Compelling interpretations show a composer at his best
The Strad Issue: December 2025
Description: Compelling interpretations show a composer at his best
Musicians: Ofer Canetti (cello) Andrei Gologan (piano) Württemberg Philharmonic of Reutlingen/Friederike Kienle
Works: Ben-Haim: Cello Concerto; Three Songs without Words; Music for Violoncello; Two Landscapes; Sonata
Catalogue number: CAPRICCIO C5556
Composers need persuasive advocates to proselytise their works; Ofer Canetti is just such a cellist. His teacher, Uzi Wiesel, was the first performer of Paul Ben-Haim’s Cello Concerto in Israel, and so there is a tangible interpretative legacy. No surprise then that Canetti is under the skin of this idiom, lending an impressive incisiveness and expressive nuance to the solo part. The Württemberg Philharmonic and Friederike Kienle also offer a honed and carefully rehearsed partnership.
Ben-Haim trained in Germany, but on to this European style he infuses perfumed melodies and timbres that lend an exoticism to the mix. The Two Landscapes (arranged for cello and piano from their viola original) clearly reference folk material, as do the Three Songs without Words, the last of which is a traditional Sephardi folk song, with Ben-Haim alluding to his inspiration from the Judean mountains.
Similarly in the concerto, the cello’s opening melismatic theme also has hues of Hebraic-inspired material, while its slow movement allows the rhapsodic cello line an almost improvisatory scope. Being immersed in this vernacular allows Canetti to produce a beautifully shaped monologue in this movement.
This duality between cultural heritage and absorbed conventional tradition also laces the Music for Violoncello – again given a cohesive and compelling reading from Canetti.
JOANNE TALBOT
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