Press

 

Allan Kozinn, New York Times: 'Reflects its time and place in a way that concert works rarely do these days. A powerful, pained score.' [String Quartet No. 1]

 

The Strad: 'Rhythmic, lyrical...' [String Quartet No. 1]

 

The Jerusalem Post: '...One of the most Israeli pieces ever written. A powerful opus that is so gentle at times yet towering in its social meaning. It is a piece that in many ways encapsulates our bloody history as a nation and a people, and at the same time tries to search for some hope and make the search the real essence of our very being.' [LHM: Israeli War Requiem]

 

Gramophone: 'Zehavi delights in stylistic unpredictability. So we find that, after the tolling Angst of the opening Andante ma non tanto, the second movement 'Lullaby' acts as a perfect foil, the soloist's memorably tender and serene 'a' minor cantilena penned immediately following the birth of Zehavi's daughter. The work concludes succinctly with a colourful snapshot of 'an oriental wedding with visitors from Central Europe' (to quote the composer). Another terrific performance rounds off an impressive issue.' [Concerto for violin and orchestra]

 

Malcolm Miller, ASV Records: 'A more optimistic, even daring stylistic diversity, is evident in the violin concerto by Oded Zehavi, one of the outstanding composers of the younger generation...The stimulating postmodern amalgam of styles...includes Jewish, Arabic and Western musics, as well as a symbiosis of atonal, tonal and modal idioms...a witty and optimistic combination that concludes with panache.' [Concerto for violin and orchestra]

 

ConcertoNet.com: 'The new Israeli piece was also energetic and exciting, a fine coupling for the dissonances of the Prokofieff. This is difficult music to absorb on a first hearing, but there was little doubt that the pianist is a firm advocate for its creative legitimacy.' [Memories]

 

Records International Catalogue: 'And by the time we reach Zehavi, there is no more room for precise labels; this is postmodern music, equally at home in the dramatic atonal world of the first movement, or the exuberant finale.' [Concerto for violin and orchestra]

 

Frankfurter Allegemeine: 'Plumbing the depths of extremes and exploring the limits of the genre...Powerful blocks of sound.' [For Thee I'll Wait Forever]

 

Gojerusalem.com: 'In this short work, the composer “disassembles” the orchestra into its smallest units, representing his disillusionment in the “climate of anti-culture that has become the country’s policy”, to quote Zehavi. The work, alternating between dense, textured atonality and a more lucid, melodic style, projects urgency and doom together with moments of brightness and lovely individual solos of character and temperament.' [Forgiveness]

 

Joseph Peles: 'The trio FOR THEE I'LL WAIT FOREVER by Zehavi can serve as an example of the manner in which a present-day composer achieves a merger between contemporary manner of expression with two fold tradition – the ancient tradition of eastern melodies and the newer, younger tradition of Israeli art music.'

 

Ben Shalev, Haaretz [The Nation]: 'The melodies undulate between seriousness and nonsense, discipline and rebellion, succeeding on many levels by reflecting a profound connection between Hebrew song and classical composition, thus forging a new identity from the combination of these two traditional worlds. The result is a challenging yet accessible album; its melodies might be difficult to hum even after the fifth listen, but its sound (of children singing) will conquer your ears even before the end of the second song. You can add another great record to the very short list of Hebrew albums which appeal both to the rich imaginary world of children as well as to our blander adult world.' [Songs of Time]