 
|
|
Join Us For Our 2025-2026 Season! |
|
|
Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players “This was music-making of a very high order” Fred Kirshnit, The New York Sun |
||||||||
|
||||||||
View Our Printable Calendar and Ticket Order Form (pdf) Take a look at our guest artists for this season. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
Join us for our next concerts...
Monday, April 27 ♦ 2 PM & 7:30 PM Tickets: $25, $17 ~ Reservations advised Charles Neidich clarinet Vadim Lando clarinet Erik Ralske horn Roni Gal-Ed oboe Kemp Jernigan oboe Pascal Archer basset horn Anju Aoto basset horn & clarinet Cade Araza horn Sylvia Beach horn Sophie Choy horn Gina Cuffari bassoon Joshua Butcher bassoon Gabriel Polinsky double bass Keyi Wang piano Josef TRIEBENSEE Concertino in Eb Major The scoring is for piano (originally cembalo) and harmonie—an 8-piece wind band comprising pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons Triebensee (1772–1846) studied composition with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and oboe with his father, a distinguished oboist. In 1791 he played as the second oboist in the premiere of Die Zauberflote under Mozart’s direction. He led a Harmonie (wind band) for Prince Alois of Liechtenstein and other princes before succeeding Weber as director of the Prague Opera in 1816, holding that post until he retired in 1836. While prolific as a composer, Triebensee’s sole claim to fame today rests on his arrangement of Don Giovanni for wind ensemble. His compositions include 12 operas in German and Czech. MOZART Serenade No. 10 in Bb Major “Gran Partita” K. 361 The largest work of the Classical period for solo instruments, the Serenade made a powerful impression on Mozart’s contemporaries. For one, the critic and writer Johann Friedrich Schink confided in his memoirs, Litterarische Fragmente, “I heard music for wind instruments today…by Herr Mozart…oh, what an effect it made—glorious and grand, excellent and sublime. It consisted of thirteen instruments…and at each instrument sat a master.” His remarks were written after hearing a performance of the Serenade at a benefit concert at the Burgtheater on 23 March 1784, organized for his friend, the clarinetist Anton Stadler. The instruments comprised 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 basset-horns, 4 horns, 2 bassoons, and a double bass. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
Monday, May 11 ♦ 2 PM & 7:30 PM Tickets: $25, $17 ~ Reservations advised Janice Carissa piano Josef Spacek violin Isabelle Durrenberger violin Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt viola Brannon Cho cello Vadim Lando clarinet Robert KAHN Trio in G minor Op. 45 Robert Meyn, in an article for the Royal College of Music in London, explained that “Clara Schumann…noted Kahn’s remarkable talent, and the growing popularity of Kahn’s Lieder, chamber music and choral compositions confirmed her judgment.” Kahn was born in 1865, the son of one of the wealthiest Jewish families in Mannheim. After attending the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin directed by Joseph Joachim, Kahn studied with Joseph Rheinberger at the Musikhochschulein Munich, where he met Brahms in 1887. Brahms was so impressed with Kahn he offered to give him composition lessons. The young man, however, was too overawed to accept. As Kahn explained in 1947, “From my early youth I felt a deep love and veneration for Brahms the musician. To that was added, now that he welcomed me so warmly in Vienna, a deep, even rapturous love for Brahms the man. It filled my entire heart, but I kept it carefully hidden from him in shyness and restraint.” Kahn was also given support by Joachim, Clara Schumann, and the conductor Hans von Bülow (the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by von Bülow premiered Kahn’s one orchestral work). Kahn composed mostly Lieder, chamber, vocal, and choral music which were widely performed and published by major publishers. As a pianist he worked extensively with singers, and was much sought-after as a collaborative pianist with prominent artists, including Josef Szigeti and Adolf Busch. In 1897 Kahn was appointed full professor at the Prussian Academy of the Arts in Berlin, where he taught composition and piano for 36 years. Among his pupils were Arthur Rubinstein and Wilhelm Kempff. He was removed from his position at the Academy in 1934 by the Nazis, who vilified him and suppressed his work. In 1938 Kempff persuaded him to flee to England, where he lived in obscurity in Biddenden, Kent. His creativity unfettered, Kahn continued to write over 1100 piano pieces in his Tagebuch in Tönen (Diary in Sounds) until 1949. He died in 1951. From a