 
|
|
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 6 ♦ 2 PM & 7:30 PM Tickets: $25, $17 ~ Reservations advised Adam Golka piano Geneva Lewis violin Christine Lamprea cello Sooyun Kim flute Vadim Lando clarinet César CUI 5 Pièces Op. 56 Although Cui made his living as a military engineer specializing in fortification, he adored music, composed prolifically, and wrote music criticism as well. He contributed almost 800 articles between 1864 and 1918 to various newspapers and other publications in Russia and Europe. As a critic, he sought to promote the music of contemporary Russian composers, especially the works of “The Five,” of which he was one of the group. He was also the spokesman for this New Russian School. Although Cui went blind in 1918, he continued to compose small pieces by dictation. Cui died on 26 March 1918 from cerebral apoplexy and was buried at the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery in Saint Petersburg. In 1939 his body was reinterred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg, reuniting him with the other members of “The Five.” Cui, born in Vilnius in 1835 to a Roman Catholic family, was the youngest of 5 children. His father, a French officer, was taken prisoner during Napoleon’s campaign of 1812, but remained in Russia after the war and married a Lithuanian woman. César grew up learning French, Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian. He began to compose while a boy, imitating the style of Chopin, and received lessons in composition. Before finishing his schooling at the gymnasium, Cui was sent to Saint Petersburg in 1850 to prepare to enter the Chief Engineering School, which he did the following year at age 16. After his graduation in 1855, he furthered his studies at the Nikolaevsky Engineering Academy, then became a lecturer there in fortifications. His students over the decades included General Mikhail Skobelev, a hero of the Russo–Turkish war, and several members of the Imperial family, most notably Tsar Nicholas II. Cui eventually taught at 3 of the military academies in Saint Petersburg. His knowledge of fortifications, which he gained from the frontlines during the Russo–Turkish War of 1877–1878, was beneficial in advancing his career. With his expertise proven, Cui attained a professorship in 1880 and the military rank of general in 1906. His writings on fortifications included textbooks that were widely used, in several editions. Francis POULENC Clarinet Sonata Op. 184 Poulenc died suddenly in 1963 at the age of 64. The Clarinet Sonata was his last completed work, commissioned by Benny Goodman and dedicated to Arthur Honegger, one of the original members of Les Six. The Sonata received its debut at Carnegie Hall, played by Goodman and Leonard Bernstein at the piano in 1963. Poulenc served in the military in both World Wars. From 1918 to 1921, he was a conscript in the French army in the last months of World War I and the immediate postwar period. “From the start, Poulenc was at odds with military life. He was wealthy, pampered, and flippant, and within a few months, overstaying a leave in Paris, he pulled a ten-day term in a military prison. He wrote to influential friends, hoping for help, but maintained some sense of humor, asking one friend to spread the word about his incarceration because it was so funny [Wisconsin Public Radio].” Between July and October 1918 he did serve on the Franco-German front, after which he held auxiliary posts and worked as a typist at the Ministry of Aviation. His duties allowed for time to compose pieces such as Trois mouvements perpétuels and Le bestiaire. During World War II Poulenc was briefly a soldier again. He was called up by the French army on 2 June 1940, and served in an anti-aircraft unit in Bordeaux. After France surrendered, he was demobilized on 18 July 1940. He lived Noizay (in German-occupied France) and Paris, and continued to compose, expressing resistance through his music. He wrote works with anti-Nazi undertones, including settings of poems by Resistance writers. He was a founder-member of the Front National (pour musique) and was viewed with suspicion by the Nazis for its association with banned musicians such as Darius Milhaud and Paul Hindemith. Maurice RAVEL La Valse Op. 56 La Valse, a complex work evolved from the Viennese waltz, is often described as dark, menacing, and unsettling, with an undercurrent of irony. The music begins in hushed tones depicting waltzing couples in a giant hall, becomes progressively distorted and infused with dissonance towards the end, and builds to a climax of hallucinatory frenzy, culminating in a cataclysmic, yet triumphant finish. Many listeners and critics perceive it as a symbol reflecting the breakdown of social order and the horrors of war. Ravel, however, resisted interpretations that the war, in which he served, influenced the composition. He asserted, “But one should only see in it what the music expresses: an ascending progression of sonority, to which the stage comes along to add light and movement.” He added, in 1922, that “It doesn’t have anything to do with the present situation in Vienna, and it also doesn’t have any symbolic