Obscure Works In Excellent Form

In 1818, when 9-year-old Frederic Chopin made his debut in Vienna, the work he performed was a piano concerto by Adalbert Gyrowetz. This was not the last time a piece by this obscure composer was performed, but it is difficult to find any recent presentations of his music before the one on Monday by the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players at the Good Shepherd Church.Gyrowetz was a friend of Mozart but not his student, even though he did compose a ballet titled “The Marriage of Figaro.” He serves rather as an interesting example of the path many composers other than Beethoven took as heirs and epigones of Haydn.The work this day was the Flute Quartet in D Major, Op 11. No. 1. Written in 1795, it could easily be presented as a mature composition by Haydn — the way Fritz Kreisler used to regularly unveil new discoveries of solo violin music by such composers as Vivaldi and Tartini that in actuality he wrote himself — and not one member of any audience would be the wiser,Flute music plays a prominent role in Jupiter concerts because one of the group’s most active members is Barry Crawford, former principal of the now defunct Jupiter Symphony full ensemble. A bit of a musical archaeologist, Mr. Crawford consistently shares these mined treasures and always performs them with steely accuracy and a superb singing tone. Joined by violinist Misha Keylin, violist Max Mandel, and cellist Ani Aznavoorian, Mr. Crawford led a lively account that was not only well blended but allowed each individual voice to enunciate clearly. Mr. Mandel was extremely animated in the final rondo.Franz Krommer, or if you prefer, Frantisek Kramár was a Moravian composer with a decided kinship to the American Moravian string quartet movement. He composed more than 70 of these pieces and, parenthetically, would have been none too pleased with the Jupiter’s title of “Bohemian Brothers” for this concert (perhaps they meant “unconventional”).Mr. Crawford’s counterpart at these proceedings is the fine clarinetist Vadim Lando. Also a former Jupiterian under conductor Jens Nygaard, Mr. Lando is an intrepid explorer, who sometimes even reconstructs obscure repertoire for his instrument when the printed music is no longer available. In this case, he had a rich literature from which to choose the Clarinet Quartet Op. 82, and he mentioned in his opening remarks that he will advocate for the players to begin to offer some of Krommer’s string quartets.In his day, Krommer was considered by many the equal of Beethoven, and it only took a few seconds once this piece began to hear the difference between his profound sense of harmonic color and Gyrowetz’s more monochromatic approach. This was a revelatory performance, one that made me want to plunge into the Krommer catalog myself. Of special note was the rollicking Menuetto allegretto third movement.Of course, not every piece on a Jupiter program is obscure — this afternoon the group presented one of the towering works of the chamber repertoire, Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Trio in F minor. Some say this is the finest work of chamber music since Beethoven’s. This might be hyperbole, especially considering that it is modeled so closely on the trios of Brahms that are its superior, but there is no question it is an extremely powerful and gripping essay. In fact, the work is so majestic it needs an especially intense sonic combination, muscular and lavish, gritty and yet lovely, to pull it off. Unfortunately, this was not in the cards on this particular program.Pianist William Wolfram anchored this reading with Mr. Keylin and Ms. Aznavoorian in tow and did a creditable job, but never achieved that degree of strength and confidence necessary to elevate this rendition to a higher level. One concern was his rather narrow scope of dynamics, his decision to keep his volume level rather uniform leading to a lack of interpretive coloration. Also a bit robotic in touch, he neither intrigued nor captivated his listeners. The strings were also adequate and remarkably accurate, but there was a decided deflation of tone that ultimately rendered this realization a bit monotonous. Still, it is such a great work that the crowd rewarded it with a hearty ovation.Speaking of that crowd, one of the most telling pieces of evidence about the overall excellence of the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players is that the audience is virtually identical every week. Those in the know just keep coming back.

Obscure Works In Excellent Form

Obscure Works In Excellent Form

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