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Join Us For Our 2024-2025 Season! |
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Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players “This was music-making of a very high order” Fred Kirshnit, The New York Sun |
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Why the name Jupiter: When Jens Nygaard named his orchestra Jupiter, he had the beautiful, gaseous planet in mind—unattainable but worth the effort, like reaching musical perfection. Many, indeed, were privileged and fortunate to hear his music making that was truly Out of This World. Our Players today seek to attain that stellar quality.
View Our Printable Calendar and Ticket Order Form (pdf) Take a look at our guest artists for this season. |
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Join us for our next concerts...
Monday, September 23 ♦ 2 PM & 7:30 PM Tickets: $25, $17, $10 ~ Reservations advised Janice Carissa piano Stefan Jackiw violin Paul Laraia viola Christine Lee cello Vadim Lando clarinet Yoonah Kim clarinet Michèl YOST Duo for Two Clarinets Op. 10 No. 6 Yost (1754–1786), a Parisian composer and brilliant virtuoso, cofounded a French clarinet school. He received his early education from his Swiss father, who played the trumpet in the French cavalry, and from military bandsmen. He later studied with Joseph Beer, who also taught Heinrich Baermann. (Beer’s performances at the Concerts Spirituel in Paris were major cultural events. His gentle, nimble tone and virtuosity inspired French composers to rewrite oboe parts for the clarinet and to feature the instrument in symphonies and concertos.) Yost himself was distinguished for the extraordinary beauty of his tone and the accuracy of his playing, which brought him fame beyond France. Before his early death at age 32, Yost wrote concertos, quartets, and duets which were published under his first name. Praised for their meticulous craftsmanship, they were performed throughout Europe; his clarinet concertos were especially popular. Many of his works were also written in collaboration with Johann Christoph Vogel. Among his pupils was Jean Xavier Lefèvre, whose beautiful sound and clean execution were praised by François-Joseph Fétis, the influential Belgian critic. Cécile CHAMINADE Piano Trio No. 2 in A minor Op. 34 Chaminade is the foremost French woman composer of the late Romantic era, and is known chiefly for her character pieces for piano as well as salon songs—elegant, tuneful, and often witty. She was born in Paris in 1857 into a prosperous family. First taught by her mother, she was composing by the age of 7; two of her piano mazurkas appeared in print in a magazine around this time. Their neighbor, Georges Bizet, noticed her talent while visiting the Chaminades in August 1869, and dubbed her the “Petite Mozart.” Since her father was against a music education at the Conservatoire, she studied privately at home. In 1875 she gave her first public recital, after which she performed numerous concert tours, particularly in England, where Queen Victoria became her fan. In the 1890s Chaminade visited Her Majesty at Windsor Castle several times, and one of her compositions, the song Reste, was dedicated to Princess Beatrice. While in London during Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee (the 60th anniversary of her reign), Chaminade received a Jubilee Medal. And at Victoria’s funeral in January 1901, the ceremonies included a performance of her Prélude for organ. President Theodore Roosevelt also invited her to play at the White House. Before her star faded with the onset of the Great War, almost all her compositions sold well during her lifetime; and there were some 200 Chaminade Clubs in the United States alone. In 1913 Chaminade was the first woman composer ever to be granted the Legion of Honor award. The composer Ambroise Thomas said, “This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman.” Yet she died a recluse in Monaco in 1944, her music nearly forgotten. Francis POULENC L’invitation au château FP 138 In July 1947, when Anouilh announced that The Invitation to the Castle was almost completed, he asked Poulenc to write a single amusing waltz for the comedy. Poulenc not only provided one waltz, but an irresistible, sensual suite of infectious dances. It is music of great personality. Premiered on 15 November 1947, the collaboration between Anouilh and Poulenc was a success. In 1950, the dramatist Christopher Fry made an adaptation in English—Ring Round the Moon—which had its first production at the Globe Theatre starring Paul Scofield, Claire Bloom, and Margaret Rutherford. The plot centers around a ball hosted by a young man who disapproves of the engagement of his twin brother—the light confection of mistaken identities and heartbreak schemes is joyful and perfect in its portrayal of a Cinderella finding her true love at the unexpected ball. The 