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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, November 11 ♦ 2 PM & 7:30 PM Tickets: $25, $17, $10 ~ Reservations advised Albert Cano Smit piano Hina Khuong-Huu violin Fiona Khuong-Huu violin Ramón Carrero-Martinez viola Christine Lamprea cello Vadim Lando clarinet Isaac ALBÉNIZ “Asturias” from Suite Española No. 1 Op. 47 Albéniz originally titled the piece “Prelude” for a 3-movement piano suite—Chants d’Espagne—published in 1892. After his death a German publisher gave it the title Asturias and added the subtitle Leyenda (“Legend”) to make it sound exotic. However, the music has nothing to do the northern coastal region of Asturias. Instead, it is deeply connected to the fiery flamenco music of the southern region of Andalusia, mimicking on the piano the multi-layered fingering techniques of the flamenco guitar and the stomping feet of the dancers. Albéniz (1860–1909) is one of the most important musical figures in Spain, having helped to create a national idiom and an indigenous school of piano music. Many of his experiences were quite adventurous and colorful. At age 4, his performance at the Teatro Romeo in Barcelona so startled the audience that some kind of trickery was suspected, and he also made a concert tour of Catalonia with his father and sister. By age 12 he had run away from home twice. Both times he supported himself by concert tours, eventually gaining his father’s consent to his wanderings. On one occasion he was robbed of his luggage by bandits, and in 1872 (at age 12) he embarked in Cadíz as a stowaway on a freighter for South America. A precarious life in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the United States led him finally to San Francisco and back to Spain in 1873. He studied with Carl Reinecke at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1875–1876 and, when his money ran out, obtained a scholarship from Count Morphy to study in Brussels. Although his stay in Belgium was interrupted by a trip to Cuba and the United States, he won first prize in 1879 at the conservatory. In 1880 he met Liszt, under whom he perfected his piano technique. In 1883, after another journey to South America, he settled in Barcelona where he married, and also met Felipe Pedrell, father of the nationalist movement in Spanish music. It was Pedrell who was to inspire and guide him in the creation of music with truly Spanish roots. Around 1890 Albéniz gave up concertizing and began to take composition seriously. In 1893 he moved to Paris and was influenced by Vincent D’Indy, Paul Dukas, Gabriel Fauré, and Debussy. During this time he taught piano at the Schola Cantorum. In 1903, after his father died, he lived near Nice and spent his last years working on his masterpiece, the Suite Iberia for piano. He suffered from Bright’s disease and was a near invalid for several years before he died. Juan Crisostomo de ARRIAGA String Quartet No. 1 in D minor Arriaga’s teacher François-Joseph Fétis called him a genius and declared of his 3 String Quartets, written at age 16, “It is impossible to find anything more original, nor purer, or more correctly written” Known as the “Spanish Mozart,” the precocious Basque composer was born in Bilbao in 1806 and soon became renowned in the city’s musical circles. By age 10, he was playing second violin in a professional string quartet and had written an Octet for string quartet, bass, trumpet, guitar, and piano. His first opera, Los Esclavos Felices (“The Happy Slaves”), was written at age 13 and received considerable local success. Recognizing his extraordinary talent, his parents sent him to the Paris Conservatoire in 1821 at age 16. He studied violin with Pierre Baillot, counterpoint with Luigi Cherubini, and harmony with François-Joseph Fétis, the well-known music historian. Fétis later reported that Arriaga mastered harmony in three months and counterpoint in under two years. Cherubini asked, in 1823, after hearing his Stabat Mater, “Who wrote this?” and upon learning that Arriaga was the composer, said to him, “Amazing—you are music itself.” By 1824, at age 18, Arriaga was appointed to teach harmony and counterpoint at the Conservatoire. Ten days before his 20th birthday he died from exhaustion and a pulmonary infection. Ramón CARNICER Fantasía in Eb Major Carnicer—best known as the composer of the National Anthem of Chile—was the first opera composer in Spain, where he was also influential in the development of zarzuela (Spanish musical theater in which the dramatic action is carried through an alternating combination of song and speech). Born in Tàrrega in 1789, Carnicer was a chorister in Seo de Urgel Cathedral from 1799 to 1806; he then moved to Barcelona to study with the cathedral maestro de capilla. In 1808 the French (under Napoleon) occupied the city, forcing him to leave for Mahón (Minorca) where he taught singing and piano for 5 years. He returned to Barcelona in 1814, but left for London by the end of the year due to continuing political unrest. Upon