Boston Philharmonic to Open Final Season with Beethoven, Weber, Brahms

The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) will open its 48th and final celebratory season on Sunday, October 11, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. with a program of works by Beethoven, Weber, and Brahms, led by Maestro Benjamin Zander at Symphony Hall. The BPO concert is paired with Maestro Zander's popular Guide to the Music pre-concert talk beginning at 1:45 p.m., engaging classical music novices and aficionados alike in the concert experience.

Tracing the evolution of German Romanticism across the nineteenth century, the BPO's first concert of the season includes Weber's Der Freischütz Overture, which ushered in the Romantic opera tradition. The piece is paired with Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D - a rarely performed work that transformed the concerto with its symphonic scope - performed here by fan favorite, violinist Guy Braunstein. The work is featured alongside Brahms's Fourth Symphony, illuminating Brahms's influence and inspiration from his predecessor.

The BPO's next concert takes place on Sunday, November 22, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. with a program exploring the Austrian symphonic tradition, featuring Schubert's 'Unfinished' Symphony No. 8 and Bruckner's Symphony No. 5.

Program Information:
WEBER / BEETHOVEN / BRAHMS

Sunday, October 11, 2026 at 3:00 p.m.
Guide to the Music pre-concert talk takes place beginning at 1:45 p.m.
Location: Symphony Hall | 301 Massachusetts Avenue | Boston, MA 02115
Link: https://www.bostonphil.org/2026-2027-bpo1-weber-beethoven-brahms

Program:

Weber - Der Freischütz Overture
Beethoven - Violin Concerto in D
Brahms - Symphony No. 4

Artists:

Boston Philharmonic Orchestra
Benjamin Zander, conductor
Guy Braunstein, violin

Ticket Information:

Tickets are available by visiting www.bostonphil.org or by calling 617-236-0999.
Box Office hours: Tues - Thurs, 10:00am to 3:00pm

About Guy Braunstein

A unique blend of virtuosity, restraint and creativity - this is what violinist, conductor and composer Guy Braunstein stands for. Like few others, he not only knows how to convince audiences with his music, but also how to challenge them: Whether with demanding programmes, sophisticated interpretations or his own works and arrangements - Guy Braunstein aims to surprise and reinvent. And although he can easily be categorised in the 'tradition of the great Jewish violinists such as Mischa Elman and Isaac Stern' (Telegraph), for him music lives not only from its own history, but through perpetual renewal, updating and unexpected twists and turns.

Whether as a celebrated soloist who masters the standard repertoire from Bach to Shostakovich with ease, or as a congenial chamber music partner in a wide variety of formations: Guy Braunstein is a guest at the world's most important music centres and festivals. He has performed with renowned orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London and the Berlin Philharmonic. His musical partners include András Schiff, Zubin Mehta, Maurizio Pollini, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Yefim Bronfman, Daniel Barenboim, Simon Rattle, Martha Argerich, Mitsuko Uchida, Christoph von Dohnányi, Lang Lang, Emmanuel Ax, Andris Nelsons and Semyon Bychkov. Guy Braunstein is also present on the international concert stage as a conductor: he was Conductor and Artist in Residence with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and the Trondheim Symfoniorkester and works with orchestras such as the Helsinki, Rotterdam and Israel Philharmonic as well as the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

Guy Braunstein's greatest and identity-forming passion is arranging and composing: In the romantic tradition of Paganini and Liszt, he brilliantly transcribes musical masterpieces for his own or other instruments and instrumentations and presents operas, chamber music or even songs in a completely new form. In addition to excerpts from Tchaikovsky's 'Eugene Onegin' and 'Swan Lake', he has also arranged Puccini arias and Dvořák's opera 'Rusalka'. In 2023, 'Die Nacht wird immer verklärter', an arrangement of Schönberg's string sextet 'Verklärte Nacht', celebrated its premiere with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. The violinist is particularly fond of the Beatles' songs: in addition to Six Variations on 'Blackbird' and the arrangements of 'A hard day's night' and 'Something', Guy Braunstein also wrote 'Abbey Road Concerto', a highly virtuoso version of the Beatles' album 'Abbey Road' for solo violin and orchestra.

In 2024, Guy Braunstein released his own as well as Delius' Violin Concerto and Vaughan-Williams' 'The Lark Ascending' on Alpha Records in a recording with Alondra de la Parra and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. His 2019 albums 'Tchaikovsky Treasures' with Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and his own arrangements, 'Old Souls' with arrangements of chamber music works by Dvořák, Beethoven, Wolf and Kreisler and 'Music of my Heart' (2012) with works by Bloch, Chausson, Brahms, Corelli and others were praised by the international press, as well as his recording of Bruch's Violin Concerto and the 'Scottish Fantasy', recorded with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Ion Marin.

Guy Braunstein grew up in Tel Aviv and began playing the violin at the age of seven. He studied with Chaim Taub and later in New York with Glenn Dicterow and Pinchas Zuckerman and his mentor Isaac Stern. His collaboration with Claudio Abbado in particular is one of Guy Braunstein's most important influences. In 2000, he became the youngest violinist in the orchestra's history to take over the position of concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic and helped shape the orchestra for over a decade. He was Artistic Director of the Rolandseck Festival and the Clasclás Festival in Galicia.

