The Knights, Jan Vogler, Eric Jacobsen - New Worlds (2009)

The Knights are an orchestra not affiliated with a city or an institution of learning such as a university, and they are committed to taking orchestral music out of the concert hall and directly to the people through playing non-traditional venues such as New York City's landmark restaurant Le Poisson Rouge. Sony's disc New Worlds was inspired by a program prepared by the Knights for the annual Dresden Music Festival, which chose as its theme the concept of "New Worlds" for its 2009 edition. These recordings, however, were made in Sony's Legacy Studios in New York and not at the festival itself, and for the better, as they have a great sense of presence while maintaining orchestral depth. This works very well for the splendid version of Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question included; for once, listeners are not straining to hear the string chorus and having the foreground elements smack them in the face, but all is well-balanced. Gabriela Lena Frank's Leyendas is a spicy and effervescently rhythmic confection that utilizes "new music" techniques in a wry and humorous fashion, whereas Dvorák's Silent Woods is indeed woody, wide, and fully achieved in a standard romantic idiom, perhaps the ultimate test of the mettle of a new century orchestra; how well can than they do standard, 19th century fare? If you're the Knights and cello soloist Jan Vogler, about as well as the Czech Philharmonic does Dvorák.