meaning in that regard. In the course of La Valse, I did not envision a dance of death or a struggle between life and death.” Ravel described La Valse as “a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz.” He had initially conceived the piece as a tribute to the Viennese waltzes of Johann Strauss II, made sketches dating back to 1906, and even considered “Wien” (Vienna) as the title. Other compositions and the Great War intervened, putting the piece on the back burner until Sergei Diaghilev commissioned Ravel for a ballet for the Ballets Russes in 1919. However, after hearing a 2-piano reduction, Diaghilev said it was a “masterpiece” but rejected Ravel’s work as “not a ballet. It’s a portrait of ballet.” Offended, Ravel ended the relationship, and when the two men met again in 1925, Ravel refused to shake Diaghilev’s hand. Diaghilev challenged Ravel to a duel, but friends persuaded the choreographer to withdraw the dare. The men never met again. Subsequently, La Valsebecame a popular concert work. Ravel had been exempted from military service in 1895 on grounds of “frailty.” At the start of World War I, he sought to enlist as he was eager to serve his country. He made numerous attempts to join the army, but was rejected because he was underweight by two kilograms and had a minor heart defect. He then made every effort to join the Air Force. Finally, in March 1915, Ravel entered the auxiliary service as a truck driver in the 13th Artillery Regiment’s supply corps, which managed transport and logistics for the regiments. He hauled gasoline on terrible roads, and some of his duties put him in mortal danger, driving munitions at night under heavy German artillery fire at Verdun: “For a whole week I have been driving days and nights—without lights—on unbelievable roads, often with a load double what my truck should carry. And even so I had to hurry because all this was within range of the guns.” In letters to his mother, “Chauffeur Ravel” (his own moniker) tells of the adventures he endured with his famously nicknamed truck “Adélaïde.” Once, his truck lost a wheel and he had to hide in the forest, waiting 10 days before someone rescued him. His service, however, was cut short—he contracted dysentery (followed by peritonitis), was taken to hospital, then transferred back to Paris from October 1916 to January 1917 and declared unfit for service on 1 June 1917, at first temporarily then permanently. Ravel’s wartime compositions include the Tombeau de Couperin (each movement is dedicated to one of his friends who died at the front), the Piano Trio, Trois chansons for mixed choir (dedicated to people who might help him enlist), and Frontispice for two pianos. Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Piano Trio in C minor Work on the Piano Trio began in the summer of 1897 in Senytchkovo, during an extremely creative phase. However, he was dissatisfied with the result as was his publisher, especially, even though his wife played it frequently. In his autobiography, My Musical Life, he explained, “I composed a string quartet in G major and a trio for violin, cello and piano in C minor. The latter composition remained unfinished, and both of these compositions proved to me that chamber music was not my forte; I therefore resolved not to publish them.” He had tried out parts of it with friends at home, but remained unhappy with the results. Steinberg completed the Trio in 1939, and it was published in the Steinberg edition in 1970. The David Oistrakh Trio with cellist Sviatoslav Knushevitsky and pianist Lev Oborin recorded it in 1952 on the Brilliant label. Rimsky-Korsakov was a member of “The Mighty Handful” aka“The Five,” a group whose mission was to create a national school of Russian music, free of the stifling influences of Italian opera, German lieder, and other European forms. For much of his life, Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) combined his composing and teaching with a career in the Russian armed forces—first as an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, then as a civilian Inspector of Naval Bands. These decisions were influenced by his distinguished naval and military family (his uncle was an admiral in the Russian navy and his brother, older by 22 years, was a marine officer). Although he was musically inclined before the age of 2 and had piano lessons from age 6, his heart was set on a career in the navy. Thus, in 1856 his father took him to St Petersburg, where he entered the College of Naval Cadets at age 12. Concurrently, he continued his piano lessons and went to the opera and concerts. In 1861 he met the composer Mily Balakirev, fell under his spell, and began to write his Symphony No. 1. The composition, however, was put on pause in 1862, when he graduated 6th in his naval class with honors. Soon after, he sailed on the clipper Almaz on a two and a half year voyage, the vessel anchoring in New York, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. at the height of the American Civil War. Subsequent ports of call were Rio de Janeiro (where he was promoted to the rank of midshipman), and the Mediterranean. Upon returning to Russia in May 1865, Rimsky-Korsakov had become, in his own words, “an officer-dilettante who sometimes enjoyed playing or listening to music.” With naval duties now occupying only 2 or 3 hours a day, he had ample time for composing. In 1873 he was allowed to resign his commission, but the Minister of Marine created for him a special civil post of Inspector of Naval Bands, which he undertook with zeal—inspecting naval bands, studying the various instruments, and writing for military bands. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