Guy Braunstein plays a violin made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1679.

About The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra

In 1979, ninety-six enthusiastic players, professionals, students, and amateurs, a dynamic, probing conductor named Benjamin Zander, and an impassioned donor and amateur musician named Seymour Rothchild joined together to found the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO). Today the musicians represent the original spirited blend and account for the passion, high level of participation, and technical accomplishment for which this ensemble is celebrated. The professionals maintain the highest standards, the students keep the focus on training and education, and the gifted amateurs-including doctors, lawyers, teachers, and computer programmers-remind everybody that music-making is an expression of enthusiasm and love.

The Boston Philharmonic's message rings loud and clear-music making is a privilege and a joy, and above all, a collaborative adventure. Over the years the orchestra has performed at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, Sanders Theatre at Harvard University, and the historic Symphony Hall. The BPO performs with a wide range of soloists, from highly gifted performers at the start of their international careers, such as Stefan Jackiw, Gabriela Montero, Jonah Ellsworth, and George Li, to world-famous artists, such as Yo-Yo Ma, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Russell Sherman, Kim Kashkashian, and Alisa Weilerstein, and legendary masters, such as Ivry Gitlis, Denes Zsigmondy, Georgy Sandor, Leonard Shure, and Oscar Shumsky.

The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra has released five critically acclaimed recordings, featuring works by Stravinsky, Beethoven, Mahler, Shostakovich, and Ravel. Among many other reviews of extravagant praise, Classic CD Magazine gave the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra's recording of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring the highest rank of all available recordings. Of Mahler's Symphony No. 6, American Record Guide wrote, 'This joins the Rattle and the two Bernstein recordings as the finest on record...All the glory to Zander and his semi-professional orchestra, for the Sixth is probably Mahler's most difficult and complex symphony...All things considered, when I reach for a recording of the Sixth to play for my own pleasure, it will most likely be this one.'

BPO concerts have long been a two-part experience: each performance is preceded by one of Benjamin Zander's illuminating and entertaining pre-concert lectures, which prepare listeners to understand the ideas and the structure of the music they are about to hear. The BPO's commitment to reaching and educating a wide audience is maintained by its Music Without Boundaries program, which raises money to provide tickets for school-age students, and its Crescendo Music Education programs, which provide thousands of students throughout Boston with musical activities ranging from concerts to individualized instruction and workshops and more.

About Benjamin Zander

For nearly sixty years, Benjamin Zander has played a unique role in both the local and international community as an expert teacher, deeply insightful and probing music interpreter, and profound source of inspiration for audiences, with a deep commitment to making classical music accessible and engaging for all listeners. In his quest for insight and understanding into the Western musical canon and the underlying spiritual, social, and political issues that inspired its creation, he continually engages with well-informed musical and public intellectuals, including students, professional musicians, corporate leaders and politicians around the world.

Zander started out as a cellist and composer, studying composition under Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst at age twelve. At age fifteen, he left his London home to train for five years in Florence and Cologne with the great Spanish cellist Gaspar Cassadó. After completing his degree at the University of London, he received a Harkness Fellowship, which brought him to the United States. He began his journey as a conductor after settling in Boston in 1965. Since then, he has appeared as a guest conductor with orchestras all over the world.

From 1965-2012, he served on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), where he taught musical interpretation and conducted the Youth Philharmonic and Conservatory orchestras. He led the NEC Youth Philharmonic on fifteen international tours and made several documentaries for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). He was also the founding artistic director of the NEC's joint program with the Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts.

In 1979, Zander founded the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO), composed of some of Greater Boston's top professional, amateur, and student musicians. The BPO's performances shed fresh, insightful, and sometimes provocative light on the interpretation of the central symphonic repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries, inspiring thousands of musicians and renewing their sense of idealism.

Thirty-three years later in 2012, he founded the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (BPYO), which draws young musicians aged 12-21 from the Northeastern US to its weekly rehearsals and performances in Symphony Hall. The tuition-free orchestra performs at concert halls in Greater Boston and tours regularly during the summer, performing in such renowned venues as Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, and the Berlin Philharmonie. Past tours have included South America in the summer of 2017, an eight-European city performance of Mahler's 9th Symphony in 2018, Brazil in 2019, Greece in 2022, South Africa in 2023, and a five-city European tour in 2024 that sold out in Hamburg, Vienna, and Prague.

In 2018, he established the Benjamin Zander Center, which houses recordings of his 'Interpretations of Music: Lessons for Life' classes; it also provides comprehensive access to all aspects of Zander's musical work through an immersive multimedia platform.

For twenty-five years, Zander enjoyed a unique relationship with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. He made eleven recordings with them, including a nearly complete cycle of Mahler symphonies, as well as Bruckner and Beethoven symphonies. High Fidelity magazine named his recording of Mahler's 6th Symphony the Best Classical Recording of 2002; the Mahler 3rd received the Critic's Choice award from the German Record Critics' Award Association; the Mahler 9th and Bruckner 5th recordings received nominations for Grammy Awards for Best Orchestral Performance. Each recording includes a detailed audio explanation that aims to bring deeper meaning to the experience of listening to the music.

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