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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Jupiter 2018 - 2019 Season
20 Mondays at 2:00 PM & 7:30 PM

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please call (212) 799-1259 or buy at the door
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Concert Venue:
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway), New York

“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

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JUPITER SYMPHONY
155 West 68th Street, Suite 319
New York, NY 10023
admin@jupitersymphony.com
(212) 799-1259

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Listen to a live recording of the Jupiter Symphony
Chamber Players from September 23, 2013
Recorded by Joseph Patrych

Roman Rabinovich piano
Xiao-Dong Wang violin
Mihai Marica cello

Antonín DVORÁK  Piano Trio No. 1 in B^b Major Op. 21
i. Allegro molto
ii. Adagio molto e mesto
iii. Allegretto scherzando
iv. Finale

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Jupiter in the News

“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 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...

Monday, October 22, 2pm & 7:30pm 
From Nordic Lands
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway)

Maxim Lando piano
Gold Medal : 2017 Berliner International Competition; Gold Medal : 2015 International Television Contest for Young Musicians in Moscow; 2nd prize : Kissinger Klavier Olymp in Germany; Winner : 2014 Juilliard Pre-College Concerto Competition ~ “He has an ever so clear approach to the keyboard, and the molding and shaping of phrases straight from the musical angels.” Berkshire Fine Arts

William Hagen violin
Third prize winner of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth Competition (the highest ranking American since 1980) ~ a “brilliant virtuoso…a standout” The Dallas Morning News ~ “an intellectual command of line and score, and just the right amount of power” Violinist.com ~ “plays with an obvious and sincere love for the very act of music making” North Texas Performing Arts News

Erkki MELARTIN  String Trio Op. 133
   ~ a remarkable work wherein Modernist and traditional harmonies are mysteriously combined, with shifts in styles and textures

Overshadowed by Sibelius, Melartin (1875-1937) was a prolific composer, as well as a conductor, philosopher, mystic, naturalist, painter, linguist, and an influential teacher. His style ranged from late Romanticism to restrained Expressionism, in an individual voice. While his most important works are his six symphonies, he is most remembered for his lyric pieces, including salon music, which brought him greatest popularity. In the early decades of the 20th century he introduced Finnish audiences to the music of Mahler, Strauss, and other contemporary composers.

Franz BERWALD  Grand Septet in B^b Major
   ~ in the early Romantic style of Hummel, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Louis Spohr, the innovative, exuberant work is “memorable for its entrancing combination of emotional sequences” [The Strad, December 1995]

Berwald, born in Stockholm in 1796 to a long line of musicians, is considered Sweden’s foremost composer, the founder of Romanticism in Sweden, and its first important symphonist. He was, however, unable to earn a living as a musician, and became a successful orthopedic surgeon in 1835 and in 1850 he took over the management of a glass factory, then launched a saw mill, and was also active as a polemicist from about 1856. He began composing again after his move to Vienna in 1841, the 1840s being his most productive musical years. In 1866, at the age of 70, he was finally acknowledged for his musical achievements with the award of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star, but it was not until the 20th century that his work became more widely recognized.

Jean SIBELIUS  Piano Quintet in G minor
   ~ original ideas fill this dark, symphonic, ambitious work, influenced by the Piano Quintet of the Norse composer Christian Sinding, while he probed his own Finnish roots

The Quintet was written during a year of private study in Berlin, following his graduation from the Helsinki Music Institute. The premiere of its first and third movements was performed by none other than the great Italian pianist Ferruccio Busoni (his teacher and lifelong friend) and the Norwegian composer and violinist Johan Halvorsen, both of whom were impressed with the Quintet.

Jupiter Players on this program:

Lisa Shihoten violin
Winner of the Marcia Polayes, Menuhin and Nakamichi competitions

Maurycy Banaszek viola
Winner of numerous violin, viola and chamber music awards

Paul Wiancko cello
Juggles an exceptionally multi-faceted musical life as a cellist, composer, and collaborator

Ha Young Jung double bass
Gold Medalist in the 2017 Berliner competition, multiple prizewinner at the 2016 Irving Klein and 2016 Boulder Chamber Music competition, First Prizes at the 2013 Koussevitzky and 2007 International Double Bass competitions, Grand-Prix in the 2006 String Competition in Moscow ~ “Disarming prodigy who achieved the rare distinction of making her instrument seem worthy of solo status.” Daily Telegraph of London

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 ~ “a prominent, perilously chromatic horn line, which Karl Kramer played beautifully.” The New York Times

Gina Cuffari bassoon
“a sound that is by turns sensuous, lyric, and fast moving” Palm Beach Daily News

Monday, September 24, 2pm & 7:30pm 
2001 • Remembering Jens Nygaard
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway)