11 short musical movements include the Boston, a Waltz brillante and Waltz of the little moles, Tango (with a French twist), Gavotte, Polka, and Tarantella. The Boston enjoyed popularity in the early 1920s, but it was soon upstaged by the Charleston and Black Bottom. Gabriel FAURÉ Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor Op. 15 During the years Fauré composed his first Piano Quartet, he became engaged to Marianne Viardot after a 5-year courtship, but she broke off the engagement in October 1877 after only 3 months. Although his heart was broken, he reasoned, in retrospect, “Perhaps the break was not a bad thing for me. The Viardot family might have deflected me from my proper path.” (Marianne’s mother, Pauline, was the noted composer and mezzo-soprano.) The Piano Quartet, with its endless resourcefulness in harmony and melodic invention, premiered on 14 February 1880 at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique, with Fauré at the piano. The revised version with a new finale premiered 5 April 1884, again with Fauré as the pianist. Fauré (1845–1924) was born in Paniers, the youngest of 6 children. He recalled, “I grew up, a rather quiet well-behaved child, in an area of great beauty. But the only thing I remember really clearly is the harmonium in that little chapel. Every time I could get away I ran there—and I regaled myself.… I played atrociously…no method at all, quite without technique, but I do remember that I was happy.” The esteemed critic Harold Schonberg wrote in The Lives of the Great Composers, “One of the few important French composers not trained at the Conservatoire, Fauré instead studied at the École Niedermeyer [where he was a boarder for 11 years, from the age of 9]. Among his teachers was Saint-Saëns, and Fauré later said that he owed everything to his older colleague. In those days, the middle 1850s, Saint-Saëns was one of the progressives, and he introduced his pupils to Wagner and Liszt as well as to Bach and Mozart. Later he supported Fauré with encouragement and help, finding jobs and publishers for him. Fauré probably had a better musical education at the Niedermeyer than he would have received at the Conservatoire, which was largely a factory for producing virtuosos and fashionable composers. Thanks to Saint-Saëns, Fauré was introduced to the whole range of music.” In the 1870s Fauré worked as an organist and teacher, and served during the Franco-Prussian War. He also composed and regularly visited Saint-Saëns’s salon, where he met all the members of Parisian musical society. When the Société Nationale de Musique was established on 25 February 1871, upon the instigation of Saint-Saëns and Romaine Bussin, Fauré was among its founding members. The Société sought to develop a new French idiom with an emphasis on finesse, delicacy, and nuance, and thus laid the groundwork for the impressionism of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. |
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Monday, October 7 ♦ 2 PM & 7:30 PM Tickets: $25, $17, $10 ~ Reservations advised Fei Fei piano Asi Matathias violin Joel ENGEL Freilechs Dance Op. 21 Freylekhs are lively circle or line dances commonly performed at weddings. Engel (1868–1927) is regarded as the “Father of the Renaissance of Jewish Music.” The Russian composer, critic, and folklorist was born in Berdiansk, Crimea, and studied law before switching to studies with Sergey Taneyev and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov at the Moscow Conservatory. After graduating, he worked as a music critic for the newspaper Russkiya vedomosty from 1897 to 1919. Concurrently, he composed. Engel also became interested in Jewish folk music—he collected, arranged, performed, and published the songs of Eastern European Jews. He went on excursions to the shtetls of Eastern Europe, writing down the villagers’ songs and then composed music inspired by his findings. In addition, he promoted his interest with lectures on Jewish folk music, and encouraged other Jewish composers to create a national Jewish style of classical music. In 1924 Engel moved to Palestine, settling in Tel Aviv “as a teacher and choir conductor in support of his belief that the revival of Jewish song was prerequisite for any future art of music in Israel [New Grove Dictionary].” Aleksandr KREIN Esquisses hébraïques Op. 13 In Krein’s words, “The form was improvisational, after the manner of my father’s extemporizations on the violin.” The second of two sets of “Jewish Sketches” was written at the urging of Joel Engel, who encouraged Krein to explore his own Jewish musical heritage. The piece earned immediate acclaim, establishing Krein as a major new voice in both Russian and Jewish music. Critics were particularly struck by the use of the classical string quartet with a clarinet line that evoked the idiosyncratic melody and intonation of klezmer music, a sound sometimes said to mimic