returning to Barcelona in 1816, he was sent to Italy to recruit an opera troupe for the Teatro de la Cruz. In 1818 he was appointed director of the Coliseo Theatre orchestra, and wrote his first dramatic works. Among them were cavatinas and overtures for premieres of Rossini’s Cinderella and the Barber of Seville, followed by 3 of his own Italian opere semiserie, including Don Giovanni Tenorio (a synthesis of his Rossinian style and Mozartean grace). It is the first opera about Don Juan by a Spanish composer, and premiered at the Teatro de la Cruz on 20 June 1822. In 1827, by royal order of Ferdinand VII, Carnicer was forced to settle in Madrid to succeed Saverio Mercadante in directing the theaters of the Court. There he conducted premieres of 4 more operas, including one of his most important works—Cristoforo Colombo (1831)—the first opera about Columbus by a Spanish composer. In 1830 he was appointed one of the 16 founder-professors of Spain’s national conservatory, which opened on New Year’s Day 1831. He taught composition till his retirement in 1854. When he died in 1855, his funeral was the most sumptuous given a Spanish musician. In addition to operas and stage works, Carnicer wrote numerous Spanish songs (they were the most popular works of local color), sacred music, symphonies, and instrumental music. His stage and religious music are considered the best produced in Spain during the early Romantic period. As to his character, Baltasar Saldoni (the Spanish composer and musicologist) wrote in his Efemérides that Carnicer was “extremely kind, and having an extremely sensitive heart…most humble...and docile.” Pablo de SARASATE Navarra Op. 33 Navarra draws on traditional elements from the native culture of the region. Written in the style of a jota, an upbeat Spanish dance, it is partly inspired by the Spanish music of the gaitas, a small recorder-like instrument whose range and style he imitates in harmonics, tremolo (fast repeated notes), and lightning passagework for the 2 violinists—treated as dance partners in an array of dizzying movements. The pyrotechnics include an abundance of harmonics, double and triple stopping, tremolandos, left-hand pizzicatos, portamentos, and rubatos, adding up to an amazing display of violin wizardry. Sarasate was born in 1844 in the province of Navarre, a Basque region in northern Spain. He began playing the violin at the age of 5, and gave his first public performance when he was 8. The prodigy was recognized as a major talent and sent to the Paris Conservatoire in 1856 at age 12, aided by Queen Isabella. The following year he won the premier prix in violin and solfège. In 1859 he began the concert tours that made him famous in every country in Europe, as well as in North and South America. “Sarasate’s playing was distinguished by a tone of unsurpassed sweetness and purity, coloured by a vibrato somewhat broader than usual at that time and produced with a ‘frictionless’ bow stroke…. His technique was superb, his intonation was perfect, especially in high positions, and his whole manner of playing was so effortless as to appear casual [New Grove Dictionary].” He died in 1908 in the fashionable seaside resort of Biarritz, France, near the border with Spain. Enrique GRANADOS “Los Requiebros” from Goyescas Goyescas is the crowning glory of the Spanish Romantic-Impressionist style. Each of the suite’s 7 movements is a musical depiction of Spain as seen through the paintings of Goya (1746–1828), whose works often are a commentary on the everyday life of the low-status men and women (majos and majas, distinguished by their exaggerated and elaborate style in dress and manners), who frequented Madrid and its bohemian quarter in the late 18th century. The music is in the form of a jota, an 18th century Aragonese dance. Dedicated to the German pianist Emil Sauer, the first piece “Los Requiebros” (“Flattery,” “Loving Words,” “Flirtation”) was composed after the fifth of Goya’s Caprichos, Tal para cual. It portrays a maja flirting with a poor man with a sword. Granados was proud of the suite: “Finally I have had the good fortune to write something important…. All of the themes of Goyescas are united in El amor y la muerte…intense pain, nostalgic love and the final tragedy death.” First performed in Barcelona on 9 March 1911, the suite was received enthusiastically when Granados played it at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on 4 April 1914. In describing Goyescas, the renowned British critic Ernest Newman, remarked, “The music, for all the fervor of its passion, is of classical beauty and composure. [It] is a gorgeous treat for the fingers.” Granados (1867–1916) was first and foremost a pianist, trained in the Classical discipline. He studied piano in Barcelona and, from 1883, composition in Madrid with Felipe Pedrell. In 1887 he went to Paris to study piano privately with Charles de Bériot, then returned to Barcelona in 1889. His first major success came with the zarzuela Maria del Carmen, produced in Madrid in 1898; it won him a