Timur Mustakimov piano
Winner of the 2014 NTD, 2013 Heida Hermanns, Jacob Flier and 2011 Mannes Concerto Competitions as well as piano competitions in Ufa, Russia and Kiev, Ukraine ~ “a pianist with his own style, recognizable and at the same time spontaneous” Kamerton Magazine

Dmitri Berlinsky violin
Winner of the Paganini, Montreal, Tchaikovsky, Queen Elisabeth and Young Concert Artists competitions ~ “Berlinsky held the audience in the palm of his hand.” The Washington Times ~ “His tone was rounded and velvety, and he phrased in a way that brought out the music’s fire.” The New York Times

Jacqueline Kerrod harp
“exceptionally virtuosic and sensitive” Classical Source

TCHAIKOVSKY  Herbstlied “Autumn Song”
   ~ an autumnal elegy from The Seasons, arranged by Toru Takemitsu in 1993 for clarinet and string quartet from the original for solo piano

Igor STRAVINSKY  Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet
   ~ extremely demanding, the miniature masterpiece was written during his Swiss exile and marks a significant transition from his early Russian or primitivist style to Neoclassicism

Clarinetist Charles Russo, who played under Stravinsky and discussed the piece with him, believed the composer intended the work as a stylistic bridge between the Rite of Spring and his later work. It was dedicated to Werner Reinhart, the Swiss patron of the arts who had bankrolled L’histoire du Soldat.

TCHAIKOVSKY  String Quartet in B^b Major Op. post.
   ~ a one-movement jewel written while Tchaikovsky was a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, the Quartet is based on the theme of a Ukrainian song that Tchaikovsky heard gardeners sing at Kamenka during the summer of that year ~ in 1867 he used the main theme of the Quartet in his Scherzo à la russe, his first published work

Mikhail GLINKA  Serenata sopra alcuni motivi dell’opera “Anna Bolena”
   ~ melodious and glittering, in elegant salon style ~ for piano, harp, horn, bassoon, viola, cello, and double bass

Glinka attended the premiere of Anna Bolena in Milan on 26 December 1830, during his 3-year sojourn in Italy. The tragic opera, which tells the story of Henry VIII’s notorious second wife, Anne Boleyn, in an embellished, romanticized way, was Donizetti’s first major hit and marked a turning point in his career. Glinka’s own reaction, according to a diary entry, was one of “rapture.” His skillful working of Donizetti’s tunes, which includes a bold piano part and interplay between the other instruments, gave rise to this rhapsodic, operatic overture.

TCHAIKOVSKY  Adagio molto in E^b Major
   ~ written as an exercise while a student in Anton Rubinstein’s composition class at the St. Petersburg Conservatory ~ for harp and string quartet

Anton ARENSKY  Piano Trio in D minor Op. 32
   ~ soaring melodies infused with Russian Romanticism ripple through the glorious Trio influenced by Tchaikovsky

A pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Arensky graduated with a gold medal, then became one of the youngest professors ever to teach at the Moscow Conservatory. The Trio was written as a memorial to his (and Tchaikovsky’s) friend, the cellist Karl Davidoff, who had been director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory when Arensky was a student there. Davidoff, who died in 1889, is considered the founder of the Russian school of cello playing, and Arensky’s dedication is reflected in the cello’s prominence in the Trio. Among Arensky’s pupils were Alexander Scriabin, Reinhold Glière, and Rachmaninoff. He died at age 44 from tuberculosis, most likely exacerbated by his drinking.

Jupiter Players on this program:

Randall Mitsuo Goosby violin
Youngest first prizewinner of the 2010 Sphinx competition at age 13, won third prize at the senior division of the 2018 Sphinx competition

Maurycy Banaszek viola
Winner of numerous violin, viola and chamber music awards

Zlatomir Fung cello
Winner of the 2017 Young Concert Artists Auditions and 2017 Astral National Auditions; First Prizewinner of the 2018 Schoenfeld, 2016 Enescu, 2015 Johansen, 2014 Stulberg, and 29th Irving Klein Competitions; selected a 2016 Presidential Scholar of the Arts

Lizzie Burns double bass
A recent alumna of Ensemble Connect at Carnegie Hall

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 ~ “a prominent, perilously chromatic horn line, which Karl Kramer played beautifully.” The New York Times

Marlène Ngalissamy bassoon
Won first prize at the 2012 Canadian Music Competition

Monday, October 8, 2pm & 7:30pm 
Otherwordly
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway)

Drew Petersen piano
Recipient of the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and 2017 American Pianists Awards, 2015 Leeds (4th prize), Kosciuszko-Chopin competitions, Jan Gorbaty Award, and Artist-in-Residence at the University of Indianapolis ~ “Thrilling piano playing wedded to astute quite astonishing musicianship.” East Hampton Star

