ROSSINI / ELGAR / BEETHOVEN Concert

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Beethoven is a necessity. He is the composer I have devoted more attention to than to any other. I do not need to explain why I’ve chosen his Seventh Symphony; we haven’t performed it for over 30 years - it’s high time! I am thrilled to open our season with this masterpiece from Beethoven’s “heroic decade.”
 
I’ve put it together with Rossini’s William Tell Overture, in part to feature our wonderful cello section and also because I’ve always felt that the 7th is too often played with an excessively aggressive and Teutonic approach, which obscures Beethoven’s inspiration. Beethoven was aware of Rossini’s enormous success in Vienna and this symphony was his response. So, you may hear a rather different view of this beloved masterpiece, surely the most vigorous and joyful of all of Beethoven’s symphonies.
 
The Elgar Violin Concerto has been a favorite of mine ever since, as a boy, I heard the–in my view never equaled recording of the 15-year-old Yehudi Menuhin, with Elgar himself conducting. It is music of intimacy and generosity, subtlety and power, in which soloist and orchestra are inextricably entwined, like chamber music writ large. For this reason, when we performed this concerto forty years ago, I chose Oscar Shumsky. as the soloist, the legendary concertmaster of the NBC Symphony. This time we turn to one of the great concertmasters of this era, Guy Braunstein, who served for thirteen years as the concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic and is steeped in the European culture that Elgar knew so well. Boston hasn’t heard him yet but a German critic said "with his intense playing and sheer endless musical imagination, Guy Braunstein joins the ranks of history’s great violinists" (Hans Ackermann, RBB KulturRadio). I can’t wait.

-Benjamin Zander

MORE ABOUT THE CONCERT

• Watch Guy Braunstein perform a special house concert from his living room. 
• Watch Guy Braunstein perform Paganiniana.
• The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra first performed Elgar's Violin Concerto on March 4, 1990, with Oscar Shumsky as soloist. View the program page here.
• Listen to the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra with Oscar Shumsky from 1990. 
• Listen to Maestro Benjamin Zander's talk from the recording of Beethoven's 7th.
• The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra last performed Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 during the 20th anniversary season on October 10th  and 11th, 1998. 
• Rossini / Elgar / Beethoven PDF flier

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Information for ticket buyers

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All dates, repertoire, venues, and artists subject to change.