Paul Ben-Haim - Piano Quartet, Op. 4

[@ronaldbwoodall2628]

How is it that works worthy of frequent performances such as this remain virtually unknown? I suppose it's because there are so many of them. I'm glad that I could get acquainted with this one; it is "feel-good" music, and possesses a certain Mozartean elegance. The piano writing is especially felicitous (although somewhat too prominent at times), and the jolly, dance-like finale is quite cheerful, crowning an altogether satisfying work.

[@fstover5208]

No, not that there are so many works like this; more like 90% of the planet has no interest in classical music. Of the remaining 10%, most of these are listeners, not musicians. So the remaining 0.1% (or so) of classically trained musicians has barely enough time to get through the warhorses. Great piece, however.

[@robertzorowitz5060]

This work is not well known, because it was “discovered” in Ben-Haim’s archive in the Israel National Library and published only about 10 years ago. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only commercial recording of the piece,which was composed in 1920 when Ben-Haim was known by his birth name, Paul Frankenberger. He fled the Third Reich in the early 1930s, settled in Israel and essentially disavowed his works prior to that. He subsequently absorbed the musical sounds of the Mideast and developed a style of music very different than his earlier Germanic works. As it says in the liner notes to this recording, “Until the ARC Ensemble performed the work in late 2012, it had not been played since a broadcast in July 1932. It is difficult to fathom how a substantial work by Israel’s most celebrated composer should have remained unknown for over 80 years.”