distinguished family of bankers and merchants, his seven siblings included Otto Kahn, the financier and chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Opera; and Felix Kahn, a banker, director of Paramount Pictures, and noted violin collector. BEETHOVEN Duo in Eb Major mit zwei obbligaten Augengläsern “with two obligato eyeglasses” WoO 32 In a letter to his longtime friend, the amateur cellist Baron Nikolaus Zmeskall von Domanovecz, arranging a reading of the new piece, Beethoven alluded to their short-sightedness: “I am obliged to you for the weakness of your eyes.” Some personal reminiscences of Beethoven described him as wearing glasses as a result of “weak eyes” from childhood smallpox; it was a necessity “even in his early youth to resort to concave, very strong (highly magnifying) spectacles.” The Duo, discovered and published in 1912, was presumably played by Beethoven on viola and Zmeskall on cello, and implied that both men needed to wear glasses to read the music. When Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1796, he was introduced to Prince Lichnowsky who became one of his most generous patrons. Among the influential men and women at Lichnowsky’s Friday chamber music concerts, Beethoven met the talented amateur cellist Baron Nikolaus Zmeskall and they became lifelong friends. Numerous notes and letters between them reveal the depth of their friendship. Zmeskall was an official in the Hungarian Chancellery in Vienna. He provided Mozart with quills and other supplies for composition, helped him find accommodations, corrected the proofs of his editions, and gave advice on practical and financial matters. Their correspondence also discussed arrangements to meet at the tavern for wine, their jokes and bantering, especially about their poor vision. Beethoven later rewarded Zmeskall with the dedication of the F minor String Quartet Op. 95. SCHUBERT “Erlkönig” D. 328 The duet, originally for soprano and piano, is one of the greatest ballads ever written. Based on a 1782 poem of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the art song “packs a remarkable amount of tension and drama into a mere four minutes. Its effectiveness is doubly impressive because Schubert was only 18 years old when he composed it [Encyclopedia Britannica].” The year 1815 stands out as one of Franz Schubert’s most productive years. In fact, it has been called Schubert’s “miracle year.” The eighteen-year-old composer wrote more than 20,000 bars of music, completing two symphonies (Nos. 2 and 3), two Masses, a string quartet, two piano sonatas, and 145 songs (including the ghostly Erlkönig), among other works. On one October day, alone, Schubert completed eight songs. BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F minor Op. 34 “The Quintet is beautiful beyond words...a masterpiece of chamber music,” gushed Hermann Levi, the German conductor and an admirer and friend of Brahms. The Piano Quintet was initially conceived in 1861 as a string quintet with 2 cellos. That year Brahms moved out of his family’s cramped house in Hamburg and into his own rooms in the suburb of Hamm. After a number of performances, feedback was sought from his close friends, the pianist Clara Schumann and violinist Joseph Joachim. Clara approved of the piece, but Joachim claimed that the string parts were too difficult. Discouraged, Brahms rescored the piece as a sonata for two pianos and destroyed the original. Although the 2-piano version performed by Clara and Hermann Levi was well received, Clara thought the piece sounded too much like an arrangement and suggested an alternate scoring. Brahms then settled on the present version for piano quintet which he completed in October 1864 at age 31 and published in 1865. Joachim would declare that it was the finest new chamber music work published since Schubert. The 2-piano version was published 6 years after the piano quintet as Op. 34bis.
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
Jupiter 2025 - 2026 Season Tickets: $25, $17 ~ Reservations advised Please visit our Media Page to hear Audio Recordings from the Jens Nygaard and Jupiter Symphony Archive Concert Venue:
Office Address:
Like our Facebook page to see photos, videos, Jupiter in the News ConcertoNet
Strad Magazine ConcertoNet
|
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 | |||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
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
page | |||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
“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: |
||||||||
|
MeiYing Manager All
performances, except where otherwise noted, are held at: Copyright © 1999-2026 Jupiter Symphony. All rights reserved.
|
||||||||
