A Living Tribute to Jens Nygaard: Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players... It's Out of This World

A chamber music series to acknowledge and perpetuate the legacy of conductor Jens Nygaard, continuing a marvelous journey through the universe of music that includes works from the standard repertoire and the rarely-performed, and featuring outstanding musicians.

Join Us For Our 2023-2024 Season!

Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players

“This was music-making of a very high order”
“at the Jupiter concerts, there is always so much about which to be enthusiastic.”
“the rarities glittered like jewels”

Fred Kirshnit, The New York Sun
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Greetings!

    We are delighted to have the opportunity to entertain you for another season of splendid music making by our stellar musicians. This is made possible, in large part, by our generous Patrons and Friends. We thank them over and over again.

    Michael Volpert, our artistic director, is the mastermind of the 20 programs of beloved works as well as rarities by obscure and famous composers. All the pieces have histories and stories behind them, as well as beautiful and interesting melodies. There is much to discover and enjoy, enhanced by our venue’s great acoustics.

    Jupiter will remain vigilant post-pandemic. At this time the wearing of masks is optional. As called for, policies may be tightened or adjusted based on data and expert advice. For up-to-date safety and program details, please visit the website.

You’ll have:

HEPA-filter air purifiers in operation
Ventilation—as much as possible
Spaced-apart seating for better sight lines

   Ticket reservations are advised to avoid disappointment at the door.

Jupiter ticket prices remain a bargain for the best music making. Please give as much as you can to help keep Jupiter thriving. A gift of $100 or more makes you a “Friend.” Your financial support is always needed and appreciated.
   All gifts are tax deductible.
   Thank you so much,
Meiying

Jens Nygaard & pianist William Wolfram
circa late 1990s
Jens Nygaard & pianist William Wolfram
circa late 1990s

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 Season Calendar

Click on the dates for 2023-2024 program details:

September 11 ~ In Remembrance
September 18 ~ Quite English

October 2 ~ Poles to Extol
October 16 ~ Beethoven’s Circle
October 30 ~ Two Titans
November 13 ~ Country Rambles
November 20 ~ Mendelssohn & Friends
December 4 ~ Swiss Ties
December 18 ~ Romantic Beauties
January 8 ~ Stars & Stripes

January 22 ~ Molto Bello
February 5 ~ Halevy’s Pupils
February 19 ~ Born in Vienna
March 4 ~ Baroque Bliss
March 18 ~ Organ Virtuosos
March 25 ~ German Talent
April 8 ~ Czech Specialities
April 15 ~ Sinfonia Concertantes in chamber renderings
April 29 ~ Folk Roots
May 13 ~ Russian Splendor

more details here...

View Our Printable Calendar and Ticket Order Form (pdf)

Take a look at our guest artists for this season.
Find out more about the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.

Join us for our next concerts...

Evren Ozel, piano
Lun Li, violin
Njioma Grevious, violin
Natalie Loughran, viola
Oliver Herbert, cello
Anthony Trionfo, flute
Roni Gal-Ed, oboe
Vadim Lando, clarinet
Karl Kramer, horn
Daniel McCarty, bassoon

Monday, December 4 2 PM & 7:30 PM
Swiss Ties
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway)

Limited Seating

Tickets: $25, $17, $10 ~ Reservations advised
Call (212) 799-1259 or email admin@jupitersymphony.com
Pay by check or cash (exact change)​​​

Evren Ozel piano
Winner of the Ambassador Prize of Concert Artists Guild’s 2021 Victor Elmaleh Competition, first prize at the 2016 Boston Symphony Concerto Competition, second prize at the 2016 Thomas and Evon Cooper Competition, second prize as well as the Mozart and Chopin special prizes at the 2018 Dublin Piano Competition, and second prize at the Chopin National Piano Competition ~ “...crafting a longform melodic idea that flowed effortlessly from phrase to phrase and movement to movement. It was a privilege to witness.” ClevelandClassical