decoration from the king. The triumph of Goyescas in 1911 encouraged Granados to turn the piano suite into an opera in 1915, creating the first ever operatic arrangement of a piano work. He also became the first major composer from Spain to visit the United States when he attended the premiere of Goyescas, his final opera, at the New York Metropolitan Opera on 26 January 1916. This was followed by a recital at the White House and an audience with Woodrow Wilson, which caused him to miss a boat sailing directly to back to Spain. Instead, he took a ship headed for England, and in Liverpool boarded the Sussex for Dieppe. The Sussex was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the English Channel on 24 March. Granados was rescued by a lifeboat, but when he saw his wife Amparo struggling in the sea, he dove in to save her. Both were drowned. Newman lamented, “The death of Granados was the greatest loss the artistic world of Europe has sustained by reason of the War.” Joaquín TURINA Piano Quintet in G minor Op. 1 Born in Seville, Turina lived in Paris from 1905 to 1914. He studied at the Schola Cantorum—piano with Moritz Moszkowski and composition with Vincent d’Indy, whose teacher was César Franck. After the Quintet’s premiere he went to a cafe with his good friends Manuel de Falla and Albéniz, both of whom persuaded him to write in a more consciously Spanish style. The meeting led to a new kind of nationalism in Spanish music—as Turina put it, “We were three Spaniards gathered together in that corner of Paris and it was our duty to fight bravely for the national music of our country.” The Quintet won a prize in the Salon d’Automne, judged by Fauré, d’Indy, Gabriel Pierné, and 5 other jury members. |
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Monday, November 25 ♦ 2 PM & 7:30 PM Tickets: $25, $17, $10 ~ Reservations advised Timur Mustakimov piano Stefan Milenkovich violin Ariel Horowitz violin Cherry Choi Tung Yeung violin Daniel Rafimayeri violin Ramón Carrero-Martinez viola Kevonna Shuford viola Sara Scanlon cello Gaeun Kim cello Vadim Lando clarinet Mykola LYSENKO String Quartet in D minor Written while studying with Carl Reinecke in Leipzig, it is not known if there was a 4th movement or whether the Minuetto was meant as the finale. By the turn of the 20th century, Ukrainian musical life was dominated by Mykola Lysenko—composer, pianist, conductor, collector of folk songs—heralded as the father of Ukrainian classical music. Born in 1842 in Hrynky (reputedly a descendant of a Cossack aristocrat), he was first taught the piano by his mother, then had lessons with teachers in Kiev and Khar’kov. After earning his degree in natural sciences at the University of Kiev in 1860–1864, he continued his musical education with Carl Reinecke and Ernst Richter at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1867–1869, and studied orchestration with Rimsky-Korsakov in St Petersburg from 1874 to 1876. As a child Lysenko was deeply affected by the songs he heard peasants singing, and his nationalistic sympathies were seeded by a volume of Taras Shevchenko’s poems given to him by his grandfather (at age 19 he was a pallbearer at the poet’s funeral). As a student he was involved with the anti-tsarist movement, and remained a nationalist his entire life. He believed he could aid the political cause through music, particularly through settings of Ukrainian poets and through collecting, publishing, and studying the folk music of his country. After he expressed his support for the Revolution of 1905 by composing the hymn Vichnny revolyutsioner “The eternal revolutionary,” he was imprisoned for a time in 1907. His work in elevating the level of Ukrainian music education and culture led to his founding in 1904 the first Ukrainian music conservatory in Kiev—the Ukrainian School of Music (counter to the Russian Musical Society’s school in Kiev). His large number of compositions comprised piano and vocal pieces, including hymns and chorales; chamber music; at least 19 volumes of folk song arrangements; and stage works, including his epic opera Taras Bul’ba. His determination to aid the Ukrainian cultural revival by insisting on having his operas sung only in Ukrainian probably caused the loss of having Taras Bul’ba performed outside Ukraine. Tchaikovsky, who admired the work, had hoped to arrange a performance in Moscow, but Lysenko refused to authorize a Russian version of the libretto. When he died in 1912, there was an outburst of national grief which Maxim Gorky described with awe. Myroslav SKORYK Carpathian Rhapsody Born to a musical family in Lviv, Skoryk (1938–2020) started to play the piano at the age of 6. When Soviet repressions intensified in 1948, the family was deported to a mining town in Siberia. He recalled, “They started to consider me a prodigy, and they drove me to the regional town of Kemerovo and showed everyone that whatever number of notes you press for him, he will name all of them at once.” After Stalin’s death, when he turned 16, Skoryk returned to Lviv