Track Listing

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op.61

1) I. Allegro ma non troppo
2) II. Larghetto
3) III. Rondo. Allegro

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op.77

4) I. Allegro non troppo
5) II. Adagio
6) III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace — Poco piu

About Gil Shaham

Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time, whose combination of flawless technique with inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit has solidified his legacy as a beloved master. He is sought after for concerto appearances as well as for recital and ensemble performances in the world’s most hallowed concert halls and most prestigious festivals.

Shaham regularly performs with the world’s top orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Israel Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, among others. In addition to his many orchestral engagements, Gil Shaham is an avid recitalist, chamber musician, and proponent of new works. He regularly collaborates with musical colleagues: composers William Bolcom, Bright Sheng and Avner Dorman; pianists Yefim Bronfman, Akira Eguchi and sister Orli Shaham; cellists Truls Mørk and Lynn Harrell, and his wife violinist Adele Anthony.

Shaham’s broad discography encompasses over 30 recordings including many award-winning discs, including multiple Grammys, a Grand Prix du Disque, a Diapason d’Or and Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Since 2004 Shaham’s recordings have been produced for his own label, Canary Classics, include Nigunim: Hebrew Melodies with Orli Shaham, Butterfly Lovers and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto; Sarasate: Virtuoso Violin Works with Adele Anthony, Akira Eguchi and Orquesta Sinfo´nica de Castilla y Leo´n. 2014 saw the release, to wide critical acclaim, of Volume 1 in his 1930s Violin Concertos (CC12) series encompassing concertos by Barber, Stravinsky, Berg, Hartmann and Britten, and in 2015 released his landmark recording of JS Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas (CC14), and in 2016 the Grammy nominated recording and second installment in his 1930s Violin Concertos featuring Prokofiev and Bartok’s second violin concertos (CC16).

Shaham was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990, and in 2008 he received the coveted Avery Fisher Award, presented live on national television in the USA by conductor Gustavo Dudamel.

In 2012, he was named ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ by Musical America, which cited the ‘special kind of humanism’ with which his performances are imbued. For this recording he performed on an Antonio Stradivari violin, Cremona c1719, with the assistance of Rare Violins In Consortium Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.

About The Knights

The Knights are a collective of adventurous musicians dedicated to transforming the orchestral experience and eliminating barriers between audiences and music. Driven by an open-minded spirit of camaraderie and exploration, they inspire listeners with vibrant programs that encompass their roots in the classical tradition and passion for artistic discovery. The orchestra has toured and recorded with renowned soloists including Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Be´la Fleck, and Gil Shaham, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, and the Vienna Musikverein. The Knights evolved from late-night chamber music reading parties with friends at the home of violinist Colin Jacobsen and cellist Eric Jacobsen, who serve as the group’s artistic directors.

The Knights are proud to be known as “one of Brooklyn’s sterling cultural products...known far beyond the borough for their relaxed virtuosity and expansive repertory” (The New Yorker). Their roster boasts musicians of remarkably diverse talents, including composers, arrangers, singer-songwriters, and improvisers, who bring a range of cultural influences to the group, from jazz and klezmer to pop and indie rock music. The unique camaraderie within the group retains the intimacy and spontaneity of chamber music in performance. Through the palatable joy and friendship in their music-making, each musician strives to include new and familiar audiences to experience this important art form. 

Counted among the highlights from recent seasons are: a fully-staged version of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide in honor of his 100th birthday at both the Tanglewood Music Festival and the Ravinia Festival; the premiere of The Head and the Load with international artist William Kentridge at London’s Tate Modern and New York’s Park Avenue Armory; the recording of Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto on master violinist Gil Shaham’s Grammy-nominated 2016 release, 1930s Violin Concertos, Vol. 2 and a performance in the NY PHIL BIENNIAL along with the San Francisco Girls Chorus (led by composer Lisa Bielawa) and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, which featured world premieres by Rome Prize-winner Bielawa, Pulitzer Prize-winner Aaron Jay Kernis, and Knights violinist and co-founder Colin Jacobsen. The ensemble made its Carnegie Hall debut in the New York premiere of the Steven Stucky/Jeremy Denk opera The Classical Style, and has toured the U.S. with banjo virtuoso Be´la Fleck and Europe with soprano Dawn Upshaw. 