Lun Li violin
First Prize winner in the 2021 Young Concert Artists Auditions, Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize and Buffalo Chamber Music Society Prize, and was named the John French Violin Chair at YCA; he is also the joint First Prize winner at the recent Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach Competition ~ “admirable command of all the possibilities of the bow, and uses it with delightful musical sense” Ludwig van Montréal

Njioma Grevious violin
Founding member of the Abeo Quartet ~ grand prizewinner of the 2023 Concert Artists Guild and Young Classical Artists Trust auditions, first prize at the 2023 Sphinx and 2018 Prix Ravel (France) competitions, and a fellowship from the Music Academy of the West to study with the London Symphony Orchestra in 2022
~ described by the Chicago Classical Review as “a superb” talent

Natalie Loughran viola
Won First Prize and Audience Prize at the Primrose Viola Competition, and awarded a Special Prize at the Lionel Tertis Viola Competition

Oliver Herbert cello
Recipient of the 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant, top and special prizes in the 2018 Lutoslawski competition; winner of the first and Casals prizes in the 2015 Irving Klein and a top prize in the 2015 Stulberg competition ~ “he makes his cello sing” Santa Cruz Sentinel

Anthony Trionfo flute
A winner of the 2016 Young Concert Artists Auditions, won first prize at the 2013 Alexander & Buono competition, and a winner of the National YoungArts Foundation competition ~ “breezily virtuosic” The New York Times ~ “spellbinding” Santa Barbara Voice

Roni Gal-Ed oboe
First Prize winner of the Lauschmann Oboe Competition in Mannheim ~ “Outstanding” The New York Times ~ “Expressive, wonderful player” German SZ Magazine

Vadim Lando clarinet
Winner of the CMC Canada, Yale and Stonybrook competitions ~ “consistently distinguished...vibrant, precise, virtuosic playing” The New York Times

Karl Kramer horn
Winner of the 1997 and 1999 American Horn competitions ~ “Praise goes to the heroic horn playing of Karl Kramer.” New York Classical Review

Daniel McCarty bassoon
P
raised for his “forlorn and soulful” solo in Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony Boston Musical Intelligencer

Ferruccio BUSONI  String Quartet No. 2 in D minor Op. 26
  ~ highly original, its subtleties revealing his wit and melodic refinement—by a most gifted prodigy

In the opinion of Gramophone, “It is a work full of continuous change and diverting surprise, so packed with resource that you once or twice think that Busoni is showing off, until you reflect that any 21-year-old with gifts like these may be permitted to show off a little. And very often his surprises are quiet ones, in any case, not flashy at all: the gentle shadows that fall across the rather Dvorakian slow movement; the hushed lyrical idea that several times fades to silence between the finale’s athletic bursts of counterpoint…it is a quartet of real stature whose neglect until now is inexplicable.”

Born in Empoli (near Florence) in 1866, the son of an Italian clarinetist and a pianist of German descent, Busoni was first taught by his mother, then completed his studies at the Vienna Conservatory and with Carl Reinecke in Leipzig. He had met Brahms and Anton Rubinstein at age 9, and upon the urging of Brahms in 1886, Busoni moved to Leipzig, where he also met Tchaikovsky, who took a keen interest in him. When he won the first Rubinstein competition, Tchaikovsky described the 24-year-old laureate as “remarkably interesting” and with a “brilliant mind,” who “will soon be talked about….” The second of his two important string quartets was written largely in his last year in Leipzig. He then taught in Helsinki, Moscow, and New York. In 1894 he lived in Berlin until his death, except for the years during World War I, when he sought refuge in Zurich, Switzerland. The Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig (inspiration for the film The Grand Budapest Hotel) observed that Busoni in Zurich was “shadowed by sadness,” haunted that his scattered students might be “shooting at each other right now.” Among his pupils was Kurt Weill who called him a “spiritual European of the future” and wrote after his death, “We did not lose a human being, but a value.” While best known in his day as a pianist of brilliance and intellectual power and an arranger of Bach and Liszt, he also composed and was the author of profound theoretical writings. As Helmut Wirth in the New Grove Dictionary summarized, “Always an artist in quest, Busoni saw it as the goal of his creative life to find his ‘own individual soul’. He was also a ‘worshipper of form’; for, despite all temptations and although German by choice, he ‘remained abundantly Latin.’” He is today regarded as one of the most interesting figures in the history of 20th century music.