Monday, April 20 ♦ 2 PM & 7:30 PM Tickets: $25, $17 ~ Reservations advised Hyunah Yu soprano Chelsea Wang piano Joshua Brown violin Julia Schilz violin Natalie Loughran viola Sara Scanlon cello Vadim Lando clarinet Robert FUCHS 2 Phantasiestücke Op. 74 Fuchs taught Mahler harmony and composition at the Vienna Conservatory, and is credited with influencing Mahler’s early musical development. Although his music was not widely known (he did little to promote it), Fuchs had many admirers, including Brahms, who loved and respected him. Brahms, who rarely praised anyone, said, “Fuchs is a splendid musician, everything is so fine and so skillful, so charmingly invented, that one is always pleased.” The noted conductors Arthur Nikisch, Felix Weingartner, and Hans Richter championed his works when they had the opportunity; and many considered his chamber music his finest work. Fuchs (1847–1927) was born in Frauental in southern Austria, the youngest of 13 children. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory with Felix Otto Dessoff and Joseph Hellmesberger. By 1875, he himself was teaching at the Conservatory, eventually rising to the rank of Professor of Composition. He was one of the most famous and revered teachers of his time, retaining his position until 1912. Among his pupils were Mahler, Sibelius, Hugo Wolf, George Enescu, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Erich Korngold, Franz Schmidt, Erkki Melartin, and Rubin Goldmark. He died in Vienna at the age of 80. Peter CORNELIUS Lieder Op. 1 Cornelius thought of himself as a “Poet-Musician.” Refined by nuanced melodies and harmonies, the lovely songs possess a personal quality. The colorful piano accompaniments further enhance the emotionally resonant music. Cornelius (1824–1874) was the son of actors in Mainz. His father trained him as an actor and also arranged for him to have music lessons. He made attempts at composing, mostly chamber music, as early as 1837; by 1840 he was playing the violin in the Mainz theater orchestra. He acted as well in his youth in Mainz and Wiesbaden. From 1844 to 1846 Cornelius studied with Siegfried Dehn in Berlin, and from 1853 to 1858 he lived in Weimar and mingled in the circle of Franz Liszt. He translated articles by Liszt and Hector Berlioz for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musikand became an advocate of the New German School. Berlioz held him in high regard both as a musician and as a skillful translator of the librettos of his own works. In 1857 he began composing the comic opera Der Barbier von Bagdad to his own libretto, based on The Thousand and One Nights. The premiere in 1858, conducted by Liszt at the Hoftheater in Weimar, was a fiasco because Liszt was embroiled in a bitter feud with the manager of the theater over the future direction of the house. Liszt resigned and Cornelius left Weimar. From 1859 to 1864 Cornelius lived in Vienna, where he became a friend of Richard Wagner. In 1865 he accompanied Wagner, whom he greatly admired, to Munich and was a reader to King Ludwig II of Bavaria and a professor at the Royal School of Music. Cornelius also was a gifted lyric poet, setting to music many of his own poems as well as poems of other writers. Der Barbier von Bagdad, reorchestrated by Felix Mottl,was successfully revived in 1884, 10 years after Cornelius died. Mahler conducted it in Prague in 1888. Hans ROTT String Quartet in C minor Rott (1858–1884) and Mahler were close friends and roomed together briefly at the Vienna Conservatory, where he was excused from paying tuition as he was destitute after his father’s death. He studied organ with Bruckner, starting in 1874, and graduated with honors from Bruckner’s organ class in 1877. For some years up to 1878 he was organist at the Piarist church in Vienna. Bruckner said that Rott (his favorite pupil) played Bach very well, and improvised wonderfully (a high compliment coming from Bruckner who was renowned for his improvisational skills). Rott was also influenced by the works of Wagner, and attended the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876. In 1878, his senior year, Rott submitted the first movement of his Symphony in E Major to a composition contest. The jury derided the work; Bruckner was incensed, predicting,“you will hear great things yet from this young man.” After completing the Symphony in 1880, Rott showed the work to both Brahms and Hans Richter in an attempt to get it performed, but was rebuffed. Brahms did not like Bruckner exerting his influence on the Conservatory students, and even told Rott that he had no talent and should give up music. Within a month Rott’s mind snapped while