The Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Now enjoying their 19th year together, this tight-knit ensemble is firmly established as an important voice in the world of chamber music. The New Yorker claims, “The Jupiter String Quartet, an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.”

Early exposure to chamber music brought these four musicians together. Meg and Liz grew up playing string quartets with their two brothers and they came to love chamber music during weekly coachings with cellist Oliver Edel, who taught generations of students in the Washington, D.C. area. Nelson’s parents are pianists (his father also conducts) and his twin sisters, Alicia and Andrea, are both musicians. Although Daniel originally wanted to be a violinist, he chose the cello because the organizers of his first string program declared that he had “better hands for the cello,” and is happy that he ended up where he did. The Quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.

The Jupiter Quartet remains strongly committed to making music during these challenging times. In July 2020, the Quartet gave the world premiere of Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores, which was commissioned for the ensemble and presented via livestream by Bay Chamber Concerts. Other recent and upcoming livestream concerts include performances presented by Bowdoin International Music Festival, Asheville Chamber Music Series, and Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music, as well as virtual residencies with the University of Iowa and Middlebury College.

This concert marks the third appearance of the Jupiter String Quartet. We first heard them on our Evening Series in 2012 and more recently as part of in our Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival in 2017.

STEPHEN ANDREW TAYLOR grew up in Illinois and studied at Northwestern and Cornell Universities, and the California Institute of the Arts. He composes music that explores boundaries between art and science, including his first orchestra commission, Unapproachable Light, premiered by the American Composers Orchestra in 1996 in Carnegie Hall. Among his commissions are works for the Chicago Symphony, Pink Martini and the Oregon Symphony, the Quad City Symphony, the River Town Duo, and Piano Spheres; awards include grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is currently Professor of Composition-Theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He writes of Chaconne/Labyrinth: “ ‘Chaconne’ is an old-fashioned word for a repeating chord progression, like the 12-bar blues. My chords are a little weirder, using just intonation to find notes that don’t exist on the piano keyboard. Here the wonderful Jupiter Quartet plays a chaconne, but at the same time they are lost in a labyrinth. The chords keep returning, only to point in new directions. This is how I’ve felt the past year: stuck in a loop, but at the same time lost in a maze, desperately seeking the way out. At the center of this maze, like the Minotaur of Greek myth, lies a depiction of the coronavirus that has so profoundly changed our world. After this encounter—marked by strange, percussive sounds—the quartet traces their way, like following Ariadne’s thread, back through the labyrinth. I would like to thank our videographer Graham Duncan and engineer Karen Blackall; the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music; and especially Drs. Margot and JD Garcia.”

Stephen Andrew Taylor’s Chaconne/Labyrinth was commissioned by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music and sponsored by Drs. Margot and JD Garcia, dedicated to Harold Weaver and Cecile Weaver.

SCHUBERT DRAFTED HIS D. 810 Quartet in March 1824 but because of his dispirited frame of mind he set it aside for two years. Finally galvanized by a desperate need for income, he decided in February 1826 to polish the quartet for its premiere and publication. Although Schubert enjoyed performing as quartet violist, he devoted his energies to revisions of D. 810 during the two rehearsals of the work. Four weeks later he offered the quartet to the Schott publishing firm, but it was rejected. The quartet was finally published in 1831, three years after Schubert’s death.

As was typical of Romantic composers, Schubert frequently based an instrumental composition on his own song motives. The second movement of D. 810 develops Schubert’s 1817 song Der Tod und das Mädchen (“Death and the Maiden”), in which a gentle figure of Death arrives to claim the life of a young girl. Perhaps correctly, many commentators have observed that the central position of this song suggests that the entire D. 810 conveys Schubert’s own views on death. Yet there is evidence that Schubert simply chose the song at the urging of friends who admired the melody.

The Allegro explores two contrasting motives, the first ominous and rhythmically forceful, the second warmly lyrical. The substantial coda builds to a forceful climax, but the movement ends quietly. The somber second movement explores the eponymous song theme through five variations. Its serene, major-key conclusion conveys an atmosphere of peaceful ascension. The syncopated and rhythmically vibrant Scherzo is varied by its graceful and songlike trio section. The movement concludes with a literal repeat of the opening material. The Presto finale resembles a tarantella, a frenzied Italian dance that wards off death with ever faster movement.

Notes by Stephen Andrew Taylor and Nancy Monsman (Schubert)

Management:
Jensen Artists
www.jensenartists.com