Paul JUON  Divertimento for Piano and Wind Quintet Op. 51
  ~ original and imaginative, the sextet is witty and full of surprises in its rhythms and tonal colors—his music lies between Romanticism and late-Romanticism, with pronounced Russian flavor

Juon (1872–1940) was a Muscovite, the grandson of a Swiss émigré. He studied composition with Sergei Taneyev and Anton Arensky at the Imperial Conservatory. Among his classmates were Nikolai Medtner and Rachmaninoff, who nicknamed him “The Russian Brahms.” He then went to Berlin for advanced studies with Woldemar Bargiel (half-brother of Clara Schumann) at the Hochschule für Musik, where he won the Mendelssohn Prize. Juon returned to Russia for a year to teach at the Baku Conservatory, then settled in Berlin in 1897, where he worked as a composer, arranger, and theoretician. In 1906 Joseph Joachim invited him to join the faculty at the Hochschule; he was named professor of composition in 1911. In 1934, ill health led him to retire to Vevey, Switzerland, where he lived out his life. His music was frequently performed throughout Europe during his lifetime; his output exceeded 100 works.

Joachim RAFF  Grand Quintuor in A minor Op. 107
  ~ the Swiss-born German composer’s intensely Romantic and beautiful piano quintet on a symphonic scale

In the 1860s, Raff mostly wrote chamber music. He considered the Grand Quintuor as one of his most important works. While working on the piece, he wrote to his wife, “I can say that my compositional powers are growing all the time I am working on it—and they need to as well; you see, it’s more difficult than a symphony or a string quartet and I can quite see why even Beethoven didn’t attempt one and why there hasn’t been another one since Schumann’s only Piano Quintet.” The Grand Quintuor premiered on 22 March 1865 in Bremen.

Joseph Joachim Raff (1822–1882) was born in Lachen, on Lake Zurich. The first half of his life was afflicted by poverty and obscurity. His family was poor but his father gave him a basic education, furthered by studies at the Jesuit Seminary in Schwyz where he won prizes in German, Latin, and mathematics. While he struggled to make a living, his piano pieces opp. 2–6 were printed in Leipzig in 1844 at the recommendation of Mendelssohn who wrote, “The composition is elegant and faultless throughout and in the most modern style.” In 1845, Raff got a significant break when he made a pilgrimage to hear his idol Liszt perform in Basle, about 50 miles away. As recounted by music critic Mark Thomas, Raff could not afford the fare and “walked there from Zürich through driving rain. He arrived just as the concert was about to begin to find that all the tickets were sold. Luckily Liszt’s secretary Belloni noticed the dejected, disappointed Raff and told Liszt, who decided not only that Raff should be admitted, but insisted that he should sit on the stage with him amidst a widening pool of water from his wet clothes. ‘I sat there like a running fountain,’ Raff wrote later ‘oblivious to everything but my good fortune in seeing and hearing Liszt.’ Raff benefited from Liszt’s legendary generosity. His new mentor took him with him on the remainder of his tour through southern Germany and the Rhineland with Raff making the concert arrangements. When the tour ended, Liszt found Raff a job in Cologne.” Although he encountered other obstacles, opportunities arose as well, including a lifelong friendship with Hans von Bülow and a job in Hamburg (through Liszt) making arrangements for Shuberth, the music publisher. And from 1850, for almost 7 years, he slaved away for Liszt as his assistant and secretary.

