Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. Among other things, that means there is no place it can go to hide. Just like chamber musicians; especially those who are members of a string quartet.

If you are one of the 26 or more string players in a symphony orchestra that, at times, can contain more than 80 musicians, should you miss a note or otherwise flub, you have the safety of numbers to ensure your anonymity. However, in a chamber music group that can range in size from only two to nine musicians, there is absolutely no place to hide.

If you don’t possess sufficient talent, that fact can become immediately obvious.

Some symphony musicians also perform in chamber groups; the most common scenario involves principal (first chair) musicians from the same orchestra forming a chamber group with either one another or with principals from other orchestras. The transition to working in a small group in clear view of almost everyone in the audience isn’t all that difficult – principals generally perform more solos with symphony orchestras than other players.

For a musician to start out as, and remain, a member of a small chamber group is fairly rare. In my research on the Jupiter String Quartet, I could find no reference to any of its members ever having played for a symphony orchestra. Yet, in the 12 years the group has been together it has performed for discerning chamber music audiences in such venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes and Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Corcoran Gallery and Library of Congress.

You could hardly call that hiding.

On Saturday, May 11 at 8 p.m. in the acoustically superb Dayton Art Institute Renaissance Auditorium, the Jupiter String Quartet will perform in the final program of the 2012-2013 Vanguard Concert Series.

The program opens with the Schubert String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 125, No. 1, D. 87, known as Haushaltung, or “Household.” Scored as are all the program’s works for two violins, viola and cello, the title is fitting. In a sense, the members of the Jupiter Quartet may not all live in the same household, but they are – for all intents and purposes – a family. The JSQ consists of violinists Nelson Lee and Megan Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel and cellist Daniel McDonough. Liz is actually Meg’s older sister, and Daniel is Meg’s husband and Liz’s brother-in-law.

Talk about in time.

Published posthumously in 1830, the “Haushaltung String Quartet” was the work of a 16-year-old Franz Schubert, composed sometime in 1813. The approximately 22-minute-long work features a delicate, modulated first movement, a Scherzo reminiscent of a gigue, a melancholy third movement and a fast, driving and joyous fourth.

The Britten String Quartet No. 2 in C, (Op 36 – 1) features a fast but calm first movement and a lively second, then ends with a Chacony (chaccone) that harkens back to the baroque era.

Perhaps it is fitting that the last piece on the concert’s program is Antonin Dvořák’s final piece of chamber music, the String Quartet No. 14 in A flat major, Op. 105.

Dvořák saved his best for last.

After 30 years of writing string quartets – indeed, a lifetime – with the String Quartet No. 14, Dvořák proved what so many have said and many more have long believed: no composer since Dvořák has been better at composing string quartets.

The four movements of the the String Quartet No. 14 are marked as: 1. Adagio ma non troppo (slowly, but not too much) and Allegro appassionato (fast with passion); 2. Molto vivace (very lively); 3. Lento e molto cantabile (slow and in very much a singing style); and 4. Allegro non tanto (slowly, but not so much).

In the first movement, Dvořák’s flair for juxtaposition displays itself in the dark and gloomy, seemingly aimless – particularly on the part of the cello – opening. It then transforms into effervescence, gaiety and liveliness – especially with the violins. The speed and passion are certainly there taking listeners on a multi-directional, highly dramatic journey.

The composition’s second movement features use of time shifting, that is, the replacement of two groups of three beats by three groups of two beats. This underscores music reminiscent of a traditional Bohemian furiant dance, a rapid and fiery dance in 2/4 and 3/4 time with accents that shift frequently.

The third movement begins as an unpretentious, appealing song; then Dvořák embellishes the melody with dissolving countermelodies and scale-modifying trimmings, entirely changing its character.

A dark cello line opens the final movement followed by portentous, rapid and repeating tones that break through into a lilting, unconfined and relentless figure that sometimes resembles a rondo and drives toward an upward spiraling and marvelous finalé to not only the concert, but also to the Vanguard Series’ fifty-first year.