on a train, and he became insane. Debilitated by mental illness, he died at age 25 of tuberculosis. Mahler and Bruckner attended his funeral at the Central Cemetery in Vienna. His importance as a composer lies in his influence on his close friend Mahler. In particular, his Symphony in E anticipates those of Mahler in its thematic material and compositional techniques. Mahler praised Rott, calling him “a musician of genius...who died unrecognized and in want on the very threshold of his career.... What music has lost in him cannot be estimated. Such is the height to which his genius soars…. To be sure, what he wanted is not quite what he achieved. … But I know where he aims. Indeed, he is so near to my inmost self that he and I seem to me like two fruits from the same tree which the same soil has produced and the same air nourished. He could have meant infinitely much to me and perhaps the two of us would have well-nigh exhausted the content of new time which was breaking out for music.” For more on Rott, see https://mahlerfoundation.org/mahler/contemporaries/hans-rott/ Gustav MAHLER Das Himmlische Leben “The Heavenly Light” The beautiful song is the zenith of the “Wunderhorn” (4th) Symphony. Mahler called it the “tapering spire of the edifice.” The text—adapted from an old Bavarian folk song, “Der himmel hängt voll Geigen” (“Heaven is hung with violins”)—depicts heavenly pleasures, peace, a feast of delicious and plentiful food being prepared for all the saints, dancing, and singing. Mahler’s instruction to the soprano was “With childlike, cheerful expression; entirely without parody!” The song came from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youths Magic Horn)—a 3-volume collection of German folk poems, songs, and aphorisms compiled by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano. Published between 1805 and 1808, the collection had a profound influence on Mahler, providing him with a rich source of poetic texts for his early symphonies and song cycles. Wilhelm KIENZL Piano Trio in F minor Op. 13 The attractive Trio was written at age 23 just after he graduated with a doctorate degree. In the view of Edition Silvertrust, the exuberance, punctuated by episodes of longing, recalls the music of Schumann. “The opening movement, Allegro moderato, begins with a highly romantic, lyrical melody first introduced by the cello. A very Schumannesque energetic Scherzo follows. The lovely contrasting trio is fresh and flowing. A quiet, reflective and calm but very lyrical, singing Adagio is placed third. The unmistakable ghost of Schumann hovers over the closing Allegro vivace.” Kienzl and Mahler were neither friends nor colleagues, but they knew each other. Documents and letters provide evidence of the interaction between them. When Kienzl was dismissed in 1891 as director of the Hamburg Opera, halfway through his debut season because of poor reviews, Mahler was his replacement. Kienzel and Mahler corresponded in 1897, and during a visit to Budapest in 1889 he was introduced to Mahler. Kienzel also he met Mahler at the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth in Vienna in 1904. In 1905 Mahler attended a performance of Kienzl’s opera Don Quixote in Graz. However, he left the theater in the middle of the performance, which deeply offended Kienzl. Kienzl (1857–1941) was born in the picturesque Austrian town of Waizenkirchen. When he was 3 his family moved to the Styrian capital of Graz, where he began lessons on the piano and violin. At age 15 he entered Graz University and added composition to his studies and discussed the works of Schumann and Wagner. He then continued his education at Prague University in 1874. There, his teacher Josef Krejči took him to Bayreuth to attend the first performance of Wagner’s Ring. It made a lasting impression on Kienzl. The next year he studied at Leipzig University, then briefly with Liszt in Weimar, and completed his dissertation and formal education in Vienna in 1879. “In the same year he went again to Bayreuth where he spent a considerable time as a member of the close circle around Wagner. His disagreements with some of the group on musical matters soon terminated his stay, but he remained an admirer of Wagner and his music. He attended nearly every Bayreuth Festival during his lifetime as well as lecturing and writing on Wagner [New Grove Dictionary].” Kienzl’s career developed in the opera sphere. Several of his operas became famous and were widely performed, such as Der Evangelimann. He was one of the first composers outside of Italy to make use of the verismo style, with its greater realism and naturalism.“With Humperdinck, Kienzl was responsible for the revival of Romanticism in opera, continuing the tradition of Weber, Lortzing and early Wagner. Returning to the naive elements of folk opera, he was able to develop them with music often strongly influenced by Wagner.” He was also considered, along with Hugo Wolf, one of the finest composers of Lieder since Schubert.
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
Jupiter 2025 - 2026 Season Tickets: $25, $17 ~ Reservation 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. |
||||||||