After he freed himself from Liszt’s overbearance in 1856, the second half of Raff’s life was blessed with growing fame and public and critical recognition. He married Doris Genast in 1859 and became extremely productive as a composer in almost every genre. He also became highly esteemed as a teacher and administrator—as director of the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, a post he held until his death. He was as progressive an educator as he was a composer. He quickly persuaded Clara Schumann to teach piano, the only woman on the faculty; and soon found others to join her. He even oversaw the creation of a class for women composers—the first of its kind in Germany. In his day, Raff was regarded by his contemporaries as the peer of Brahms and Wagner.

Hyunah Yu, soprano
Janice Carissa, piano
Julian Rhee, violin
Tiani Butts, violin
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola
Brannon Cho, cello
Vadim Lando, clarinet

Monday, December 18 2 PM & 7:30 PM
Romantic Beauties
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway)

Limited Seating

Tickets: $25, $17, $10 ~ Reservations advised
Call (212) 799-1259 or email admin@jupitersymphony.com
Pay by check or cash (exact change)​​​

Hyunah Yu soprano
Prizewinner at the 1999 Naumburg competition and recipient of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award ~ “absolutely captivating...with exceptional style and effortless lyrical grace. The audience, to judge by the general swooning, was helplessly in love by the end.” The Washington Post

Janice Carissa piano
Gilmore Young Artist , Young Scholar of the Lang Lang Foundation, recipient of the 2018 Salon de Virtuosi Grant, winner of the 2014 piano competition at the Aspen Festival, Star Performance Award of the 2012 American Protégé Music Talent Competition in New York, and a top prizewinner of the IBLA Foundation’s 2006 piano competition (at age 8) ~ praised for “the multicolored highlights of a mature pianist” Philadelphia Inquirer ~ “fleet-fingered touch that is particularly impressive” Chicago Classical Review

Julian Rhee violin
Won First Prize at the 2020 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, First Prize at the 2018 Johansen Competition, First Prize at the 2018 Aspen Violin Concerto Competition, Second Prize at the 2018 Irving Klein competition, 2018 Presidential Scholar in the Arts, Gold Medals at the Fischoff and M-Prize competitions, and First Prize at the 2018 Barnett and 2018 Rembrandt chamber music competitions (playing both violin & viola)

Tiani Butts violin
Tiani was a solo fellow at the Aspen, Wintergreen, and Philadelphia festivals, as well as a quartet fellow at the Colorado, Vineyards, Madeline Island, Walla Walla, and Great Lakes chamber music festivals ~
she is currently a Lisa Arnhold Fellow studying under the Juilliard String Quartet

Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt viola
Winnings include First Prize at the 2013 Banff Competition, Gold Medal and Grand Prize at the 2010 Fischoff Competition, First Prize at the Lionel Tertis Viola Competition, and top prizes at the Tokyo and Sphinx competitions ~ “she should have a great future” Tully Potter ~ Wigmore Hall ~ lyricism that stood out...a silky tone and beautiful, supple lines
Strad Magazine

Brannon Cho cello
Won first prize at the 6th Paulo (Finland) competition and top prizes at the Queen Elisabeth, Naumburg, and Cassadó competitions. He was also honored with the 2020 Janos Starker Foundation Award, Landgraf von Hessen Prize from Kronberg Academy, 2019 Ivan Galamian Award previously held by James Ehnes, and a scholarship from the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation ~ “burnished tone, spellbinding technique, and probing musical mind” Boston Classical Review

Vadim Lando clarinet
Winner of the CMC Canada, Yale and Stonybrook competitions ~ “consistently distinguished...vibrant, precise, virtuosic playing” The New York Times

Ferdinand DAVID  Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Franz Schubert Op. 8
  ~ based on Sehnsucht Waltzes, by the important musical figure in Leipzig—for clarinet and piano