the emotive character of Jewish prayer chants, the soulful inflections once described as “laughter through tears.” Krein (1883–1951) was one of the leading modernist composers of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. Born in Nizhni Novgorod, he was one of 10 children in a family of traditional Jewish folk musicians; his father Abraham was a folk violinist. His childhood was spent performing in his father’s band, playing klezmer music (Eastern European music in the Jewish tradition). At age 13 he entered the Moscow Conservatory as a cello student, then studied music theory and composition with Sergey Taneyev. “While still a student, Krein began to compose song settings for Russian and French symbolist poetry. Upon graduation in 1908, he developed a highly original style of Jewish concert music, one that combined the new harmonic language of modern composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel and, in particular, Scriabin with the lyrical melodies and distinctive modes of Jewish folk music [Yivo Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe].” In her paper on “Herzlian Zionism and the chamber music of the New Jewish School, 1912-1925” Erin Fulton wrote, “Yoel Engel and Alexander Krein both left accounts identifying their first interest in Jewish music as an expression of ethnic identity. Krein in particular advocated nationalist music to resist absorption into Russian culture, calling his compositions a ‘turning towards Jewish melody as a protest against persecution and assimilation.’ …These political influences encouraged composers of the New Jewish School to write music that could be played by touring ensembles intended to spread Zionist ideas, and small chamber groups were best suited to such wide travel…. Correspondingly, the Society for Jewish Folk Music sponsored touring ensembles that visited Zionist organizations in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Lithuania, and Russia beginning in 1909. Special mention was given to the chamber music tours as one of the Society’s primary achievements at the organization’s third anniversary session, indicating the importance its members placed on this activity.” Mieczysław WEINBERG Aria Op. 9 Weinberg (1919–1975) is thought of as the third great Soviet composer, along with Prokofiev and Shostakovich. He was born to a musical family in Warsaw. His father—a violinist and conductor in a Yiddish theater—gave the boy his first jobs as a musician, and exposed him to the traditional and liturgical Jewish music that influenced his creativity. At an early age, he taught himself to play the piano, and became sufficiently skillful to substitute for his father as conductor. In 1931 he began piano studies at the Warsaw Conservatory. Shortly after graduating in 1939, Weinberg fled the German occupation of Warsaw. He managed to escape to the Russian border after a 17-day trek, but his parents and sister were captured and burned alive. At first he was a refugee in Minsk, but when the Germans began their invasion of the Soviet Union, he was evacuated to Tashkent, where he wrote the Aria (it was not performed during his lifetime). While in Tashkent, in 1942, the composer Israel Finkelstein took an interest in him and showed Shostakovich Weinberg’s First Symphony. Shostakovich was so impressed that he arranged for Weinberg to move in 1943 to Moscow, where he lived the rest of his life. The two composers forged a close friendship that remained central to both of their lives. During the official persecution of Jews, Weinberg was imprisoned in February 1953, but was released after Stalin’s death in April. He continued composing serious works as well as vast amounts of film and cartoon music, radio plays, and music for the circus to support the family. Sergei PROKOFIEV Overture on Hebrew Themes The Overture “is the offspring of an encounter between a small group of Zionist-oriented Jewish musicians committed to Jewish culture and a non-Jew who will always be counted among the major and most influential composers of the first half of the 20th century. The work, composed in New York in 1919–20, was the result of the coincidental confluence of the Russian-born New National School in Jewish Music (the movement centered originally within the Gesellschaft für jüdische Volksmusik in St. Petersburg and its branches) and an artistic inspiration that was ignited and fulfilled when a chamber ensemble of six Russian-Jewish representatives of that New National School performed in New York during Prokofiev’s years there. They were known collectively as the Zimro Ensemble and also as the Palestine Chamber Music Ensemble: ZIMRO. The story framed by that ensemble’s birth in 1918 and its American concerts between 1919 and 1921 en route to Palestine constitutes a fascinating but short-lived and obscure episode in the history of Jewish music in the modern era. For Zimro would offer the American public…its first aural glimpse of the genuine folk melos that had flourished for at least a century in the outlying regions of the Czarist Empire and an insight into the fruits of the Gesellschaft’s mission and its activities within the Russian cultural sphere…. Zimro presented the world premiere of the Overture…[in] February (1920) at the Bohemian Club in New York—with Prokofiev as the guest pianist. The group repeated it, also with Prokofiev at the piano, in April of that year, at the ensemble’s second concert at Carnegie Hall. They played it again at Carnegie Hall at least twice: with their own pianist, Berdichevsky, in 1921; and in December 1920, possibly with guest pianist Lara Cherniavksy.