Jupiter String Quartet

"One of the mainstays of the American chamber music scene." —The New Yorker

Hailed as one of today's most eloquent string ensembles, The Jupiter String Quartet assembles a program of contrasting textures, forms, and expressive worlds, beginning with Beethoven's Opus 18, No. 6. Within its ebullient, Haydn-esque symmetry lies a highly inventive set of movements—the first, modest but elegant; an achingly exquisite slow second movement; a Scherzo that demonstrates Beethoven's matchless rhythmic genius; and a famous finale crafted with sublime wit and utilizing a stunning harmonic spectrum. Britten's third and final quartet represents a composer at the peak of his maturity—it is his last major finished work and contains a lovely ode to the city of Venice, where he spent many of his last months. This Beethoven Bicentennial program closes with the composer's radiant late masterpiece, Opus 127. Featuring an expansive variation form, hymn-like slow movements, and bold structural contrasts, this music cements the "everything-everywhere-at-once" legend of Beethoven: intimate and monumental, a cornucopia of distinctive and disparate ideas that coalesce into a divine and transcendent whole.