David (1810–1873) was a celebrated violinist who was born in Hamburg and studied with Louis Spohr in Kassel from 1823 to 1825. Moscheles wrote of him: “This worthy pupil of Spohr played his master’s music in a grand and noble style, his own bravuras with faultless power of execution, and his quartet playing at the soirées of Mori and Blagrove delighted everyone with any genuine artistic taste.” While working as a violinist at the Königstädter Theatre in Berlin in 1827 and 1828, he became friends with Mendelssohn. They frequently played in sonata and chamber concerts and gave regular quartet matinees. In 1836, David was appointed concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra (under Mendelssohn), a position he held till his sudden death from a heart attack in 1873 near Kloster, Switzerland, while on a mountain tour with his children. When the Leipzig Conservatory opened in 1843, David headed the violin department; Joseph Joachim was among his first pupils. In 1845 he performed the premiere of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Mendelssohn’s death in 1847 was a terrible blow to David, who served as a pall-bearer at the funeral. Mendelssohn’s brother Paul entrusted him (along with Moscheles, Hauptmann, and Julius Rietz) to edit the manuscripts for publication. It was largely due to David’s influence that Leipzig remained the center of violin playing in Europe after the death of Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Gade. He was also a prolific composer.

SCHUMANN  Märchenbilder “Fairy Tale Pictures” Op.113
  ~ poetic miniatures depicting a glistening world of fantasy, albeit mostly in elegiac mood—for viola and piano

Märchenbilder was composed in March 1851 for Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, concertmaster of the Düsseldorf Orchestra, who later wrote the first definitive biography of Schumann. This was during Schumann’s brief and relatively unhappy tenure as conductor at Düsseldorf, just three years before his mental collapse. Its premiere was described by Wasielewski: “After Schumann had written his Märchenbilder, which to my great pleasure, he dedicated to me, he had his wife play them through while I took the viola accompaniment. He then said with a smile: ‘Childish pranks! There’s not much to them.’ By this he merely meant to imply that the pieces belong to the genre of Kleinkunst [small art]. He made no objection when I called them delightful.” Hardly “childish pranks” at all, the character pieces explore musical colors through subtle interplay between the two instruments. Schumann gave no hint of which fairy tales he had in mind, allowing the listener to guess as the music progresses in 4 strikingly different moods from dreamy to spritely, and ending gently.

Hugo WOLF  7 Mörike Lieder
  ~ the “caviar of lieder literature” set to poems by Eduard Mörike, a Swabian Romantic poet—arranged for voice and string quartet in 2017 by Stefan Heucke, a German composer

The selection includes Selbstgeständnis (a wry bit of psychological insight in which a spoiled only child, now grown up, reflects on the doting mother’s love he received and the beatings he didn’t in a merry pseudo-folksong, tempered by Wagnerian chromaticism), Bei einer Trauung (the loveless arranged marriage of the aristocracy is mocked in this comically horrible union with a grotesque wedding scene); Storchenbotschaft (a comic nonsense ballad about “Stork Tidings”), Gebet (devout harmonies for a beautiful devotional song), Denk es, o Seele (depicting all living things flourishing atop the graves of the dead, whom they will inevitably join), Der Feuerreiter (among the most virtuosic songs ever written—the supernatural “fire-rider,” Mörike’s symbol for the spectral spirit of anarchy, rampages throughout the countryside, destroying the mills which grind grain to make life-sustaining bread), and Abschied (“Farewell” to critics, sent tumbling down the stairs).

Wolf (1860–1903)—born in the small town of Windischgraz in Austria (now Slovenia)—was expelled from the Vienna Conservatory for his outspoken criticism of his masters, after which he taught himself composition. Under the spell of Wagner, whom he idolized, Wolf became a representative of the New German School in lieder, adhering to the expressive, chromatic, and other dramatic innovations of Wagner. He also championed Liszt, Chopin, and Schubert, and became a strong opponent of Brahms and the old guard. His mercurial temperament made it impossible for him to hold a steady position, but he managed to work for most of the rest of his life as a critic and music teacher in Vienna. As a composer, Wolf reached new heights in lieder and is regarded as the greatest master, after Schubert, of the art form. Like Schubert, Wolf died at age 43, of syphilis, which he contracted in the late 1870s. And, like Schumann, he suffered from a bipolar disorder and died in an insane asylum after a drowning attempt; he also composed in manic bursts of radiance and inspiration between periods of devastating depression.

