Beginning the well-conceived program is Brahms's Violin Concerto in D, dedicated to—and written with the help of—the composer's close friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. A major work of German Romanticism, the concerto brims with radiant and lyrical themes, concluding on a joyful and festive note with the Hungarian-inflected third movement. Rachlin and the celebrated ensemble move on then to Haydn's Symphony No. 49 in F Minor (often called La Passion), composed contemporaneously with the Sturm und Drang artistic movement that exalted individual subjectivity and extremes of emotion in response to Enlightenment rationalism. Fittingly, the concert concludes with another work of great passion: Beethoven's gripping, exultant Symphony No. 7, alternately jubilant and heart-rending (especially in the famous Allegretto)—one of the greatest symphonies by one of the greatest symphonists, himself a student of Haydn.

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