New Worlds / Eric Jacobsen, The Knights, Jan Vogler

　ドレスデン・シュターツカペレの元首席チェロ奏者ヤン・フォーグラーの最新録音は、室内オーケストラ「ザ・ナイツ」とのセカンド・ザルバム。前回の「Experience－ショスタコーヴィチ作品集（88697469852）」では、なんとクラブでのライヴ録音。ショスタコのロシア・ガチガチ音楽を、美音とカンタービレで国籍不明の抒情作品にしてしまったのだ。今回は彼らのニューヨークでのスタジオ録音でのしっかりしたものですが、「新世界とはなんぞや？」と問いかけてくるのです。ここに収録された作品は、もちろん南北アメリカの音楽との融合を図ったもので、それに対して彼ら自身で答えを出していくのです。
　指揮者のエリック・ジェイコブセンは若手のチェロ奏者で、様々なアメリカの管弦楽団や音楽祭に出演。またバロック・チェロのアンナー・ビルスマとの共演など、様々な時代の音楽を精力的に演奏してきています。彼は、ヨーヨー・マの「シルクロード・アンサンブル」のメンバーも務めています。彼が結成したザ・ナイツ（The Knights：室内オーケストラ）は、ニューヨークを中心とした非常に若いソリストばかりで結成されており、「光の中でかき消されたものを新たに一体化した、圧倒的な誘惑に誘い出される。」「ジャンルを超越した官能的な新ファッション！いかなる古典的批評家も認めざるをえない。」と高い評価を得ています。 ［コメント提供；ソニー・ミュージック］
---

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 Dvorak'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 Dvorak. The Golijov is both bristling with energy and tension and played with precision; well done, especially when one considers the rather complex rhythmic profile of the piece. Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring closes out the show, and the Knights' -- and conductor Eric Jacobsen's -- attentiveness to detail pays off in the Copland, which for some established orchestras can sound like a tired old warhorse. That said, it doesn't quite crackle with the electricity encountered in older recordings by Antal Dorati or Copland himself, but the Knights' reading is fresher than many to most interpretations of this very commonly recorded piece. Listen up, orchestras of the classical establishment: here is your competition. In order to keep pace with what the Knights can offer in lithe limberness and immediacy, the big concert orchestras might need to put in some time at the gymnasium; suffice it is to say that New Worlds is a refreshing change over usual orchestral fare.