII’ is one of the most extraordinary and most refined pieces of orchestral music I know. It was composed for the 200 year anniversary ot the USA. Cage uses eight traditional Americal chorals converting them into something completely new using the Chinese I Ging. The main idea is to let only four instruments play at once. New groups form new quartets constantly and the instrumentation changes all the time.
‘Seven’ is a work with completely different characteristics: it is an improvisation for seven musicians. The piece is exactly 20 minutes long and is played according to a time clock. Each measure has its designated timeframe, however, the musicians are free to decide when to start the measure and when to finish. Interestingly the main character of the piece does not change, and the music does not become arbitrary within the frame Cage gives, even though every performance is different. This uniqueness of each performance is one of the central principles of John Cage – only through this he felt his music to be alive.” (Daniel Grossmann)