Danbi Um violin
Silver Medalist in the Menuhin competition; winner of the 2015 Astral Artists Auditions and recipient of the 2018 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant ~ “...utterly dazzling” The Strad ~ “a marvelous show of superb technique” and “mesmerizing grace” New York Classical Review

Elizabeth Brown theremin
Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy and at the MacDowell Colony

Ignace PLEYEL  Nocturne No. 1 in C Major B. 215
   ~ Haydnesque and utterly charming, the octet is for oboe, 2 horns, violin, 2 violas, cello, and double bass

Pleyel was not only famous in his day as a piano builder and music publisher, he was equally acclaimed as a composer. Mozart praised the Austrian-born French composer’s merits in a letter to his father: “If you are not yet acquainted with Pleyel’s new quartets, it’s worth the effort. They are very well written and very pleasant. Perhaps one day Pleyel will be able to fill the place of our dear Haydn.” Initially a rival of Haydn’s, Pleyel made his peace with the older composer and for several years they enjoyed a close and fruitful relationship as teacher and pupil.

Bohuslav MARTINU  Fantaisie H. 301
   ~ written for the unorthodox combination of theremin, oboe, string quartet, and piano to create new and compelling timbres, especially from the theremin’s sine tone (tone with a single frequency) that produces magical images of sounds seemingly from ether

The Czech composer of Modern classical music studied briefly at the Prague Conservatory before being dismissed for “incorrigible negligence,” after which he continued to study on his own. He went to Paris in 1923, living there until France capitulated to Nazi Germany in 1940, when he fled, first to the south of France, and then to the United States in 1941, settling in New York with his French wife. He was commissioned by Lucie Bigelow Rosen to write a piece for theremin and began the task during the summer of 1944, completing the Fantaisie on the 1st of October. Rosen performed the premiere as theremin soloist in New York on 3 November 1945 with the Koutzen Quartet, oboist Robert Boom, and Carlos Salzedo at the piano.

The theremin—one of the world’s first electronic instruments—was invented by the Russian scientist Léon Theremin in 1919. It consists of two radio frequency oscillators and two metal loop antennas. Electric signals from the instrument are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker; the instrument, untouched by the performer’s hands, thus generates unusual and unexpected musical sounds and effects.

Gabriel FAURÉ  Piano Quintet No. 1 in D minor Op. 89
   ~ by turns ethereal, passionate, doleful, even whimsical, the beautiful Quintet’s overall effect is one of inward melancholy and elusiveness, with light textures

Attempts at the Quintet date from as early as 1887, and after a long and troublesome development, it was finally completed toward the end of 1905. Dedicated to Eugène Ysaÿe, its premiere was performed in Brussels on 23 March 1906 by the Ysaÿe Quartet with Blanche Selva at the piano. Fauré was Saint-Saëns’s devoted and most famous student. The prominent critic Harold Schonberg described him as having “the essence of everything Gallic—form, grace, wit, logic, individuality, urbanity...those who love the music of Fauré love it as a private, cherished gift from one of the gentlest and most subtle of composers.

Jupiter Players on this program:

Hannah Tarley violin
Won first prize at the 2015 New York Concerti Sinfonietta’s International Shining Stars Competition and third prize at the 2017 Elmar Oliviera Competition

Dov Scheindlin viola
Winner of the Siemens Prize ~ “an extraordinary violist” of “immense flair” The New York Times

Jordan Bak viola
Winner of the 2017 Juilliard Concerto Competition and recipient of the Presser Foundation Scholar Award

Ani Aznavoorian cello
Winner of the Julius Stulberg and Paolo (Finland) competitions ~ “shows great sensitivity and great virtuosity at all moments” Los Angeles Times

Lizzie Burns double bass
Recent alumna of Ensemble Connect at Carnegie Hall

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

Karl Kramer horn
Winner of the 1997 and 1999 American Horn competitions ~ “a prominent, perilously chromatic horn line, which Karl Kramer played beautifully.” The New York Times

Audrey Flores horn
Was principal Horn of Symphony in C

Dear Friends and Music Lovers,    These days there’s much ado about mining bitcoins. Well, let’s consider mining Jupiter instead.    Why? Jupiter is a valuable asset that offers growth in enjoyment, with interesting and varied programs, and it’s the best in class. It also offers many performance opportunities to numerous remarkable musicians, while continuing to keep ticket prices low. No speculation needed, no volatility expected. The yield includes rock solid support of super talents and guaranteed high returns in bliss from top quality music making. There’s nothing to lose in mining Jupiter. No risk.    So sign up now for a full series of 20 concerts, or miss out on half the fun and sign up for 10 concerts. We’ll even more than welcome you on a per concert basis!    How is this investment possible at such bargain rates? Here’s where you come in—your gift is the seed capital for a thriving Jupiter! Please give as much as you can. You’ll have our gratitude in spades. All gifts are tax deductible. Thank you so much,

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.

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