Gil Shaham Guides Jared Bowen from WGBH through the Beethoven And Brahms Violin Concerto In His Recording With The Knights ... and Jared is left lost for words.

''If there is one word that conveys violinist Gil Shaham's artistry and personality – it's warmth. A meltingly beautiful warm tone from his violin, equally matched by his sweet disposition. Shaham joined "City Lights" host Lois Reitzes to talk about his new recording on the Canary Classics label. His new album is with conductor Eric Jacobson and the Brooklyn-based ensemble, The Knights. It features two warhorses – the violin concertos of Beethoven and Brahms.''

As an accompaniment to his IDAGIO-GBH performance available on demand with The Knights, violinist Gil Shaham reveals deeply embedded musical and narrative connections between two foundational concertos.

One of them, the singular Violin Concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven, embodies all of the epochal tension the composer's music represents, from Apollonian Classicism to emotion-driven Romanticism. And, in a newly conceived chamber ensemble arrangement, it's also the centerpiece of a concert that streams on IDAGIO in the first co-production of the German classical music service and GBH Music in a series called Performance Reimagined.

Violinist Gil Shaham and Eric Jacobsen, Co-Artistic Director of The Knights, discuss their new CD: "Beethoven & Brahms Violin Concertos"

The Violin Channel recently sat down with the pair to discuss working together on Gil's first solo release in almost five years and his first recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto.

Together, Shaham and The Knights present two of the best-known violin concertos in the classical repertoire, those by Beethoven and Brahms, and they make them seem new all over again.

When Shaham enters with the violin, he does so with a flourish. His musicianship is impeccable, a violin virtuoso of the highest order. More important, Shaham practically attacks the score, imbuing it with vigor and enthusiasm, yet losing nothing of the music's inherent lyrical qualities. Along with the interpretation by Jascha Heifetz, Shaham's performance is among the most exciting I've ever heard on record. Understand, however, that there are more subtle, more refined, more cultivated recordings available from the likes of Itzhak Perlman (EMI) and others. But none of them tops this new release from Gil Shaham for total listener involvement and satisfaction.

Gil Shaham and The Knights: the Music that Grows from Friendship

When Gil Shaham decided to record the Beethoven and Brahms violin concertos with the Brooklyn-based orchestra called The Knights, he wasn't too surprised that the first rehearsal was more of a chamber music party in the conductor's living room. Shaham sat in a circle with conductor Eric Jacobsen and the orchestra's section leaders, and they read through the concertos together.

That's just how The Knights do things.

The high point, for me, is the slow movement of the Brahms Concerto, where The Knights under Eric Jacobsen draw a slim but warmly present bass line and, beyond a fine oboe solo (Gustav Highstein), Gil Shaham starts to spin the sweetest narrative. This romantic sensibility is telling but never overstated, just as in the outer movements Shaham and his accomplices opt for a balletic approach to music that often treads heavily in hobnail boots.

'These two performances showcase a group of instrumentalists whose collective musicianship is electrifying: full of just the right combination of wonder, play, and discovery this much-loved repertoire needs in order to sound fresh and truly come to life. Shaham's rapport with The Knights is total, as evidenced by their unanimity of articulations and overall feel ... In any normal Beethoven recording, Shaham's lilting account of the last movement's minore episodes and his flexible delineation of the phrases leading into the coda would be enough to carry the day. Here, though, the performance includes something even more astonishing, in the form of a wild cadenza (written by Shaham) for soloist, horns, and timpani that simply must be heard to be believed...'