Talk about ending on a soul-stirring note.

The Dayton Art Institute Vanguard Concert series presents the Jupiter String Quartet on Saturday, May 11 in the NCR Renaissance Auditorium, 456 Belmonte Park North. The concert begins at 8 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at the Wright State University Center Box Office, Hauer Music Company and McCutcheon Music Store, or by phone at 937.436.0244 and online at daytonartinstitute.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the museum the night of the concert. Single tickets are $20 adults and $15 students. For more information, visit jupiterquartet.com. 

 

Reach DCP freelance writer Joe Aiello at JoeAiello@DaytonCityPaper.com

Reach DCP freelance writer Joe Aiello at JoeAiello@DaytonCityPaper.com

Here’s some really new math: 4 concert programs + 3 concert series = X. Solve for X.

It is helpful if you know going in that two concert programs form half of the conclusion of a mini-festival of five Beethoven piano concerti the DPO has presented this season. No?

Okay. Let’s do it the long way.

On Thursday, April 11 and Saturday, April 13 at 8 p.m. in the Mead Theatre of the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center, Music Director Neal Gittleman and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra will present Beethoven: Piano Master, the seventh concert in the DPO 2012-2013 Imagine Season’s Miami Valley and Good Samaritan Hospitals Classical Series.

Each concert is actually one of the two previously mentioned concert programs. As far as the mini-festival of five Beethoven piano concerti goes, it’s 60 percent of the way done. The first mini-festival program, Classical Series 1, Enter Beethoven, featured guest pianist Sarah Davis Buechner performing Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 1.” The second program, Classical Series 2, Romantic Titans, featured guest pianist Terrence Wilson performing Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 2.” And the third program, “Symphony Sundaes Series 3 Piano Masterpiece,” featured DPO principal piano Joshua Nemeth performing the Beethoven “Piano Concerto No. 3.”

See the pattern? Good. Pay attention. For it’s gonna get just a bit more complicated.

This concert, Beethoven: Piano Master, is a split-integer – it has two different all-Beethoven programs, one on each evening.

The program on Thursday, April 11 features the DPO performing the heroic Beethoven “Egmont Overture,” DPO Concertmaster Jessica Hung performing the Kreutzer “Violin Sonata” and guest pianist Norman Krieger performing the suggestive and multi-faceted “Piano Concerto No. 4.”

The program for Saturday, April 13 features the DPO performing the seemingly autobiographical Beethoven “Cariolan Overture,” DPO principal second violin Kirstin Greenlaw and principal cello Andra Lunde Padrichelli joining guest pianist Norman Krieger in performing the Ghost Piano Trio (so named for its eerie slow movement) and guest pianist Norman Krieger performing the grand, radiant, noble and towering “Piano Concerto No. 5.”

That’s two concert programs and one concert series. With me so far? Good.

On Friday, April 12 at 8 p.m. in the Mead Theatre of the Schuster Center, Music Director Neal Gittleman and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra will present Beethoven’s Piano Legacy, the fourth and final concert in the Demirjian Classical Connection Series.

The concert opens with the “Orfeo ed Euridice Overture” by Christoph Willibald Gluck. In the unique Classical Connections format of first-half description and explanation and second-half performance, Gittleman will analyze each movement and reveal the connection between the Orpheus legend and Beethoven’s vision of his own place in history. Then, Gittleman’s longtime colleague, acclaimed pianist Norman Krieger, joins the DPO to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concertos 4 and 5.

That’s now three concert programs and two concert series. But wait … there’s more!

On Sunday, April 14 at 3 p.m. in the Mead Theatre of the Schuster Center, Music Director Neal Gittleman and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra present the world-famous production “Beethoven Lives Upstairs,” the third and final concert in the 2012-2013 Imagine Season DP&L Foundation Family Series.

