ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC at CARNEGIE HALL
Lahav Shani, Music Director

Four-Concert Residency: October 15, 16, 17 & 18
Celebrating Israeli Composer Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1984)
US Premiere of Ben-Haim’s Violin Concerto
Pinchas Zukerman, Violin

[Shani] established an exquisite balance from the opening bars, spinning out golden spools of sound…he never shortchanged the work’s lyricism, its melodic lines mighty and inexorable.”
--Musical America on Shani’s appearance
with Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The internationally recognized Israel Philharmonic (IPO) returns to the United States for a four-concert residency at Carnegie Hall in New York, October 15-18. Music Director Lahav Shani leads the orchestra in three concerts in the Stern Auditorium, and joins violinist Pinchas Zukerman, cellist Amanda Forsyth and members of the orchestra for an evening of chamber music in Zankel Hall.

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel’s national orchestra, is regarded as the country’s most important cultural ambassador on the international stage. The four-concert residency at Carnegie Hall shines a light on composer Paul Ben-Haim, with three of his significant orchestral works paired with Tchaikovsky symphonies.  Ben-Haim was born Paul Frankenburger in Munich in 1897; he was already an accomplished conductor, teacher and composer when he emigrated to Palestine in 1933 to escape the rise of fascism in Europe. One of most prolific and well-known composers among the European, WWII-era immigrants to Israel from Europe, he was awarded the coveted Israel Prize in 1957. Ben Haim’s work was rooted in the German tradition, but also deeply influenced by his newly adopted homeland, particularly his years as an accompanist and arranger for Bracha Tzfira, the famous and influential Yemenite Jewish folksinger. (Jewish Music Research Center).

Full programs for each concert are below. 
Program notes available upon request.

More about Paul Ben-Haim
Jewish Music Research Center

Wednesday, October 15, 2025 8 PM / Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Lahav Shani, Conductor
Pinchas Zukerman, Violin

PROKOFIEV Overture on Hebrew Themes
BEN-HAIM Violin Concerto
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4

Ben-Haim’s Violin Concerto, which has not been performed by the Israel Philharmonic in 35 years, was commissioned in 1959-1960 by the America Israel Cultural Foundation; Ben-Haim was asked to write a violin concerto for Israeli violinist Zvi Zeitlin, a Belarussian-born, Israeli-raised violinist and educator who was on the faculty at the Eastman School of Music for 40-plus years. It is not a "weighty" concerto in the manner of Beethoven, Brahms or Tchaikovsky, but a lighter, more playful piece more reminiscent of Mozart or Viotti. The concerto consists of three movements, and the reduced orchestra leaves the limelight to the soloist – in this case, the legendary violinist Pinchas Zukerman.

The IPO last performed the concerto 35 years ago, making this performance both a rediscovery and a tribute to the orchestra’s deep musical roots.
Carnegie Event Page

Thursday, October 16, 2025 8 PM / Stern Auditorium
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Lahav Shani, Conductor

BERNSTEIN Halil
BEN-HAIM Symphony No. 1
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5

Ben-Haim’s First Symphony, completed in 1940, includes references to Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony, direct quotes from traditional Persian Jewish music, and a theme from Ben-Haim’s final completed work before he left his native Germany. Shani and the IPO recorded the Symphony for Deutsche Grammophon in 2022. From the album’s liner notes: “Under [Shani’s] baton, the orchestra conveys every last spark of the intense, restless energy of its outer movements, whose turbulence reflects the wartime backdrop against which the symphony was written. Creating an oasis of calm between the two, conductor and orchestra give a wonderfully lyrical reading of the central slow movement, which quotes part of a traditional song from the Persian Jewish community that Ben-Haim had recently arranged for pioneering Israeli folk singer Bracha Tzfira.”

The program opens with Leonard Bernstein’s soulful, but often overlooked flute concerto, Halil, which the IPO premiered under Bernstein’s own baton in 1981. Halil is dedicated to the memory of Israeli flutist Yadin Tanenbaum, who was killed in 1973 during the Yom Kippur war; “halil” means “flute” in Hebrew. (An IPO performance of the work is available here.) The concert concludes with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, a forceful—and ultimately hopeful—contemplation on fate.
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Friday, October 17, 2025 7:30 PM / Zankel Hall
Israel Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble
Lahav Shani, Piano
Pinchas Zukerman, Violin
Amanda Forsyth, Cello

Program to include:
BEN-HAIM Berceuse Sfaradite
FELIX MENDELSSOHN Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor
BEN-HAIM Songs without Words for Clarinet and Piano
SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Quintet

IPO conductor Lahav Shani makes his Carnegie Hall debut as a pianist in this chamber music concert, revisiting the role that launched his decades-long relationship with the orchestra. Violin virtuoso Pinchas Zukerman, who has a long history with the IPO, and acclaimed cellist Amanda Forsyth (whose own Carnegie Hall debut was as a soloist with the IPO) join members of the IPO in the intimacy of Zankel Hall.

According to the Israel Music Institute, Ben-Haim explained the three parts of Berceuse Sfaradite as a “tone-picture of an oriental mood” and adds that ”whoever's imagination needs additional prompting may think that the long-breathed melodies of the Arioso were inspired by the mood of a summer day's pitiless heat in the bare Judean Hills, while the Ballad pictures the monotonous babbling of an oriental story-teller; the last song is based on a traditional folk tune of Sephardic-Jewish origin – a veritable pearl which I have only given a setting”. See Shani and Zukerman performing Ben-Haim’s Berceuse Sfaradite here.
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Saturday, October 18, 2025 8 PM / Stern Auditorium
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Lahav Shani, Conductor

BEN-HAIM Symphony No. 2
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6, "Pathétique"

The IPO’s final performance in its weeklong residency at Carnegie Hall opens with Ben-Haim’s Second Symphony, his longest symphonic work (many believe it to be his greatest), finished in 1945, after the conclusion of WWII. On the title page of the score, Ben-Haim quoted Israeli poet Shin Shalom (aka Shalom Yosef Shapira): "Wake up with the dawn, O my soul, on the peak of the Carmel above the sea." The symphony was dedicated to the writer, philosopher and musician Max Brod, who admired Ben-Haim’s work. Brod was deeply engaged with the subject of Jewish and Hebrew identity and its realization through music, and he saw the Second Symphony as satisfying “our longing for an explicitly Jewish music.” But Ben-Haim was not necessarily searching for a distinct Israeli character. Many of his compositions incorporate influences from the different periods of his life, creating a unique style of his own. When he was asked whether there is such a thing as an "Israeli composer" he answered: "I do not think about it that much […] The importance of Israeliness isn't that great. Rather, the importance of the composition itself.”

The concert concludes with Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, “Pathétique,” premiered just days before the composer’s death, and recognized as an extraordinary, passionate and poetic musical farewell.
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