Piece: Écossaise / Violin Concerto No. 1

Guy Braunstein studied with Chaim Taub and Pinchas Zukerman. He has served as concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic since 2000 and will step down from this post in 2013 to perform more frequently as a soloist, chamber musician, and conductor. As a soloist, he has been a guest with many leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Filarmonica della Scala Milano. Guy Braunstein has performed with, for example, Isaac Stern, Zubin Mehta, Yefim Bronfman, Maurizio Pollini, Lang Lang, and Hélène Grimaud. He is particularly closely associated with Daniel Barenboim as a soloist and chamber musician. He plays on a valuable violin by Francesco Ruggeri (Cremona, 1679). The works of the Protestant Max Bruch, who was thought to be of Jewish descent because of his composition “Kol Nidrei,” were removed from concert programs during the Nazi era as “degenerate” and thus largely fell into oblivion.