“Beethoven Lives Upstairs” is a story told via a lively exchange of letters between young Christoph and his uncle about the “madman” who has moved into the upstairs apartment of Christoph’s home in Vienna, Austria. The correspondence is touching and underscored dramatically with Beethoven’s most beautiful excerpts, Christoph comes to understand the genius of Beethoven, his beautiful music and his tormenting deafness.

Let’s review.

The “Piano Concerto No. 1,” written by a 25-year-old Beethoven, is fashioned in much the same manner as he might have fashioned a sonata. It opens with the orchestra performing contrasting themes. In the second movement, the pianist performs a very melodic theme. The third and final movement is constructed as a rondo, a main theme or refrain that swaps back and forth with another.

Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 2” opens with a movement constructed like a sonata, followed by a yielding and gentle second movement and capped by a third movement that features a theme borrowed from Viennese legends imitating sounds associated with images of spring.

Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 3” is, at times, both taut and spacious, tense and mysterious, languorous and fiery. And it has an especially gorgeous Largo. Beethoven’s “Concerto No. 4” is one of his most suggestive and multi-faceted creations. And Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 5” is impressive, shining, magnificent and soaring.

And X? What is the X we are trying to solve for, this unknown balancer of the quotation? Simple. It is the joy, delight and satisfaction of having an opportunity to hear some of the world’s most singularly beautiful and powerful piano music and, by so doing, to celebrate the genius, drive and sheer force of will that made this composer, this man called Ludwig von Beethoven, an immortal in the mind of man.

A very good reason to celebrate it by, say, having a mini-festival.

The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra presents Beethoven Weekend April 11-14 at the Schuster Center, 2 W. Second St. On both Classical Series (Tickets $9 – $59) concert evenings at 7 p.m. in the Mead Theatre, DPO Music Director Neal Gittleman will conduct a Take Note pre-concert discussion. Take Note is sponsored by the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Volunteer Association. Connections Series tickets range from $9 to $39, and Family Series Tickets range from $12 to $19. For more information, visit daytonperformingarts.org/philharmonic.

 

Reach DCP freelance writer Joe Aiello at JoeAiello@DaytonCityPaper.com

Remember the TV situation comedy “Cheers” about a bar in Boston and the regulars who met to have a drink, kick back, carry on a conversation and just generally have a good time?

I watched quite a few episodes of “Cheers,” and frankly I only remember one and that specifically for an odd allusion to Russian character. In it, graduate student, writer and waitress Dianne Chambers – portrayed by Shelley Long – has a discussion with one of the patrons concerning Russian poetry and literature. The patron cites a Russian poem about a penniless Russian couple with an uncertain future whose pet dog dies. What I remember most is the poem’s final line that concerns the dead dog and goes something like, “At least we will have meat this winter.”

Now, I personally know several Russians, émigrés to the U.S. in the mid-1990s, and they are splendid people, who – despite the happiness engendered by having a new homeland and political freedom – still bear a sense of muted depression born of their life under Soviet communist rule. And they have told me that, historically, this muted depression goes back farther, long before the Bolshevik uprising, to a time where the economic disparity between the classes was a massive weight under which many psyches were crushed.

And this feeling needed desperately to find expression, something that – in a communist state – was for many unbearable if not, indeed, physically dangerous. The best, if not always the safest, way to express that feeling was with music.

On Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16 at 8 p.m. in the Mead Theatre of the Schuster Center, Music Director Neal Gittleman and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra will present Russian Masters, the sixth concert in the DPO 2012-2013 Imagine Season’s Miami Valley and Good Samaritan Hospitals Classical Series.

Walk into the Mead Theatre on either of the two performance evenings and you will notice a plethora of musicians and percussion instruments not usually resident for concerts – a bass drum, celestas, cymbals, glockenspiels, harps, snare drums, tambourines, tom-toms and xylophones. Emotional. Visceral. That’s Russian music. Only masterful composers could create it, and only talented musicians can perform it properly.

And Russian Masters has both.

