The first movement, Khosidl-Doina-Balkan Dance: Sam’s Terkisher, opened with a Hassidic line dance, and after the improvisational Doina, segued into the Balkan Dance.  The orchestration utilized the clarinet and trumpet extensively as well as the string bass, reflecting the instruments in klezmer ensembles. The second movement, Doina-Nign-(song) Hora, had the violin spinning beautiful melodies while the last movement, Doina-Freylekhs, seemed to levitate with effervescent joy. For the improvisational Doinas, the violinist’s fingers danced over the fingerboard, producing tones of pure honey.

After a standing ovation and several curtain calls, Bendix-Balgley returned to play an encore, a duet by Prokofiev with his friend and mentor, Alexander Kerr, concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony, who had earlier performed the Prelude concert with violist Meredith Kufchak, principal, Dallas Symphony; cellist Robert DeMaine, principal Los Angeles Philharmonic; and pianist Anton Nel, Artistic Partner for Mainly Mozart.

The 40-year-old violin soloist, Noah Bendix-Balgley, whose training included the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Munich Hochschule for Music and Theater, was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and began violin lessons at the age of four. His dad, Erik Bendix, an international folk dance teacher and Alexander technique specialist, took Noah to his workshops on Eastern European and Yiddish folk dance where the talented boy began playing in klezmer bands.

Noah even performed klezmer music at his Bar Mitzvah.

The boy’s maternal great-grandfather, Samuel Leventhal, was a professional violinist who graduated from the Leipzig Conservatory and played in the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1900, the same orchestra where his great-grandson was appointed concertmaster at age 26—the youngest to hold such a post in any US orchestra at the time.

Shortly after that appointment, Noah began thinking about commissioning a klezmer concerto. His friends encouraged him to write it himself, which he finally did, creating original klezmer tunes interspersed with improvisatory transitions. Only one of the Freylekhs of the last movement was a fast version of a Mahler theme from his 5th symphony.

Noah asked the Jewish composer, Samuel Adler, who served on the faculties of the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School and authored The Study of Orchestration, to orchestrate the accompaniment. The finished product, completed in 2016, has been performed all over the world, with orchestras in France, Belgium, New Zealand, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, as well as throughout the United States.

After intermission, the Mainly Mozart Orchestra, made up of concertmasters and principal players from orchestras all over the country, performed Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony. Mainly Mozart’s conductor, Michael Francis, explained that this symphony, although named #5 and published after the composer’s death, was actually written earlier and the first and fourth movements tell a specific story. The work was intended to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Augsberg Confessions, a milestone in Martin Luther’s reformation.

The first movement represents the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism. The opening Andante is in the style of Palestrina, representing the Catholic liturgy, followed by the Allegro con fuoco, with battle cries from the brass, representing the conflict between the two religions.

Conductor Francis gave an interesting interpretation of the second and third movements. Whereas others have written that the second movement scherzo, Allegro Vivace, was inspired by Mendelssohn’s witnessing a Catholic Corpus Christi procession in Munich, Francis suggested that it represented the composer’s carefree childhood prior to his conversion to the Lutheran faith. Others have found the third movement, the Andante, a wistful Baroque arioso, whearas Francis thought the melancholy melody resembled the music of Jewish synagogue liturgy from Mendelssohn’s childhood.

The introduction to the final movement by a solo flute, playing Luther’s hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, and the interweaving of that theme in Bach-like counterpoint throughout the final movement: Chorale: Andante con moto—Allegro vivace, leaves no question of which religion triumphs in this symphony, aptly titled by Felix’s older sister, Fanny, The Reformation.

The solo flute introduction was beautifully rendered by Jeffrey Kahner, principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra and principal of the 2025 Mainly Mozart Orchestra.

Irwin Jacobs, the Jewish philanthropist who, with his wife Joan, of blessed memory, has underwritten many cultural, educational, medical and Jewish institutions in our city, was the Series Sponsor of this year’s Mainly Mozart concerts.
*
Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts.