Arts Spotlight: Performing Arts Series Presents Jupiter String Quartet

The Jupiter String Quartet is a family of musicians in every sense of the word: the group began as a childhood musing and has flourished into adulthood over the years. It was honed through college all-nighters, strengthened by the bonds of marriage, and is now blossoming into one of the most renowned string quartets on the planet. Their secret undoubtedly lies in the intimate personal connections that are so vital to excellent chamber music. Jupiter has won countless awards around the globe for their masterful communication and stunned audiences everywhere with their energy and talent. Middlebury cannot wait to welcome them back to campus this Sunday, Nov. 16 at 3 p.m. in the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts Concert Hall.

Chamber music is one of the most difficult and mysterious musical configurations. It requires players to not only pay unwavering attention to their peers, but also to execute their own parts with detailed precision. It is not as structured and foolproof as an orchestra, yet still more absolute and demanding than a modern jazz or rock ensemble. Every note is heard, every microtone off-pitch noted. The personal musicianship of each player is naked before the audience. Yet the secret behind a magical, gripping chamber performance is not one’s own musical excellence, but rather the way it fits with that of the three other players. Attending a chamber recital is watching and listening to four people conjure a temporal realm, a celestial world where the creative energies of all members are understood without words, a communicative work of art in real-time. Playing chamber music is the closest thing we have to telepathy, and Jupiter’s magic is that they have mastered it.

On Sunday, Jupiter will play three monumental chamber works. They will start with Bach’s Well-Tempered Klavier, transcribed for string quartet by WA Mozart.The Well-Tempered Klavier is a monumental work, a sort of treatise on the very material of music. Any person interested in music — be it classical, rock, dubstep or any other genre — would take interest in it. Bach, who knew the foundations of music better than anyone before or since, deconstructs the fabric of the music and sensationally re-engineers it across all keys. As an amateur pianist who has the pleasure of playing these stunning pieces, I cannot wait to hear them transcribed to strings, to hear what four different minds can do as opposed to just one.

Following the Well-Tempered Klavier, Jupiter will perform a 1939 Bela Bartók quartet. Written in Hungary during the outbreak of the second World War, Bartók’s sixth quartet brings a cool air of dry dissonance from modern Europe. It was a dark period in the composer’s life — he was starkly averse to the rise of Nazism in neighboring Austria and feared it would overtake his native Hungary as well, yet he was unable to leave due to his mother’s failing health. The manuscript of the quartet is pulsing with these conflicts, an embodiment of all the emotions and sentiments coursing through Bartók’s life. To feel them recreated by Jupiter will be a heart-wrenching experience indeed.

Saving the best for last, Jupiter will end with Beethoven’s 15th String Quartet in A minor. My favorite deaf composer had absolutely no connection to the aural realm when he wrote
this quartet two years before his death. Consequently, this piece, among his other late pieces, was written through purely intellectual motives. His collection of late quartets were highly controversial when they were published due to their deep emotional and intellectual content—legend says that the composer himself cried when he read his work. Only a century after their publication did these pieces become popular again. This composition is not one you can listen to as background music; it is a journey that grips all the attention it can find.

The Jupiter String Quartet, which enjoys a fruitful relationship with the Middlebury Performing Arts Series (this is their sixth visit) is not an event to miss. Not only is every Jupiter concert a collection of highly talented individuals, it is also a family gathering. As such we will see the masks taken off and the music flow freely. With a repertoire this stunning, I know where I will be on Sunday afternoon. Thanks to a generous endowment, this concert is entirely free, with no tickets required! Take the afternoon to treat yourself and experience the glory of a world-class quartet.