The Knights & Eric Jacobsen
Review: The Knights Close Festival in Grand Style
From The Boston Musical Intelligencer
by Stephen Martorella
The innovative and creative chamber orchestra called The Knights offered the final concert of Classical Newport’s 54th acclaimed summer festival, as the 15 players produced an enormously rich and lush sound Sunday in the resonant acoustic of The Breakers grand hall overlooking the waters of Rhode Island Sound along Newport’s high cliff. The orchestra is unique in so many ways, not the least of which is a collaboration of two artistic directors and brothers, violinist Colin Jacobsen and conductor and cellist Eric Jacobsen. They clearly share passion, hugging each other quite often in a sight beautiful to behold. The night also featured many of the orchestra’s players in solo concerto roles, beginning with Alex Sopp performing Antonio Vivaldi’s Flute Concerto in G Minor, Op. 10, No. 2 RV 439 “La Notte” (“Night”). While there was no continuo group, the orchestra delivered a clean, crisp sound and the soloist rendered with both exuberance and nuance in a modern interpretation. The slower movements emphasized the stark dissonances, in a gentle and quiet way; overall, the concerto gave great pleasure for its brightness and sparkle.
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Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances closed out the first half, in an arrangement by Alex Fortes. Bartók originally wrote and recorded this set for piano, but also authorized and recorded a version for violin and piano and made his own arrangement for small ensemble. The dances hail from the region around Transylvania, once a part of Hungary, later coming under the jurisdiction of Romania, not far from where Bartók was born. He likely heard these melodies from his childhood. They are part of the repertoire of wandering violinists and have influences from Jewish and Roma sources. The movement titles do not translate well into English but form a continuous set of dances that start more deliberate, then become reflective, and finally brisk: Joc cu bâta (dance with sticks), Brâul (a circle dance, perhaps related to the Branle), Pê-loc (a rather exotic Mid-East modal melody perhaps in imitation of a penny whistle, over a hurdy-gurdy like drone), Buciumeana (perhaps from a village of that name, a plaintive modal melody), Poargǎ româneascǎ (Romanian polka), Mǎruntel (fast dance).
A riveting and electric account of Copland’s iconic Appalachian Spring followed intermission. In the original 13-instrument chamber version for Martha Graham and her ballet troupe it achieves perfect clarity and absolute sonic perfection. Jacobsen’s style on the podium was energetic and dynamic in the livelier sections, while expressive and fluid in the quieter moments, allowing the players to shape their own solo lines, particularly in the flute, clarinet, and bassoon. Evocative of an Appalachian sunrise and concluding with its sunset, it successfully conveyed the magic of that scene, and the events in between ― a rousing barn dance, and the famous Shaker hymn of beauty “Simple Gifts” ― played first in serene simplicity by the clarinet (Agnes Marchione) and then in a triumphal conclusion – a day in the life, so to speak, of an American tale. Such emotion was aroused in the audience that the orchestra received a standing ovation for this work and would receive a second after the final set.
In the closer, Colin Jacobsen A Shadow Under Every Light, a suite of traditional folks songs from Slovakia and Moravia collected by Leoš Janáček, Colin Jacobsen served as violin soloist, he opened with the slow rhapsodic soliloquy followed by the fast dance typical of the Roma peoples who wandered across Eastern Europe, his intonation slightly detuned to the more authentic regional sounds he was evoking. This led into a sample from one of Janáček’s actual field recordings of the songs which flowed into the orchestral settings of six of the folk songs. Filled with poignancy, sadness, lyric empathy, these melodies soared with freedom, and were followed upon by dances of tremendous power, energy, and uplifting joy and freedom. The orchestra delivered a dynamism and passion that captured the soul of the music and the hearts of the listeners.