Most of Wolf’s nearly 300 art songs were written the few years between 1888 and 1892. The 53 Mörike Lieder mark the beginning of his prolific mature period, composed while staying at the vacation home of family friends, the Werners, outside of Vienna. He wrote several songs a day—songs of consistently genius quality, created spontaneously. Wolf was 28 years old at the time and in an adulterous affair with Melanie Köchert, the wife of one of his patrons. Melanie, his lover since 1884, visited him in the asylum until his death in 1903, and killed herself three years later.

BRAHMS  Piano Trio No. 4 in A Major Anh.4/5
  ~ discovered in 1924 by German musicologist Ernst Bücken, scholarly opinion remains divided on the authorship of the gorgeous Trio with a ravishing Lento movement

American musicologist Kai Christiansen, for one, casts doubt. He explained that Bücken had “received a number of manuscripts from the estate of Dr. Erich Preiger of Bonn including an unsigned piano trio in A major, its cover missing along with the composer’s name. Bücken strongly argued that this copy from the 1860s, was in fact an unpublished work by Brahms, a lost, early trio most likely dating from 1853–1856, possibly a companion to the first published trio in B major. Around this time, Brahms mentioned in a letter to Schumann that he had written several trios. Could this be one of those that escaped his otherwise methodical destruction of unpublished compositions?… Whoever wrote this trio in A major produced a masterful work very much in the style of Brahms and generally in the manner of the great romantic trios of the 19th century with passing evocations of Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann and even a prescient hint of Dvořák. All four movements are broad and substantial, full of lyrical inspiration, skillful part-writing, taut development, thematic variation and sophisticated rhythms. Wonderful music throughout…. It difficult to pin point the details, but, repeated listening occasionally suggests that this trio might not be by Brahms…that something is not quite ‘right’ here. If Brahms composed this trio around 1853, it would have been a very early work…he certainly didn’t edit or publish it: he wasn’t finished. Finally, this would simply be ‘new’ Brahms for us.… If Brahms didn’t compose this wonderful trio, we are left with a rich, accomplished and substantial chamber work by a completely unknown composer who clearly wielded sophisticated musical powers, a contemporary of the young Brahms. The thought of such a lost composer is possibly more bewitching than a lost early work from one we know so well.”

Jupiter 2023 - 2024 Season
20 Mondays at 2:00 PM & 7:30 PM

Good Shepherd Church ♦ 152 West 66 Street

View Our Season Calendar

Tickets: $25, $17, $10 ~ Reservations advised
Call (212) 799-1259 or email admin@jupitersymphony.com
Pay by check or cash (exact change)​​

Please visit our Media Page to hear Audio Recordings from the Jens Nygaard and Jupiter Symphony Archive

Concert Venue:
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway), New York

Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church

one of the most refined and intelligent church spaces in New York~ The New York Times

Built in 1893 by Josiah Cleveland Cady, architect of the old Metropolitan Opera House and the American Museum of Natural History

Office Address:
JUPITER SYMPHONY
155 West 68th Street, Suite 319
New York, NY 10023

admin@jupitersymphony.com
(212) 799-1259

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Jupiter in the News

ConcertoNet
knocked the socks off this listener...It was wondrous chamber music. And the three artists gave it the deserving excitement, volition and imagination.” 
Harry Rolnick, ConcertoNet   more...

The New York Times
the performers were top notch
The homey church where these concerts take place, nestled on West 66th Street in the shadow of Lincoln Center, is an intimate and acoustically vibrant place for chamber music.”
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times   more...

Strad Magazine
A finely forthright, fluent and expressive account of Haydn's Divertimento in E-flat major opened this programme of miscellaneous chamber music in a series known for adventurous programming.
Dennis Rooney, Strad Magazine   more...

