The Kreutzer Project

Rodolphe Kreutzer was the violinist to whom Beethoven dedicated his ninth and finest violin sonata, and its piano part is recast for orchestra in this new arrangement. Colin Jacobsen gives a commandingly eloquent account of the solo part, the orchestra fleshing out the piano writing into a full-blown, concerto-style accompaniment. Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1—named “Kreutzer Sonata” after a Tolstoy novella—gets a similar orchestral treatment, in a vividly spiky performance by the Brooklyn-based ensemble The Knights. Shorter pieces by Colin Jacobsen and Anna Clyne complete an album which draws intriguing threads of influence through a group of composers not normally yoked together.