…” In 1934 Prokofiev arranged it for chamber orchestra. Prokofiev had a close relationship with the Bolsheviks before the Russian Revolution of 1917, but he went abroad, living in New York and Paris during most of the early years of the Soviet Union, and by the time he returned in 1935 he found cultural life under monitor—the Composers Union was formed to police the likes of Prokofiev and his more outspoken contemporary Shostakovich for alleged “formalist tendencies” considered to be intellectually elitist and anti-Soviet. Further, any freedom they may have had ended with the 1948 Zhdanov Decree, aimed at suppressing artistic self-expression. Prokofiev was now viewed as “anti-democratic” and much of his music was banned. Many concert and theater administrators refused to program his music, fearful of the consequences of supporting an artist denounced by the regime. He suffered censorship until his death in 1953. Leo ORNSTEIN Piano Quintet Op. 92 The Quintet premiered at a concert in which works by Bartók (who was also present) were performed. Gramophone has described it as “a glorious confection of Stravinsky, Ravel, Rachmaninov and East European folk idioms that almost makes up in enthusiasm what it so conspicuously lacks in discipline…. In the Quintet’s world of elementary melody and accompaniment, amplified by virtuoso texture and spiced by additive-rhythm ostinato, the piano is king.” A writer for the New World Records heard “Sweeping melodies floating beatlessly over strongly marked metric supports. In the outer movements, the mood is often epic; one is reminded of the movies of Eisenstein and the great Russian landscapes, marauding bands of Cossacks, affecting cantorial wails.… The slow movement is an eloquent expression of human sadness.” Ornstein’s obituary in the Independent recalled “An epic tonal work…recognized as a masterpiece of the genre.” Ornstein (1893–2002), the son of a Russian cantor, grew up hearing not only Jewish liturgical music, but Greek and Armenian chant, as well as Russian folk music. These influences are featured and blended in his music, together with a highly personal language of dissonant tonality. A prodigy, he was taught by his father until age 11, when he entered the St Petersburg Conservatory and studied with Alexander Glazunov. In 1907 he emigrated to New York and continued his education at the Institute of Musical Art (now Juilliard) with Bertha Fiering Tapper, the strongest single influence on his life and music. After his debut in 1911 he became a super piano virtuoso, who simultaneously outraged and riveted audiences with his unprecedented “futurist” experimental piano works. Then, after extensive touring and international fame, he abruptly ended his concert career at its height, in 1920, to pursue a quieter life of composition and teaching at the Philadelphia Musical Academy and Ornstein School of Music. A renewed interest in his music began in the 1970s with a steady increase in performances and recordings. When he died in Green Bay, Wisconsin at the age of 108, Ornstein had composed for more than 80 years and was among the longest-lived of composers. |
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Jupiter 2024 - 2025 Season Tickets: $25, $17, $10 ~ Reservations advised Please visit our Media Page to hear Audio Recordings from the Jens Nygaard and Jupiter Symphony Archive Concert Venue:
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Like our Facebook page to see photos, videos, Jupiter in the News ConcertoNet
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As promised, here are the videos of John Field’s Divertissement No. 1 and Sir Hamilton Harty’s Piano Quintet. Fortuitously, our Jupiter musicians had the good sense to record the rehearsal in an impromptu decision, literally minutes before pressing the record button. Pianist Mackenzie Melemed (replacing Roman Rabinovich at the last minute) learned the music in 2 days! Bravo to him. Both works are Irish rarities that were scheduled for the March 16 performances which had to be canceled because of the coronavirus epidemic. Even though the entire program could not be recorded because of technical issues, we are pleased to be able to share with you the 2 musical gems. Enjoy.