It begins with Mikhail Glinka’s Overture to the opera “Russlan and Ludmilla.” Describing this overture, the words “enthusiastic,” “quick moving,” “lyrical” and “fantastic” come to mind. And fittingly so. After all, the story of the opera comes from a fairy tale by Russian author Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin about a young, engaged woman who is kidnapped by a devilish dwarf and is – after many incredible, bizarre adventures – rescued by her fiancé and married.

Here endeth all sweetness and light.

DPO Concertmaster Jessica Hung then performs the Shostakovich “Violin Concerto No. 1.” To say that Shostakovich wrote this concerto in a manner which can only be described as “defiant” would be understatement. In the late-1940s Stalin-era Soviet Union, particularly Russia, all composers, playwrights and dancers lived under the scrutiny of constant state censorship; censors often cited political and ideological reasons for banning works. Many times, the actual reasons were petty and personal – an exercise in mean-spirited bureaucracy. Shostakovich, therefore, found it necessary to write his complex and abstract “Violin Concerto No. 1” to satisfy himself in the late ‘40s and wait until after Stalin died in 1953 to publish and premiere it.

The Shostakovich concerto is extremely challenging. Ask DPO Concertmaster Jessica Hung.  She is the woman who will perform it.

“The Shostakovich First Violin Concerto is monumental,” Hung said. “Almost symphonic in scope (spanning four movements and an extended solo cadenza), and the challenges of performing it are inextricably linked to its historical context. Since I cannot truly know what Stalinist Russia was like and can only imagine that atmosphere of oppression and fear that Shostakovich lived and breathed every day, I must try my best to extrapolate from my own human experience of fear, in a way similar to Method acting.

“There is a captivating sense of darkness that pervades the entire concerto, from the repressed opening all the way through to the wild finale.  The third movement, ‘Passacaglia,’ is the emotional heart of the concerto, as if enough layers of cynicism and suspicion have finally been peeled away to reveal simply a deep anguish.  The piece is extremely technically difficult, to be sure, but doing service to its emotional depth is the real challenge.”

The concert concludes with Rachmaninoff’s “Symphony No. 2,” a symphony exhibiting soaring melodies and great strength that brings the evening to a brilliant climax. The first movement is uniquely Russian in its atmosphere of despondency, doom and sadness. The second movement is almost the reverse of the first in mood, oozing fire, color, hopefulness and a sense of freedom. The emotional, overwhelming and lyrical third movement conjures up images of things undone, dreams unrealized and hopes deserted. And the final movement offers hope based on our own abilities to trust in tomorrow – it bursts out, becomes furious, burns suddenly and brightly, abounds with life, stresses and overwhelms.

The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra will present Russian Masters ON Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16. Both concert evenings at 7 p.m. in the Mead Theatre, DPO Music Director Neal Gittleman will conduct a Take Note pre-concert discussion. Tickets $9 – $59. For more information, call 888.228.3630 or visit daytonperformingarts.org.

Reach DCP freelance writer Joe Aiello at JoeAiello@daytoncitypaper.com

In these turbulent economic times, it might prove useful to pause and reflect on the relative value of, say, $15. In New York City, $15 can buy you a decent martini or Manhattan. In San Francisco, $15 can buy you a terrible shirt. But in Dayton, $15 can buy you an afternoon of incredible music at the University of Dayton’s Sears Recital Hall, where world-renowned pianist Michael Mizrahi will perform solo as part of the university’s Art Series on Sunday, Feb. 10, at 3 p.m.

Mizrahi took a few minutes to chat with the Dayton City Paper about this upcoming performance, his career and his most recent album, The Bright Motion (New Amsterdam, 2012), which was described by Muso Magazine as a “beautiful reminder that classical music is living, breathing, thriving – and evolving.”

From Switzerland to Japan, you have traveled and performed all over the world. Have you ever been to the Gem City before?

I have not been to Dayton, but am very much looking forward to my first visit! – Michael Mizrahi

Will most of your recital at the Sears Recital Hall draw from The Bright Motion?

