The Jupiter String Quartet is pleased to announce new concert programming for future seasons, offered for 2024-25 and beyond.

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Night & Day

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The struggle between light and dark is a hallmark of Franz Schubert’s late style. This juxtaposition is apparent throughout his monumental G Major quartet, the last string quartet he would compose before his premature death at the age of 31. From the opening chords of the first movement to the relentless dance that pervades the last, Schubert navigates the emotional journey between pain and joy with breadth and nuance that almost seamlessly blends the two states. Both Beethoven and Haydn were also masters of exploring these emotional extremes. In contrast to the expanse of Schubert’s journey, Beethoven presents his Op. 95 quartet in a concise manner, almost biting in its brevity. Haydn’s brilliant last quartet in F Major finds emotional depth through wit and grace. Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte, inspired by the minuet from this same Haydn quartet, weaves a tapestry of rich color changes and kaleidoscopic sounds, both universal and intimate. Carols Simon’s Warmth from Other Suns is a musical depiction of the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South between the years 1916-1970. Of his work, Simon says, “Inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s book, The Warmth of Other Suns, I chose to bring these stories to life through the voice of a string quartet.”

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• Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95
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• Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2, Hob.III: 82

• Caroline Shaw: Entr’acte
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• Carlos Simon: Warmth from Other Suns

• Franz Schubert: String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D. 887

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The Fugue

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The Jupiter Quartet showcases the monumental, ongoing impact of the fugue. Urged by his patron to arrange J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier for string quartet, Mozart created this clever set of five fugues. He would go on to write several quartets of his own that featured fugal writing prominently. The fugue, with its focus on conversational and imitative writing, was a perfect vehicle for flaunting his ingenuity and creativity. Beethoven also found rich ground for innovation using the foundation of the fugue, most famously in the original finale of his Op. 130 string quartet. This massive finale, following a series of lighter dance movements and directly preceded by the sublime “Cavatina,” astonished audiences of its time, and continues to astound listeners today. Beethoven had to write an alternative finale, but the Jupiter Quartet will feature the piece in its original form. Between these two compositions is the first quartet of Jamaican-British composer Eleanor Alberga, written in 1993. Inspired by a physics lecture on the formation and reformation of matter, Alberga described the opening movement as “‘a fugue without a subject, as particles of this stardust swirl around each other, go their separate ways, collide, or merge.”

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• J.S. Bach: Five Fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier (arr. by W.A. Mozart)

• Eleanor Alberga: String Quartet No. 1

• Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 with Große Fuge