One is a violinist, the other a cellist and conductor. New York-based brothers Colin and Eric Jacobsen and their chamber orchestra collective “The Knights”, which emerged from their own circle of friends, play early music as vividly as if it had just been written and new music with great naturalness and familiarity. The members are all outstanding musicians, “constantly on the lookout for new approaches and interpreters” and “serious about having fun!”

This evening’s programme also bears witness to this artistic philosophy. It is inspired by the story “The Kreutzer Sonata” by Leo Tolstoy, referring to Beethoven’s famous violin sonata. Instead of the usual pianist, Australian-Taiwanese star violinist Ray Chen performs Beethoven’s sonata in a version for string orchestra and solo violin with The Knights. Leoš Janáček’s “Kreutzer Sonata” forges a link between story and music by “setting” the novella to quartet music. Incidentally, he accomplished this in 1923 in an astonishing nine days. Colin Jacobsen examines the body of works in his introductory “Kreutzings”.