Yes, [but] I’m also performing two works by Beethoven and a piece by Chopin. I love the juxtaposition of the old and the new on a recital program. I believe it allows both performer and audience to hear each piece on the program with fresh ears. – MM

How did The Bright Motion come together?

I commissioned four of the six new works that appear on the album. The other two were similarly composed in the last five years. All six received their world premiere recordings on the album. The album’s title comes from the two-movement piece by Mark Dancigers. I think his title fits his piece, and the album as a whole, beautifully. In my performances, I generally convey a strong sense of forward motion, and there is a certain brightness that pervades the works on the album that I attempt to bring out in my performances. – MM

One of the most striking tracks on The Bright Motion is “Faux Patterns.” Could you tell us a little more about this particular song? I hear influences ranging from Philip Glass to Bill Evans to Vangelis.

John Mayrose’s “Faux Patterns” is a hauntingly beautiful work. There is some of Philip Glass’s minimalist approach to composition reflected in John’s slowly shifting textures and colors, and influences from jazz and ambient music pervade the entire album. (Author’s Note: According to composer John Mayrose, the biggest influence on “Faux Patterns” is the first track of Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports.) – MM

What has been the general audience reaction to live performances of album?

Audience response has been very positive! In live performances, I get the chance to talk a little to the audience and describe the process of assembling and performing these works, and also to say a little about the works themselves, which generally serves to enhance the audience’s experience. The works are so accessible and many are quite virtuosic, that they make for an exciting live performance. Audience members should expect to forget that they are at “a new music concert,” or even a “piano recital,” per se, and be transported to another place. – MM

I think many people – myself included – have misconceptions about what it’s like to be a professional musician. What is a “normal” day like for Michael Mizrahi?

There is no “normal” day! If I’m not traveling, a given day in my life might include some morning practicing – solo, chamber music, concertos, new works, whatever is on my plate – and teaching a few lessons in the afternoon to my students at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wis. Mixed in are phone calls, emails and the other aspects of logistical management that go into maintaining a performance career in the 21st century. In the evenings, I spend time with my wife and one-year-old daughter. – MM

So how did this globetrotting (and non-normal) career of yours begin?

I started playing the piano at age four, but I made the decision to become a professional pianist around the time I graduated from college. I had been playing seriously my whole life, but had been worried about turning the thing I loved into a career. I took the plunge when I decided to go to graduate school in piano performance at the Yale School of Music, and haven’t looked back since. – MM

Every artist needs new challenges. What is a new challenge you want to tackle over the next couple of years?

I’d like to continue working with emerging composers in the development of new repertoire for the piano. I was thrilled with the way the music video for The Bright Motion turned out (vimeo.com/40379094), and would love to pursue future projects with visual artists to explore the ways in which visual imagery can communicate deeply musical ideas. Those kinds of collaborations represent a vibrant future for classical music, and make me so excited about the career path that I’ve chosen. – MM

Michael Mizrahi performs on Sunday, Feb. 10 at the Sears Recital Hall in the Jesse Philips Humanities Center, University of Dayton, 300 College Park Ave. General admission is $15. Seniors, UD Faculty, staff and alumni and non-UD students is $10. UD students & youth is $5. For tickets, call 937.229.2545, or visit udayton.edu/studev/studentlife/ku/box_office/index.php. For more information, visit www.michaelmizrahipiano.com.

Reach DCP freelance writer Benjamin Smith at BenjaminSmith@DaytonCityPaper.com

Some years ago (quite a few, actually), I walked into a classroom at University Hall on the campus of The Ohio State University to take an exam in history. I would be less than honest if I told you that I studied extremely hard for all my courses in my freshman year, but I did truly do so for this particular exam. I knew the names of all the personages, the dates of all the major events and the impact of each on the course of world events. I was prepared.

When the instructor handed us all blue books and a folded paper containing the test questions and told us all to start, I opened the paper, and – instead of a list of typical test questions and directions (What were the causal factors behind the War of…? Explain the relationship between the members of the Council of … Why did the coalition of member countries fail?) – there were a dozen hand-drawn maps and a typed admonition to “write the name of each country on its respective map.”

