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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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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New York, NY 10023
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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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Dear Friend and Music Lover ~

As our musical journey cruises ahead, please consider making Jupiter a part of your life.

Our precious cache of gifted musicians continues to give joy with a trove of musical treasures, big and small, in wondrous variety—at modest ticket prices, no less.

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Our deepest gratitude, always,

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Monday, December 17, 2pm & 7:30pm 
Romanticism : 3 Ways
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway)

William Wolfram piano
Winner of the William Kapell, Naumburg, and Tchaikovsky competitions ~ “Wolfram’s technique is flabbergasting; fiendishly difficult octave passages were as child’s play, and his strength is tempered by an easy poetry.” The New York Times ~ “Wolfram is a dazzling performer.” Kalamazoo Gazette

Robin Scott violin
First Violin of the Ying Quartet ~ 1st prizes: California Young Artists Competition and WAMSO, 2nd prizes: Menuhin, Irving Klein, and Stulberg competitions ~ “sweetly spun tone and formidable technique” Washington Post

Carl Maria von WEBER  Clarinet Quintet Op. 34
   ~ an early Romantic mini-concerto written by the cousin of Mozart’s wife Constanze for his friend, the virtuoso clarinettist Heinrich Baermann ~ it’s one of his most charismatic works for the clarinet, and one of the most technically demanding

Robert FUCHS  Piano Trio No. 3 in F^# minor Op. 115
   ~ for the unusual combination of piano, viola, and cello, the highly-regarded teacher’s late-Romantic Trio recalls Brahms, who, while known for withholding praise for other composers, wrote of his friend in 1891: “Fuchs is a splendid musician, everything is so fine and so skillful, so charmingly invented, that one is always pleased.”

Born in the Austrian state of Styria in 1847 to a musical family, Fuchs moved to Vienna in 1865 to study under Anton Bruckner, Felix Otto Dessoff, and Joseph Hellmesberger. Ten years later he joined the faculty at the Vienna Conservatory, teaching there for 37 years—harmony, at first, then theory and counterpoint. Among his pupils were Mahler, Sibelius, Richard Strauss, George Enescu, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Franz Schmidt, Franz Schreker, Hugo Wolf, and Alexander Zemlinsky. The New Grove Dictionary notes that Brahms “gave him early encouragement as a composer and introduced him to Simrock. Brahms thought highly of his work, being particularly impressed by the Symphony No.1 in C, for which Fuchs was awarded the Beethoven prize in composition by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in 1886.” Other admirers included the conductors Arthur Nikisch, Felix Weingartner, and Hans Richter, all of whom championed his works. When he died in 1927, a few days after his 80th birthday, he was given a grave of honor in the Central Cemetery in Vienna.

Max BRUCH  Piano Quintet in G minor
   ~ among his few works for piano, the dramatic, engaging, memorable quintet was composed for and dedicated to Andrew Kurtz, a friend and amateur pianist from his Liverpool days, when he spent 3 seasons as conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society from 1880 to 1883

Jupiter Players on this program:

Lisa Shihoten violin
Honored by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and winner of the Menuhin and Paganini violin competitions

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

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; Second Prizewinner at the 2018 Paolo (Finland) competition; selected a 2016 Presidential Scholar of the Arts

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

Monday, January 7, 2pm & 7:30pm 
Salute to 3 Knights
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway)

William Wolfram piano
Winner of the William Kapell, Naumburg, and Tchaikovsky competitions ~ “Wolfram’s technique is flabbergasting; fiendishly difficult octave passages were as child’s play, and his strength is tempered by an easy poetry.” The New York Times ~ “Wolfram is a dazzling performer.” Kalamazoo Gazette

Asi Matathias violin
Protégé of Pinchas Zukerman, already recognized as one of the most talented musicians of his generation. He made his debut at the age of fourteen with the Israel Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta, displaying a musical maturity and inspiration far beyond his years.

Sir Donald Francis TOVEY  Variations on a Theme by Gluck
   ~ the flute quintet is Romantic in harmony and feeling and surprisingly flowery for the distinguished British music scholar, composer, and pianist best known for his Essays in Musical Analysis ~ Tovey was a student of Sir Hubert Parry and a close friend of the legendary violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim

Jens Nygaard highly respected Tovey and presented 2 “All-Tovey” concerts at CAMI Hall, in 1973 and 1975. They were open to the public but attended mostly by critics. At Good Shepherd Church, he gave 3 performances each of Tovey’s Piano Concerto with Makiko Hirata and Tovey’s Cello Concerto with Joel Krosnick, his student and former cellist of the Juilliard String Quartet. The program of the 1975 concert at CAMI Hall bears Jens’s tribute: “This concert is gratefully and lovingly dedicated to the greatest of all my teachers—Sir Donald Francis Tovey. I wish that I could have known him personally.”

