New in the Soloists series: Klezmer ConcertoFirst concertmaster Noah Bendix-Balgley releases klezmer album
With Klezmer Concerto, first concertmaster Noah Bendix-Balgley releases his second solo album with Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings. It is the sixth release in the Soloists of the Berliner Philharmoniker series. At its heart is Fidl-Fantazye: A Klezmer Concerto, composed by Bendix-Balgley and orchestrated by Samuel Adler, which Bendix-Balgley premiered with the orchestra at a Late Night concert in 2023. The album also features Odessa Bulgar, a classic klezmer dance in Bendix-Balgley’s own arrangement, and a violin solo on the traditional melody Yismekhu.
Bendix-Balgley, who grew up in a Jewish family in North Carolina, draws on both classical music and klezmer in his composition. “My aim with this piece was to bring the klezmer style onto the classical concert stage, carrying over the distinctive character and virtuosic expressive range of the Yiddish fidl to the violin,” he writes in the booklet. Of the Late Night concert, he says: “We in the Berliner Philharmoniker often talk about Spielfreude – the joy of playing. At our concert as a klezmer kapelye, that joy filled the entire Philharmonie. With this recording, we want to share it with you too.”
Bendix-Balgley won prizes at both the Queen Elisabeth Competition and the Long-Thibaud Competition. Before joining the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2014, he was concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
The album cover is by French artist Manon Cezaro.
The album is available from 2 October 2026 on berliner-philharmoniker-recordings.com, in the audio section of the Digital Concert Hall, and from all major digital music providers.