ConcertoNet
Mr. Nygaard’s cadenza flowed down Mozart lanes and paths, each with beautiful backgrounds. And at the very end, Mr. Nygaard brought forth that martial major theme, like an unexpected gift.” 
Harry Rolnick, ConcertoNet   more...

The New York Times
“...the group’s efforts proved illuminating ...Brown played a lovely, subtly virtuosic cadenza for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 by Jens Nygaard, the ensemble’s founder, who died in 2001, but whose fascination with rarities continues to drive its programming
Allan Kozinn, The New York Times   more...

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
  ~ simply delicious piano quintet, alternately titled Rondeau Pastoral and better known in its version for solo piano, Twelve O’clock Rondo, on account of the 12 “chimes” at the end ~ by the creator of the Nocturne, which had a major influence on Chopin

We thank the University of Illinois (Champaign) for a copy of the Divertissement music.

Mackenzie Melemed piano
Abigel Kralik violin
Dechopol Kowintaweewat violin
Sarah Sung viola
Christine Lamprea cello

Sir Hamilton HARTY  Piano Quintet in F Major Op. 12
  ~ in a lyrical Romantic idiom, with a distinct, breezy Irish-salted voice

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
Abigel Kralik violin
Dechopol Kowintaweewat violin
Sarah Sun viola
Christine Lamprea cello

I Allegro 0:00
II Vivace 10:43
III Lento 14:44
IV Allegro con brio 23:59

FEb 8 2021 HAYDN  Sonata No. 1 in G Major
​​​​​​Oliver Neubauer violin, Mihai Marica cello, Zoe Martin-Doike viola

FEb 8 2021 HOFFMEISTER Duo Concertante No. 1 in G Major
Sooyun Kim flute, Zoe Martin-Doike viola

Feb 8 2021 MOZART Piano Quartet No. 2 in Eb Major
Oliver Neubauer violin, Janice Carissa piano
Mihai Marica cello, Zoe Martin-Doike viola

Feb 8 2021 KREUTZER  Quintet in A Major
Sooyun Kim flute, Vadim Lando clarinet, Janice Carissa piano
Mihai Marica cello, Zoe Martin-Doike viola

Video Viewing ~ Classical Treats
February 8, 2021 Jupiter Concert

Greetings! Three months ago, our musicians brought warmth and joy with their wonderful music making on a cold, winter’s day with Classical Treats. The viewing is offered for $25, and we hope to cover the costs of production. Thanks so much for viewing the video of this concert, and for supporting Jupiter with gifts as well! MeiYing

View the video for $25

You will be automatically directed to the video page once payment is made. If not, click on the “return to merchant” link after checkout. Please go through the checkout process only once and do not use the back button or reload the page while making the purchase. If there are any problems, contact jupiternews@jupitersymphony.com.

Viewers comments of previous videos:

“Oh I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. Good to see Maxim and his dad. Familiar faces to me. I enjoyed the notes about the players. Till the next time...”

“Great playing and really nice camera work. Probably better than being there!

“We so enjoyed the concert. The pianist was outstanding as was the musical selection.

“It was wonderful. Thank you.

♦ ♦ ♦

Musicians

Janice Carissa piano
Young Scholar of the Lang Lang Foundation, recipient of the 2018 Salon de Virtuosi Grant, winner of the 2014 piano competition at the Aspen Festival, and a top prizewinner of the IBLA Foundation’s 2006 piano competition (at age 8)

Oliver Neubauer violin
Recipient of the Gold Award at the 2018 National YoungArts Competition and winner of the 2017 Young Musicians Competition at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Zoë Martin-Doike viola
Member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, top prizewinner of the Primrose and Lenox competitions on viola and violin, respectively and founding violinist of the Aizuri Quartet

Mihai Marica cello
Winner of the Irving Klein, Viña del Mar, Salon de Virtuosi and Dotzauer competitions ~ “Mihai is a brilliant cellist and interpreter of music. His playing is spellbinding.” Mitchell Sardou Klein

