Jacobsen

The soulful sounds of the saxophone played by multi-GRAMMY-award-winning Branford Marsalis pairs perfectly with the evocative works of British composer Sally Beamish and Mahler. Led by Eric Jacobsen with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, this album delivers the songful melancholy of the Mahler songs, played by Marsalis, combined with the freneticism and imagery of Sally Beamish’s two rarely heard works, brought to a center stage.

The survival of classical music may hinge on its ability to appear prominently outside the standard venues of concert halls and recording studios, thereby reaching a much larger audience of listeners who might otherwise never be treated to the masterworks of the canonical repertoire. New York-based ensemble the Knights seeks to do that by coupling its impressively broad repertoire (ranging from classical to jazz to world music) with a desire to play in locations where one might not expect to see an orchestra.