Jupiter Players Perform Mendelssohn, Kahn, Schubert and Brahms

Yesterday afternoon, the Jupiter Players performed the first in the new season's series of twenty chamber music recitals at Christ and St. Stephen's Church on West 69th Street.  It was an auspicious beginning that featured works by several of the nineteenth century's most important composers - Mendelssohn, Robert Kahn, Schubert and Brahms.

The program opened with Mendelssohn's  Rondo Capriccioso in E Major, Op. 14 (1830), one of his most popular works for solo piano - perhaps because, as  one critic has suggested, "...it sounds more difficult to play than it actually is." - here arranged by one G. Günther for two violins and viola.  Though the autograph of the final work is dated June 13, 1830, the work had been begun much earlier, and the closing 6/8 presto in E minor was actually completed in 1828.  Mendelssohn returned to the work after he had made the acquaintance of Munich pianist Delphine von Schauroth.  The two exchanged musical pieces as gifts and Mendelssohn's contribution was the present piece, now complete with the addition of the opening 4/4 andante in E major.  Though the arrangement for strings played here was lively enough, I much preferred the original for solo piano.

The next work was Schubert's Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (“Shepherd on the Rock”), D. 965 (1828).  Schubert was the greatest songwriter of the nineteenth century and never so much as in this lied written shortly before his untimely death.  It was composed for the soprano, Anna Milder-Hauptmann, whom Schubert held in high regard and was premiered in Latvia on February 10, 1830.  The verses themselves were taken from poems by Wilhelm Müller and Karl August Varnhagen von Ense.  The instrumentation was for soprano, clarinet, and piano.

Another vocal piece followed, a song cycle by Robert Kahn entitled Jungbrunnen (“Fountain of Youth”), Op. 46 (1906).  Kahn was a  protege of Brahms, and the great composer's influence can clearly be heard here.   During the period in which Kahn composed this cycle he was not only a teacher at the prestigious Königlichen Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where his students included Arthur Rubinstein, but also performed as a lied accompanist and chamber musician.  This piece, whose lyrics were written by Paul Heyse, Nobel laureate for Literature in 1910, was scored for soprano, violin, cello, and piano.  The titles of the songs were "The roses are blooming"; "My heart is pounding"; "Cool forest night"; "I wander through the chilly forest"; "My mind is cheerful"; "In moonlight"; and "There is a gale blowing."  Despite Kahn's relative obscurity, this was a major work of great beauty and deserves to be heard more often.

The soloist on both the Schubert and the Kahn was soprano Hyunah Yu.  I had never before heard her perform and was impressed by her ability and range.  She was very successful in conveying to the audience both works' strong emotional content.

After intermission, the program closed with Brahms's Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 (1864).  The work began as a string quintet (in this case, a quartet with an additional cello) that the composer wrote in 1862 and later transcribed into a sonata for two pianos (Op. 34b).  The sonata was not particularly well received when it was premiered by the composer and pianist Carl Tausig, but Brahms did not withdraw it from publication.  The quintet itself, which violinist Joseph Joachim had found lacking in "charm," was eventually destroyed.  This was par for the course with Brahms who, ever the perfectionist, never hesitated to discard any work that failed to meet his high standards.  As one would expect with a work that had so prolonged a gestation, the final product sounded a bit awkward in some passages; but it was nevertheless successful, especially in the second movement andante, un poco adagio, in expressing its composer's Romantic ethos.  Considering that the piece was originally conceived entirely for string instruments, it was remarkable how prominent a part the piano was given in the final version.