Sooyun Kim flute
Winner of the Georg Solti Foundation Career Grant and a top prize at the ARD flute competition, she has been praised for her “vivid tone colors” by the Oregonian and as a “rare virtuoso of the flute” by Libération

Vadim Lando clarinet
Winner of the CMC Canada, Yale and Stonybrook competitions ~ “consistently distinguished...vibrant, precise, virtuosic playing” The New York Times

♦ ♦ ♦

Program

HAYDN  Sonata No. 1 in G Major Hob XVI:40 ▪ 1784
  ~ sophisticated and subtly wrought, the Sonata is from a set of 3, arranged for string trio from the original for keyboard and published by Johann André in 1790

The sonatas were written for Princess Marie, the new bride of Prince Nicholas Esterházy, grandson of Haydn’s employer, Prince Nicholas I. Cramer’s Magazin der Musik, in its review in 1785, observed that they were “more difficult to perform than one initially believes. They demand the utmost precision, and much delicacy in performance.” In 2 contrasting movements, the pastoral Allegretto innocente is followed by a gleeful zany romp.

Conradin KREUTZER  Quintet in A Major ▪ between 1810 and 1820
  ~ in the late Classical–early Romantic style, the charming Quintet is written for the unusual combination of piano, flute, clarinet, viola, and cello with the piano as primus inter pares, first among equals—each movement a winner bearing a variety of melodic gifts and revealing a lively feeling for rhythm and color

Born in Messkirch to a respected Swabian burgher, Kreutzer (1780–1849) is considered a minor master of the Biedermeier epoch. He studied law in Freiburg before turning entirely to music after his father died in 1800. In 1804 he went to Vienna, where he met Haydn and probably studied with Albrechtsberger, one of Beethoven’s teachers. His active career included tours in Europe and several posts in Vienna, Stuttgart, Cologne, and other German cities, all the while composing numerous operas. Some of his music is not entirely forgotten—his settings for male chorus to Ludwig Uhland’s poems long remained popular with German and Austrian choirs; Das Nachtlager in Granada used to be revived occasionally in Germany; and his score for Der Verschwender continues to be performed in Austria.

Franz Anton HOFFMEISTER  Duo Concertante No. 1 in G Major ▪ [1790]
flute and viola

1st movement ~ Allegro
  ~ by Mozart’s friend and his principal publisher

MOZART  Piano Quartet No. 2 in Eb Major K. 493 ▪ 1786
  ~ a flawless masterpiece of utmost lightness and charm, with heavenly melodies

Mozart was under contract with the publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister to write 3 piano quartets, a virtually new genre of his own invention. When the first (K. 478 in G minor) did not sell because of its difficulty for amateurs, Mozart was released from his obligation. Nine months later, which was two months after the completion of Le Nozze di Figaro, the second piano quartet (K. 493 in Eb Major) was published by Artaria. A little easier than the first, Alfred Einstein viewed it as “bright in color, but iridescent, with hints of darker shades.”

♦ ♦ ♦

Harry Munz audio engineer
Marc Basch videographer

For more about the musicians: guest artistsplayers
For further notes on the music: calendar

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
Prelude

Stephen Beus piano
Stefan Milenkovich violin
David Requiro cello

 

More video from this performance can be viewed on our media page

Jupiter on YouTube
featured in a short documentary on artist Michael McNamara

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 page

Emmy Award-winning “LIFE ON JUPITER - The Story of Jens Nygaard, Musician” available on DVD with bonus music. More Info...

If you wish to purchase your own copy to remember Jens by or for more information visit www.lifeonjupiter.com

The New York Sun Review
by Adam Baer
--The Jupiters Play On--

“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.

Please send any correspondence to

office address:
JUPITER SYMPHONY
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admin@jupitersymphony.com
For information or to order tickets, please call:
(212) 799-1259

MeiYing Manager
Michael Volpert Artistic Director

All performances, except where otherwise noted, are held at:
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway) New York, NY 10023
The Box Office at the Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
will be open 20 minutes prior to each concert.

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