Broadcasts.com - "The Knights reimagine the ideas of Beethoven and Tolstoy" (New Classical Tracks with Julie Amacher)

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The Knights reimagine the ideas of Beethoven and Tolstoy

Published: Oct. 5, 2022, 7:02 a.m.

The Knights \u2014 The Kreutzer Project (Avie)

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New Classical Tracks - The Knights

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\u201cAren\u2019t we all obsessed with time travel? Aren\u2019t we all wanting to have dinner with that person that\u2019s not alive anymore,\u201d conductor of the Knights, Eric Jacobsen, asked when he fired up the time machine for their newest album, The Kreutzer Project. With his brother, violinist and composer Colin Jacobsen,\xa0they explore time-traveling dialogues between Beethoven in 1803, Leo Tolstoy in 1889, Leos Janacek in 1923 and most recently, Anna Clyne and Colin Jacobsen with their 21st-century pieces.

What idea launched this project?

Eric: \u201cThere were a couple of things that got this going. I can't remember if the Beethoven violin and piano sonata was the first thing that we said, \u2018Oh, my gosh, this can be a concerto,\u2019 or if we looked at the Janacek String Quartet and said, \u2018Wow, this could absolutely have a harp, snare drum and woodwinds.\u2019 We thought of all the works at the same time.\u201d

Is it true that Beethoven's sonatas are infamous for being hard on both the pianist and violinist?

Colin: \u201cThe issue in this version is it\u2019s a violin concerto, but the orchestra is playing the piano part, which is incredibly virtuosic. It\u2019s really a concerto grosso grosso because everyone has to pull their weight with the virtuosic lines.\u201d

Eric: \u201cWhen someone listens to this and doesn\u2019t know that it was arranged and made today, I think one would probably assume that it was made during Beethoven's life because it fits that time period. We know that he didn't make this arrangement, but it almost feels like it could be. It is from a composer who only wrote one violin concerto. I feel like this is an incredible complement to that piece.\u201d

Tell us about the expanded version of Leos Janacek\u2019s String Quartet.

Colin: \u201cA lot of Janacek\u2019s music has a sense of beauty that is thwarted or interrupted. You can hear that in the very opening. There's this gorgeous yearning chorale and it contains the primary motif of the whole piece then immediately you get interruptions from different voices. I think this is part of the emotion from the Tolstoy novella, which is a yearning for something that gets thwarted all the time.\u201d

Watch now

To hear the rest of my conversation, click on the extended interview above, or\xa0download the extended podcast on iTunes\xa0or wherever you get your podcasts.