Plenty of Style Even Without Red Carpets

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The New York Sun

There were no red carpets, no giant television screens, no puppets, just high quality music-making at the back end of Lincoln Center Plaza as the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players presented a program of German rarities at the Good Shepherd Church on Monday.

It is hard to overemphasize the importance of the Brahms-Wagner feud when discussing the history of German music in the last quarter of the 19th century. Careers were made or destroyed based on which side of the Januarian head a composer decided to hang his hat. If an artist were neutral, however, experimental on the one hand but traditional on the other, the popularity he achieved in his lifetime quickly dissipated after his demise, when there was no group ready to accept his legacy.

This is what happened to Joachim Raff, heralded in his own time as a titan but almost immediately thereafter falling into the pit of obscurity. Eight energetic string players presented his Octet in C major, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt the brilliance of this now forgotten composer.

There is a trend in chamber music these days to have string players stand. Mostly it makes little difference, but in this case the performance was so febrile as to lend credence to the sonic power of the evening’s particular configuration. Violinists Stefan Milenkovich and Harumi Rhodes and violist Dov Scheindlin faced off on one side and fiddlers Julianne Lee and Bracha Malkin, joined by violist Eric Nowlin, stood on the opposite side like frontline players in a high velocity game of volleyball. Cellists Julie Albers and Margo Tatgenhorst Drakos sat on either side of the imaginary net.

The Raff turned out to be a major work of intense Romanticism. The sound of the eight instantaneously took over the room and was as fullthroated as an entire string orchestra. This piece is a symphony conceived in large terms, with considerable Sturm und Drang and an andante moderato of great beauty. I heard the density of Max Reger and the ebullience of Antonin Dvorÿák. Considering that this is Raff’s opus 176, there is obviously a lot to explore. This was a fabulous performance of a work so rare that members of the Joachim Raff Society flew over from Britain to be in attendance. I’m sure that they were not disappointed.

But this was hardly the most obscure offering on the program. That honor had to go to the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. No, not the famous one, but rather a prototype that Felix composed when he was 13. In its original form, the piece was a real discovery and was once performed by the now defunct full forces of the Jupiter Symphony under Jens Nygaard. Now that the group is resurrected as the chamber players, former principal clarinetist Vadim Lando wished to play the transcription for his instrument and string quartet that had been fashioned by Mendelssohn’s friend Heinrich Baermann. However, the printed music seems to be lost, so Mr. Lando wrote out all of the parts after listening to an old recording. He felt free to make his own alterations, producing, as he said in his opening remarks, a transcription of a transcription.

Like the transcriptions for horn of the Brahms cello sonatas, the challenge here is that Mendelssohn’s original violinist didn’t need to stop playing to breathe, whereas Mr. Lando, at least theoretically, had to take a breath sometime. He must be a very good underwater swimmer, however, as he was able to fashion long and extended runs and otherwise lyrical passages seamlessly. The piece is more than just juvenilia, sporting a solid sense of melodic development. After all, Felix composed it only three years before he penned “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The final Allegro was one of those movements that express the German notion of authentic Gypsy music — compare the finale of Brahms’s G minor Piano Quartet. Since he made his own arrangement, Mr. Lando might have considered a tambourine obbligato for this rousing conclusion.

Various other works rounded out the program. Steven Beck led a driving version of a piece by an old codger of 15 named Ludwig van Beethoven. The Piano Quartet WoO (without opus number) 36, No. 2 is quite a dramatic essay, notable for foreshadowings of interpretive majesty. Also on the program was a trio for flute, cello, and piano by Friedrich Kuhlau, another fascinating character who deserves a lot more attention. But I’m out of space for today; at the Jupiter concerts, there is always so much about which to be enthusiastic.

Mondays through May 14 (152 W. 66th St., between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, 212-799-1259).


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