Sir Arthur SOMERVELL  Clarinet Quintet in G Major
   ~ a lyric wonder with irresistible melodies

Best known for several song cycles, the “English Schumann” was also Sir Hubert Parry’s student, but he first “studied composition with Charles Villiers Stanford [in 1881] at Cambridge University.... Subsequently, on Stanford’s recommendation, he went to Berlin where he continued his studies with Friedrich Kiel, who had taught Stanford, and Woldemar Bargiel, who became a close friend of Brahms by virtue of being Clara Schumann’s younger half brother. [It was upon returning to London in 1885 that Somervell studied with Parry for two years at the Royal College of Music, then privately for another two years.] Somervell pursued a dual career of composer and teacher, serving as a professor at the Royal College of Music in London [Edition Silvertrust].”

Sir Hubert PARRY  Piano Quartet in A^b Major
   ~ considered one of the best and most important piano quartets written by the preeminent 19th century English composer

While most good Englishmen know Parry’s choral song, Jerusalem, few are familiar with his fine Piano Quartet with its vivacious scherzo and heartfelt Andante movement. Musicologist Lewis Foreman, in calling it an “early masterpiece,” accounts for this lapse: “...this is a case in point when it is difficult for us today to appreciate how modern this must have sounded when it was first performed. When it was given at a Monday Popular Concert in December 1883 it had a thin audience, critics clearly seeing an avant garde work frightening them away. The Musical Times excused Parry by writing ‘No fault can attach to him for adhesion to the modern school of writing if, as there is no reason to doubt, his principles are sincere. The composer from whom he has obtained most of his inspiration in the present instance is undoubtedly Brahms, but in some respects he has gone beyond his model.... Mr Parry merges subjects and details together with irritating persistence...[and] is not afraid to obey the dictates of his own inner consciousness....’”

Parry’s importance is noted by the New Grove Dictionary: “Combining these three activities [as composer, scholar, and teacher] with a forceful personality and social position, he exercised a revitalizing influence on English musical life at a time in the 19th century when standards of composition, performance, criticism and education were low.” Born in 1848, Parry obtained a Mus.B. degree while still at Eton, then read law and modern history at Oxford at his father’s behest. From 1870 to 1877 he worked for Lloyd’s register of shipping as an underwriter, at the same time continuing his musical studies. Finding the insurance industry totally unsuitable, he turned to music full time. In the 1890s he became director of the Royal College of Music and was appointed Professor of Music at Oxford. His many students included Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frank Bridge, and John Ireland. Parry is the subject of a documentary film presented by Prince Charles and directed by John Bridcut: The Prince and the Composer. It was broadcast on BBC4 in 2011.

Jupiter Players on this program:

Eunae Koh violin
Won second prize and the chamber music prize at the 2015 Michael Hill 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; Second Prizewinner at the 2018 Paolo (Finland) competition; selected a 2016 Presidential Scholar of the Arts

Barry Crawford flute
“Crawford’s playing was superb. I admired his tone, his phrasing and breath control, and the joy-giving communicative quality of his playing.” Southampton Press

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

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, January 21, 2pm & 7:30pm 
Women’s Jewels
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway)

Fei Fei piano
Winner of the Concert Artists Guild and a top finalist at the 14th Van Cliburn competitions. Praised by the Plain Dealer for her “bountiful gifts and passionate immersion into the music she touches,” she continues to build a reputation for her poetic interpretations, charming audiences with her “passion, piquancy and tenderness” and “winning stage presence” (Dallas Morning News)

Francisco Fullana violin
Recipient of a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of several competitions, including the Brahms, Sarasate, Julio Cardona and TIM “Torneo Internazionale di Musica” prizes ~ “a very special violinist” The Boston Globe

Anna Amalia VON BRUNSWICK-WOLFENBÜTTEL  Divertimento in B^b Major
   ~ a charming quartet by the sister of Frederick the Great, reflecting the “sensitive style,” already containing elements of early classicism—in 2 movements comprising a stately Adagio and a brisk Allegro for piano, clarinet, viola, and cello ~ the use of the clarinet, a young instrument beginning to attract notice at the time, is remarkable