John FIELD Divertissement No. 1 H. 13 We thank the University of Illinois (Champaign) for a copy of the Divertissement music. Mackenzie Melemed piano
Sir Hamilton HARTY Piano Quintet in F Major Op. 12 Andrew Clements of the Guardian proclaimed the beautiful Quintet “a real discovery: a big, bold statement full of striking melodic ideas and intriguing harmonic shifts, which adds Brahms and Dvořák into Harty’s stylistic mix, together with Tchaikovsky in some passages.” There’s folk music charm as well, reminiscent of Percy Grainger—notably in the Scherzo (Vivace) with its folksy quirks and nonchalance, and the winding, pentatonic melody in the Lento. Our gratitude to the Queen’s University Library in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for a copy of the autograph manuscript of the music. Much thanks, too, to Connor Brown for speedily creating a printed score and parts from Harty’s manuscript. Mackenzie Melemed piano I Allegro 0:00 | ||||||
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Jupiter featured on Our Net News American program opener on March 18, with grateful thanks to Michael Shaffer of OurNetNews.com for recording the matinee concert, and making available the Horatio Parker Suite video for our viewing pleasure. Horatio Parker Suite in A Major, Op. 35, composed in 1893 Stephen Beus piano
More video from this performance can be viewed on our media page |
Jupiter on YouTube NEW YORK CANVAS : The Art of Michael McNamara is a video portrait of the artist who has painted iconic images of New York City for more than a decade, capturing the changing urban landscape of his adopted city. Our Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players provide the music from Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G Minor, underscoring the inspiration the artist has drawn from Jens Nygaard and the musicians. Michael was also our Jupiter volunteer from 2002 to 2010. Here is a video of the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players performance of the Rondo alla Zingarese movement:
The producer-director, Martin Spinelli, also made the EMMY Award-winning “Life On Jupiter: The Story of Jens Nygaard, Musician.” For more information, visit our media
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“Some great musicians get a statue when they pass away. Some get their name imprinted on the roof of a well-known concert hall. But the late conductor Jens Nygaard has a living tribute: an entire ensemble of musicians and a concert series to go along with it... It is one of the city’s cultural jewels... In the end, if Mr. Nygaard was known for anything, it was unmitigated verve. That’s what the audience regularly returned for, and that’s what they got Monday afternoon. To have a grassroots community of musicians continue to celebrate Mr. Nygaard with indomitable performances like these week after week, even without the power of world-famous guest soloists, is proper tribute. And with more large orchestras and ensembles needing more corporate sponsorship year after year, I, for one, hope the Jupiter’s individual subscriber-base remains strong. New York’s musical life needs the spirit of Jens Nygaard, and Mei Ying should be proud she’s keeping it alive.” Read the complete article on our reviews page. |
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MeiYing Manager All
performances, except where otherwise noted, are held at: Copyright © 1999-2024 Jupiter Symphony. All rights reserved.
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