Jupiter Players Perform Korngold and Schubert

On Monday afternoon I walked down to Good Shepherd Church on West 66th Street to hear a recital given by the Jupiter Players.  On this occasion there were three guest artists - Max Levinson piano, Vadim Gluzman violin, and Kobi Malkin violin - but only two works on the program, one each by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Franz Schubert.

The program opened with Korngold's Piano Trio in D Major Op. 1 (1909-1910).  Most of the pieces I've heard by Korngold were written after he had achieved success in Hollywood and, however well crafted, were too commercial for my taste.  Listening to them, I felt that Korngold had irremediably compromised his integrity as a composer by immersing himself in the Hollywood lifestyle and writing while there some sixteen film scores, two of which won Academy Awards.  To be fair, Korngold did not have much choice in the matter.  As a Jewish fugitive from Nazi persecution he had to earn his living somehow.  Nevertheless, composers such as Shostakovich and Schnittke also wrote film scores out of necessity without allowing this work to interfere with their more serious compositions.  Korngold, on the other hand, embraced popular taste and went so far as to incorporate music from the film scores into his more serious endeavors, such as the Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35.

The Piano Trio, as one might infer from its low opus number, was written long before Korngold first arrived in Hollywood in 1934.  Composed while Korngold was a student of Alexander Zemlinsky (to whom the youngster had been referred by no less a musical authority than Mahler), the four-movement trio was very favorably received when premiered in Vienna by the virtousi Bruno Walter, piano, Arnold Rosé, violin, and Friedrich Buxbaum, cello.  A product of its time, the work, especially in its third movment larghetto, was redolent of the Austrian fin de siècle that was then coming to a close and showed the influence of both Brahms and Strauss.  (Not surprisingly, the latter thought very highly of the piece.)  The extremely polished work would have been a substantial achievement for any composer, but a truly remarkable feat for one then only just entering his teens.  Lush and sensuous, it was also exceptionally melodic and as such showed the first evidence of Korngold's ability to craft winning tunes, an accomplishment that would stand him in good stead decades later in Hollywood.

After intermission the program concluded with Schubert's Octet in F major, D. 803 (1824). The work was commissioned by Ferdinand Troyer, chief steward to Archduke Rudolph, one of Beethoven's most important patrons. It was inspired by Beethoven's Septet, by then almost a quarter century old but still, to the master's chagrin, by far his most popular work. Schubert for the most part adhered to his model's six movement structure and instrumentation but added a second violin to provide an even richer texture. As Troyer was an expert clarinetist, Schubert made sure to give that instrument a prominent part in the composition. Like its predecessor, the Octet is an enjoyable melodic piece that incorporates themes from the composer's lieder. It's in the tradition of the Classical divertimento but of a far more serious nature. Running a full hour in length, it demonstrates great complexity in the interrelationships among the eight instruments and in that sense can be seen as a preparatory study for the Symphony No. 9 composed the following year.

Both pieces were well played, but the performance of the Octet was exceptional. This was among the finest renditions of Schubert's classic that I've heard. I was deeply impressed by the company's musicianship on this long and difficult piece.