Born a princess in 1739 into a powerful royal dynasty, Anna Amalia became a duchess upon her marriage to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenbach when she was 18. Her husband died in 1758, before her 20th birthday, leaving her with 2 young children. Widowed, she assumed the role of regent until her son and heir reached his majority. During her enlightened reign, which lasted till 1775, she proved herself a talented stateswoman. Politically and financially astute, despite the challenges of the Seven Years’ War, she developed the economy of the Duchy, strengthening its reputation and resources. She also transformed her court and its environs into the most influential cultural center in Germany through the creation of the Musenhof, or court of muses. It was known throughout Europe for its rich musical and cultural life, and attracted artists, composers, and writers—leaders in the German Enlightenment, including Friedrich Schiller and Goethe, who became her friend. The literati wrote poems and texts for the songs of the new German opera, the Singspiel. The Duchess herself became a respected composer—she set some of Goethe’s texts (including Erwin and Elmire) to music, and wrote operas and symphonies that were performed at the court and beyond. Her compositions show her as an “elegant amateur free of ambition” who reflected the taste and spirit of her epoch. In 1766 she moved the court’s book collection that included 13,000 volumes of music to the Library in Weimar named after her—Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek. When her regency ended, she devoted herself to culture and also toured Italy with Goethe. She died in 1807.

Emilie MAYER  Notturno in D minor
   ~ free flowing and expressive, her last work (for violin and piano) was dedicated to the great violinist Joseph Joachim

The German composer, born in Friedland in 1812, wrote almost 100 compositions in a wide range of musical genres unmatched by any other woman composer of the 19th century. Her teacher Carl Lowe opened her world to Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, which led to her own compositional style that followed outstanding classical models. Her inheritance at age 28 after her father’s death enabled her to pursue a career in music without financial constraints. In 1850 she organized her first concert exclusively featuring her own work at the Berlin Playhouse, and continued to do so for the next decade to critical acclaim. This helped secure her place as a successful composer.

Mélanie BONIS  Scènes de la forêt Op. 123
   ~ beguiling set of vignettes, creating a bucolic yet sensuous atmosphere ~ for flute, horn, and piano

Bonis, a talented and prolific composer of more than 300 works, came from a lower-middle class Parisian family and was raised a Catholic. Debussy was her classmate at the Paris Conservatoire, and her music was praised by Saint-Saëns, Gabriel Pierné, and Celestin Joubert. Her sad, suppressed, guilt-ridden, and conflicted life (it includes unsupportive parents, an arranged marriage, and an illegitimate child) may be read here: http://www.mel-bonis.com/melboanglais.

Laura Valborg AULIN  String Quartet No. 1 in F Major Op. 17c
   ~ tuneful and inventive Romantic quartet by the Swedish pianist and composer

Admired as a pianist and sought after as a teacher, Aulin was born in 1860 and studied at the Stockholm Conservatory from 1877 to 1882. In 1885 she studied for a short time with Niels Gade in Copenhagen, and then for two years with Benjamin Godard and Jules Massenet in Paris on a Jenny Lind stipend. Three of her part songs won a prize in 1895 in Copenhagen. Her brother was Tor Aulin, founder of the Aulin Quartet, which specialized in the Classical repertory and performed the works of Scandinavian composers, including Berwald, Stenhammar, and Grieg, his friend.

Luise Adolpha LE BEAU  Piano Trio in D minor Op.15
   ~ a beautiful, polished trio by the prize-winning German composer admired by Brahms, Liszt, and Berlioz

It has been reported that Le Beau could sing before she could speak. Born in Rastatt in 1850, the prodigy was fortunate to have supportive parents. Her father, especially, gave her the best education possible and even tutored her in subjects not offered to women in schools, and he also taught her the piano. Subsequently she studied composition with Johannn Kalliwoda and piano with Clara Schumann. In 1873 she sought the advice of Hans von Bulow, who urged her to move to a larger city to expand her artistic opportunities. Eventually she moved to Munich and studied composition with Josef Rheinberger and Franz Lachner. Her works won several prizes and were well regarded by Brahms, Liszt, Berlioz, Woldemar Bargiel, Joachim, and the critic Eduard Hanslick, among others. She died in 1927.

Le Beau once wrote, “Just do not limit, then, the training of girls. Rather, teach them the same things that are taught to boys. Grow accustomed to a system that has this same fundamental condition for every education, and then see what [girls] can do after acquiring technical skills and intellectual independence, rather than entrench yourselves against female capabilities by limiting the education of women!”

Jupiter Players on this program:

Eunae Koh violin
Won second prize and the chamber music prize at the 2015 Michael Hill Competition

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

Julietta Curenton flute
Winner of many awards and the Astral Artists Auditions ~ “her tone... draws in one’s ear with sounds and ideas that simply cannot be resisted,” The Philadelphia Inquirer

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

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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Find out more about the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.