and studied at the Conservatory from 1955 to 1960, then completed graduate studies at the Moscow Conservatory in 1964. Subsequently, he taught composition at the Lviv Conservatory and the Kyiv Conservatory. He also became artistic director of the National Opera of Ukraine in 2011. Skoryk composed in his unique and colorful language operas, ballets, symphonies, and music for Ukrainian cartoons and films, including Sergei Parajanov’s award-winning Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, based on a timeless Carpathian story. Apart from music, he known for his prowess at football and is a knowledgeable mushroom picker in the Carpathian mountains. Vladimir DYCK Piano Trio in C minor Op. 25 Dyck (1882–1943) was a prolific Ukrainian composer who wrote in many genres. His colorful and tragic life began with his birth in Odessa, where his father held a customs post. Little is known of his life in the port city. At the alleged recommendation of Rimsky-Korsakov, he began studies at the Paris Conservatoire—harmony with Antoine Taudou (dedicatee of the Piano Trio) and composition with Charles-Marie Widor. He won first prize for harmony in Taudou’s class in 1904, and after obtaining French nationality in 1910, he won the second Grand Prix de Rome for his cantata Yanitza in 1911. After his graduation Dyck earned a living by teaching piano. Among his pupils were Henriette Poincaré (the wife of the President of the Republic), Madame Caillaux (wife of the Minister and President of the State Council), and Suzanne Bloch whom he married. Their daughter was named Nicole. As a composer, Dyck wrote deft scores for silent films under the pseudonym “Dri Mival,” an anagram on his last name. His other compositions were influenced by his conservatory training; they included chamber music, instrumental music, lyrical comedy, and French patriotic songs. He also began to work with Jewish material. His lovely arrangement of Hatikva in 1933 became the Israeli national anthem. In the same year he cofounded with Léon Algazi a publishing house, Mizmor, dedicated to the music of Jewish composers. And he arranged and wrote Yiddish songs, possibly for Algazi, who directed the Mizmor choir and the choir of the Great Synagogue of Paris on Rue de la Victoire. When the Nazis occupied Paris in 1943, Dyck was arrested by the Gestapo at his home at 79 Avenue de Breteuil with his wife and his daughter. He was deported to Auschwitz on 31 July and exterminated a few days later on 5 August. Reinhold GLIÈRE String Octet in D Major Op. 5 An early work, “It is shot through and through with magnificent melody” wrote the 19th-century critic Wilhelm Altmann. A review of its premiere in the Russian Musical Gazette, published on 11 January 1901, reported, “The Octet attracted much public attention and proved a great success. One of the foremost merits of the Octet is its exalted mood, suffusing nearly every bar. Glière’s music flows smoothly, lightly and naturally, while at the same time shining with elegant themes and betraying accomplished mastery of the string instruments” The musicologist Leonid Sabaneev also was impressed: “The Octet amazes one by the fullness of resonance and the masterly treatment of the instruments. Glière’s melodies are full of feeling and emotion, fine sonority and noble harmony.” Glière (1875–1956) is regarded as a great musical icon in his native Ukraine, and is considered the founder of Soviet ballet music. He was immensely versatile, and his prolific output made significant contributions in a wide range of genres. Born of Belgian Jewish descent in Kiev to a musical family who were master instrument makers, he studied at the Moscow Conservatory until 1900. His teachers included Arensky for harmony and Sergey Taneyev and Ippolitov-Ivanov for theory and composition. From 1920 to 1941 he, in turn, taught composition at the Conservatory. Among his pupils were Khachaturian, Nikolai Myaskovsky, the eleven-year-old Prokofiev, and Scriabin’s young son. His favorite instrument was the violin; his early commitment to writing chamber music continued for more than 50 years. Moreover, Glière survived the almost unparalleled political turmoil in both Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. Eric Levi, writing for the BBC Music Magazine, explained that “Glière’s consciously old-fashioned and widely accessible musical style enabled him to maintain a relatively stable career in the Soviet Union. Above all, it was these qualities that endeared him to Soviet cultural bureaucrats who regarded Glière as an ideal exponent of Socialist Realism.” Glière remained a staunch conservative throughout his life.
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Jupiter 2024 - 2025 Season Tickets: $25, $17, $10 ~ Reservation advised Please visit our Media Page to hear Audio Recordings from the Jens Nygaard and Jupiter Symphony Archive Concert Venue:
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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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