The Knights CHamber Orchestra

Noted  by critics and audiences for their unmatched energy, technical mastery, and connection to their listeners, The  Knights Chamber Orchestra will make its Carnegie Hall debut with  an eclectic program that features works by Lutoslawski, Bartok, Haydn, Torelli, Bigar and a selection  of traditional Gypsy tunes.

Witold Lutoslawski’s early Overture for Strings,  long overshadowed by the First Symphony (1947) and Musique Funebre  (1958), will open the Knights’ concert. Composed in 1949, the composition is illustrative of the composer’s interest in the music  of Bela Bartok, especially Bartok’s Divertimento  for Strings (1939), which will be featured in the second part of  the program. In the Overture,  the similarity to Bartok’s music is apparent in the organization of musical material through a close motivic construction, in which a variety  of interrelated three- and four-note melodic cells are continuously  manipulated in generating longer melodic lines as well as short motifs.

After  his First Symphony, the first  prominent composition to be labeled “formalist”, was banned in  a wave of Stalinist repression, Lutoslawski turned to experimentation in  study pieces based on folk elements. For the next several years he composed  mostly functional music – children’s songs, easy piano pieces,  and small ensemble works. Lutoslawski used those utilitarian works, mostly  in private sketches, to experiment in developing his own individual musical  language. The Overture was  the first abstract piece from that time – written in the  composer’s new harmonic language – to reach the stage. Since  then his distinctly defined and highly characteristic sound,  “perfectly balanced between form and content, intellect and  emotion” was steadily evolving to become fully apparent after the  Thaw of 1956.

“The Overture for Strings”,  writes Andrzej Chlopecki, “is the most interesting composition to be  composed before the Musique Funebre…  With its widely understood neoclassical features, it links itself on the  one hand to the scores of Albert Rousell and on the other to the music of Bela  Bartok. In many aspects the Overture  foreshadows what was to become of Lutoslawski’s music after the Musique Funebre or even the Venetian Games (1961). It is in this  composition that Lutoslawski for the first time used the ‘chain  technique,’ a technique based on the overlapping of various elements  and their gradual exchange, so characteristic of his latter style.”

The  Knights’ program will also include the world premiere of Philippe Bigar’s Printemps Perdu, Joseph Haydn’s joyous Concertino with acclaimed pianist,  Steven Beck, Giuseppe Torelli’s  rarely performed Christmas Concerto,  and selection of traditional gypsy tunes, a signature part of the  ensemble’s virtuosic and bravura style.

The  Knights’ performances have been captivating audiences for the past seven years. Critics from the New York Sun say the Knights’ performances are “truly an exhilarating experience.”  The New York Times said “You had  the feeling of being with musicians, not just
observing them.”

The Knights Chamber Orchestra is  a fellowship of accomplished young musicians, graduates of Juilliard,  Curtis, Manhattan, Mannes  and Eastman, who come together for the shared joy of musical exploration.  The Knights include members of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and  musicians who have performed as soloists with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, to name a few, and  appeared at the world’s most prestigious music festivals, including  Marlboro, Tanglewood, Verbier, Stillwater, Lucerne, Salzburg and Moritzburg.  The Knights have recently performed at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln  Center, Bargemusic, Musicians for Harmony, and were the resident chamber  orchestra for the 2007 Philip Glass MATA Festival.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 7:00 PM
Weill Recital  Hall at Carnegie Hall
57th Street  & Seventh Avenue, New  York, NY 10019

Tickets:  from $15 - $25, at 212-247-7800 or online