American Classical Orchestra to Present Beethoven Symphony No. 4 and Berwald Premiere

Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford leads the American Classical Orchestra (ACO), New York City's foremost period instrument orchestra, in a program titled Capricious, on Thursday, November 12 at 7:30 PM at Alice Tully Hall. Featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 4, the concert marks the second of three Celebrate Beethoven! concerts at Alice Tully Hall during the 2026-27 season, continuing the Orchestra's performance cycle of all nine symphonies begun last season to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's death.

The program offers the first documented performance—and therefore both the U.S. premiere and the American debut on period instruments—of Swedish composer Franz Berwald's Symphony No. 2, 'Capricieuse.' The original manuscript was lost in the 1850s, reconstructed from Berwald's short-score sketches in 1909, and did not receive its world premiere until 1919 in Stockholm. The concert also presents the overture to Carl Maria von Weber's opera Oberon, marking 200 years since its premiere.

The ACO will next appear with the ACO Chorus in an all-J.S. Bach choral program at the Basilica of Old St. Patrick's Cathedral on February 3.

After his highly successful premiere of Der Freischütz, Carl Maria von Weber's Romantic 1826 opera Oberon was commissioned by Charles Kemble, director of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, to write a musical drama inspired by the tale of the fairy king Oberon. Gravely ill with tuberculosis at the time, von Weber died less than two months after the London premiere in 1826. Swedish Romantic composer Franz Berwald's Symphony No. 2 brims with soaring melodies and features a full complement of woodwinds and brass instruments alongside orchestral strings. It was composed in Vienna in 1842. While some of his other works, including his Third Symphony (Sinfonie singulière) and Grand Septet, have occasionally reached American stages, this is the first documented performance of Symphony No. 2, effectively making this concert its U.S. premiere. The evening closes with Beethoven's Symphony No. 4, continuing the ACO's tribute to the composer's death bicentenary. The work serves as a bridge between the Third—which the Orchestra performed on May 5, 2026, at Alice Tully Hall—and the iconic Fifth Symphony to follow later in the 2026-27 season. The full cycle will be completed in the 2027-28 season.

Event Details

Celebrate Beethoven!: Capricious

Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 7:30 PM

Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center

American Classical Orchestra

Thomas Crawford, conductor

Carl Maria von Weber: Oberon Overture, J. 306

Franz Berwald: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, 'Capricieuse' (U.S. Premiere)

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 60

Tickets: Priced at $35, $55 & $75, are available at aconyc.org, by calling ACO at (212) 510-7962, ext.4, by visiting lincolncenter.org, or calling CenterCharge at 212.721.6500.

About Thomas Crawford

The American Classical Orchestra's Artistic Director and Founder Thomas Crawford is a champion of historically informed performance styles in Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic music. In Connecticut, he founded the Fairfield Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy, the period instrument offshoot of the Fairfield Orchestra, renamed the American Classical Orchestra in 1999. With the Fairfield Orchestra, Crawford commissioned numerous works by composers, including John Corigliano and William Thomas McKinley, and collaborated with artists such as Joshua Bell, Vladimir Feltsman, Richard Goode, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, André Watts, and Dawn Upshaw. He also conducted the world premiere of Keith Jarrett's Bridge of Light at Alice Tully Hall, subsequently recorded on the ECM label. An accomplished composer, organist, and choirmaster, Crawford won the prestigious BMI composition award for his organ work Ashes of Rose, which premiered at the American Guild of Organists. A passionate activist determined to bring the beauty of period music to a wider audience, Crawford received a Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth award from the National Endowment for the Arts, in recognition of the ACO's dynamic music outreach to New York City schoolchildren. A Pennsylvania native, he holds degrees in organ performance and composition from the Eastman School of Music and Columbia University.

About American Classical Orchestra

Founded in 1984 as the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy, the ensemble was renamed the American Classical Orchestra in 1999. Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford established its new and permanent home in New York City in 2005. It is now the City's only full-scale orchestra dedicated to performing 17th, 18th, and 19th century music on period instruments. Described as 'simply splendid' by The New York Times, ACO players are the foremost in their field, consisting of artists who also perform with such major ensembles as Orchestra of St. Luke's, Handel and Haydn Society, and the New York Philharmonic. Its principal players are Faculty members at The Juilliard School, and the ACO works closely with students enrolled in the School's Historical Performance Program. The American Classical Orchestra Chorus, comprised of professional vocalists from the New York metro area, joins ACO for larger productions. By playing music on original instruments and using historical performance techniques, ACO strives to recreate the sounds that audiences would have heard when the music was first written and performed. The Orchestra and its 'supremely skilled musicians' (Theater Scene) have won critical praise for its recordings, educational programs, and concerts, including appearances at Alice Tully Hall and in Lincoln Center's Great Performers series, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and for a sold-out 25th anniversary performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.