Archives have a Life of their Own — New Discoveries in Ben-Haim’s Legacy

Abstract

While working on my monograph, Ben-Haim, Hayav Vitzirato (“Ben-Haim–His Life and Work” [Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1983]), I conducted several sessions with Paul Ben- Haim (1897-1984). At that time, Ben-Haim was ailing and confined to a wheelchair. He had been hit by a car and seriously injured in 1972, when he visited Munich to receive an honorary diploma from the Mayor of the city. One of my main concerns was to discover the works written in Germany, when he was still known as Paul Frankenburger, before his immigration to Palestine in 1933. Only a handful of these works were known and described by his friend, the publisher Peter E. Gradenwitz, in his popular concert guide, The World of Symphony. The Concerto Grosso and Pan for soprano and orchestra were the only compositions of the German period performed in the Yishuv, but never after the establishment of the State of Israel. Ben-Haim told me that, following his forced emigration from Germany, he decided to open a new chapter in his life, and thus abandoned his earlier compositions.