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SEPTEMBER 10, 2026 — Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings will release Klezmer Concerto, a new digital album featuring Noah Bendix-Balgley, first concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker, on Friday, October 2, 2026. The album, the sixth release in the Soloists of the Berliner Philharmoniker series and Bendix-Balgley’s second, showcases Bendix-Balgley both as an accomplished performer and as a composer. At the center of the album is Bendix-Balgley’s Fidl-Fantazye: A Klezmer Concerto, which he performed with the orchestra during a Late Night concert in 2023 (available to watch on the Digital Concert Hall). The work brings together two traditions that have shaped him since childhood: classical music and klezmer.
Bendix-Balgley grew up in a Jewish family in North Carolina and developed a love of klezmer music at an early age. In Fidl-Fantazye, orchestrated by composer and arranger Samuel Adler, Bendix-Balgley draws on the expressive range and virtuosity of the Yiddish “fidl” while writing for the full resources of the orchestra.
The album also includes Odessa Bulgar, a traditional klezmer dance arranged for orchestra by Bendix-Balgley, with the clarinet, trumpet and cello taking prominent roles alongside the solo violin. The recording closes with Bendix-Balgley performing a solo violin setting of the traditional melody Yismekhu.
“I wanted to bring the klezmer style to the classical stage, showcasing the virtuosic and expressive possibilities of the Yiddish ‘fidl,’” Bendix-Balgley writes in the album booklet. “I was thrilled to share my love of klezmer music with my colleagues in the Berliner Philharmoniker. In this orchestra, we often speak of Spielfreude, the joy of playing, and of the sense that something unique must happen in concert. That joyousness was so evident in the Philharmonie when we played klezmer together. I am delighted that we can now share this recording of our Philharmonic klezmer kapelye.”
A prizewinner at the Queen Elisabeth Competition and the Long-Thibaud Competition, Bendix-Balgley began his orchestral career as concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He joined the Berliner Philharmoniker as first concertmaster in 2014 and appears regularly as a soloist with the orchestra.
Commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Fidl-Fantazye received its world premiere in 2016, with Bendix-Balgley as soloist and Manfred Honeck conducting. He has since performed the concerto with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, New World Symphony, Orchestre National de Lille, and Toledo Symphony. Kammerakademie Potsdam gave the world premiere of the chamber version in 2021, and in March 2025, Bendix-Balgley joined the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for the concerto’s New York premiere at 92NY.
Fidl-Fantazye and Odessa Bulgar were recorded at the Philharmonie Berlin in April 2023; Yismekhu was recorded in June 2022. The album’s cover artwork was created especially for the release by French artist Manon Cezaro.
Klezmer Concerto will be available beginning October 2 as a download from berliner-philharmoniker-recordings.com, in the audio section of the Digital Concert Hall and through all major digital music services. The third movement of Fidl-Fantazye: A Klezmer Concerto will be released as a preview track on September 25.
The Soloists of the Berliner Philharmoniker series presents selected recordings featuring musicians from within the orchestra’s own ranks. Previous releases include Bendix-Balgley performing works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Leone Sinigaglia, as well as albums featuring principal viola Amihai Grosz, harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet, principal clarinet Wenzel Fuchs, and principal cello Bruno Delepelaire.
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