Other recordings include the critically acclaimed Azul, released in 2016; 2015’s “instinctive and appealing” (The Times, UK) the ground beneath our feet on Warner Classics; an all-Beethoven disc on Sony Classical; and 2012’s “smartly programmed” (NPR) A Second of Silence for Ancalagon.

About Eric Jacobsen

Hailed by the New York Times as “an interpretive dynamo,” conductor and cellist Eric Jacobsen has built a reputation for engaging audiences with innovative and collaborative programming.

Jacobsen is Co-Artistic Director and conductor of The Knights, and also serves as the Music Director for the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and the Greater Bridgeport Symphony. Jacobsen founded the adventurous orchestra The Knights with his brother, violinist Colin Jacobsen, to foster the intimacy and camaraderie of chamber music on the orchestral stage. As conductor, Jacobsen has led the “consistently inventive, infectiously engaged indie ensemble” (New York Times) at Central Park’s Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, (Le) Poisson Rouge, the 92nd Street Y, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center, at major summer festivals such as Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Ojai, and on tour nationally and internationally, including at the Cologne Philharmonie, Düsseldorf Tonhalle, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Salzburg Großes Festspielhaus, Vienna Musikverein, National Gallery of Dublin, and the Dresden Musikfestspiele. Recent collaborators include violinists Itzhak Perlman and Gil Shaham, singers Dawn Upshaw, Susan Graham, and Nicholas Phan, and pianists Emanuel Ax and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.  Also in demand as a guest conductor, Jacobsen has led the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Detroit, Virginia, Alabama, the New World, Naples, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck.

Under Jacobsen’s baton, The Knights have developed an extensive recording collection, which includes the critically acclaimed albums Azul, with longtime collaborator Yo-Yo Ma, as well as the Prokofiev Concerto in the Grammy-nominated Gil Shaham album 1930s Violin Concertos. The Knights issued three albums for Sony Classical including Jan Vogler and The Knights Experience: Live from New York; New Worlds, and an all-Beethoven album, as well as the “smartly programmed” (NPR) A Second in Silence on the Ancalagon label. Jacobsen’s first release on Warner Classics was the ground beneath our feet. We Are The Knights, a documentary film produced by Thirteen/WNET, premiered in September 2011.

A dedicated chamber musician, Jacobsen is a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, participating in residencies and performances at the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, and across the U.S., Central Asia, Middle East, Far East, and Europe. In addition, as a founding member of the string quartet Brooklyn Rider, he has taken part in a wealth of world premieres and toured extensively in North America, Europe, and Asia.

About Colin Jacobsen

Violinist and composer Colin Jacobsen is “one of the most interesting figures on the classical music scene” (The Washington Post). An eclectic composer who draws on a range of influences, he was named one of the top 100 composers under 40 by NPR listeners. He is also active as an Avery Fisher Career Grant-winning soloist and has toured with the Silk Road Ensemble since its inception in 2000. For his work as a founding member of two game-changing, audience-expanding ensembles – the string quartet Brooklyn Rider and orchestra The Knights – Jacobsen was selected from among the nation’s top visual, performing, media, and literary artists to receive a prestigious and substantial United States Artists Fellowship.  As a featured soloist and composer with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, he performed at the Sydney Opera House in a memorable concert streamed by millions of viewers worldwide. His compositions and arrangements for dance and theater include The Principles of Uncertainty, a collaboration between writer/illustrator Maira Kalman and Dance Heginbotham; and More Or Less I Am, a theatrical production of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself by Compagnia de' Colombari.