Geography? This was a history test. No one said anything about geography!

Needless to say, I failed the test miserably. My only consolation was that I wasn’t alone in my failure. The entire class – all except for a shy, timid, bespectacled young woman, who no one noticed as a rule – had failed as well. We were to learn later that week that the test had been an object lesson for us: You can’t understand, or appreciate, historical cause and effect without a good knowledge of geography.

Nor can you understand musical cause and effect.

What inspires composers to write music? The reasons can be legion: an inbred need to explain themselves, their ideas, hopes, wants and desires; an event that triggers emotions they find they must express; a need to pay tribute to, or attempt to immortalize, a particular philosophy, idea, character trait or person; or simply the need to sell a composition and continue to eat and stay alive.

And sometimes the inspiration can be something as simple as a place.

On Friday, Feb. 1 and Saturday, Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. in the Mead Theatre of the Schuster Center, Music Director Neal Gittleman and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra will present North Meets South, the fifth concert in the DPO 2012-2013 Imagine Season’s Miami Valley and Good Samaritan Hospitals Classical Series.

Pay attention. There just might be a test later.

Composer John Adams has received, admittedly, inspiration from some off-the-wall sources. For example, in writing his orchestral, three-movement “Harmonielehre,” he cited a dream he had about an oil tanker in San Francisco Bay shooting into the sky like a rocket as his inspiration! So, it should come as no surprise that he would be inspired by President Nixon’s 1972 state visit to China, should it? The concert opens with the result of that inspiration, “The Chairman Dances,” a piece he excerpted from his opera, “Nixon in China.” The music depicts President Richard M. Nixon, a presidential banquet, Madame Mao Tse-Tung, a sexually enticing dance and Chairman Mao jumping out of his portrait and dancing a fox trot!

French composer Édouard Lalo wrote “Symphonie Espagnole” for Spanish violinist-composer Pablo de Sarasate. Lalo’s inspiration was the prototypical Spanish passion which was then all the rage, Bizet’s “Carmen” having premiered at about the same time. One could argue that Lalo’s real inspiration was financial and would allow him to cash in on a hot, prevalent trend. Whatever, Lalo created a work that is more a sinfonia concertante than a symphony, with a vibrant, Spanish feel; fluid, beautiful melodies and an abundant exhibition of violin legerdemain.

Enter guest violinist and, yet, experienced traveler Chad Hoopes, who began his promising career as a student of the violin in Minnesota. At age four. He went on to study under David Cerone and Joel Smirnoff at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He’s won first prize at the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition and was the third artist-in-residence in the history of Classical Minnesota Public Radio. He has also performed with the Vancouver, San Francisco, Utah, Pittsburgh, Houston and San Diego Symphonies and the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras. He lives in Cleveland, where – at 18 – he’s in his final year of high school!

Composer Jean Sibelius’s love for his adopted Finland inspired him to write one of the most beautiful and emotionally stirring symphonies the world has ever known. His roots were Swedish, but his was a fervent love and fiery patriotism for Finland. His passionate, patriotic compositions worked to unite his fellow Finns. None more so than his Symphony No. 2 in D Major, also known simply as “Finlandia.” Witness the fact that it had become the unofficial Finnish national anthem, with the Finnish senate even awarding him an annual pension lasting long past the time he stopped composing.

And “Finlandia” has been used as the music for numerous church hymns, the most well-known of which is “Be Still, My Soul” (“Stille meine Wille, dein Jesus hilft siegen”).

Now you know. So, open your blue books, take your pencils, and …

The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra will present North Meets South on Friday, Feb. 1 and Saturday, Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. at the Schuster Performing Arts Center, 2 W. Second St. DPO Music Director Neal Gittleman will conduct a Take Note pre-concert discussion. Tickets $9 – $59. For more information, visit daytonperformingarts.org.