Program About the Artists

FRANZ SCHUBERT Overture in Italian Style Paul Niemisto, conductor and founder of the CVRO in 1979, is a
member of the St. Olaf College music faculty. He is a graduate of the
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Concerto for violin, cello, and piano University of Michigan and received additional conducting training at the
Allegro Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg and at the
Largo American Symphony Orchestra League Institute. While in Canada
Rondo alla Polacca
during the 1970s he was a conductor of the Prince Edward Island
Mia Lai-Carlson, violin
Symphony and the South Shore Orchestra and was a playing member of
Jonas Carlson, cello
Solon Pierce, piano the CBC Halifax Orchestra. Recently, he has been a regular summer
traveler to Finland, where he teaches courses in conducting, performs in
brass festivals, and conducts bands and orchestras. Since 1991 he has
INTERMISSION
directed a Finnish-American brass ensemble, “Boys of America,” which
has traveled widely and made recordings in the U.S. and Scandinavia.
CLAUDE DEBUSSY Dances for Harp and Orchestra
Sacred Dance
Profane Dance American violinist Mia Lai-Carlson was born in Hawaii of Chinese-
Elinor Niemisto, harp American parentage. Mrs. Lai-Carlson received her main education at
the University of North Texas and at the University of Minnesota, where
MAURICE RAVEL Pavane for a Dead Princess she worked with Robert Davidovici and Sally O’Reilly. She has
participated in the master classes of Josef Gingold, Cho Liang Lin, and
* * * Yai Kless, among others. Mrs. Lai-Carlson has frequently performed as
Program Notes, by Paul Niemisto soloist with orchestras and recently performed the Minnesota premiere of
the Canadian composer Elizabeth Raum’s Violin Concerto with the
Overture in Italian Style (1818) Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra. She is on the faculties of Shattuck-
St. Mary’s School and the University of St. Thomas Conservatory of
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was classified as a minor composer during Music and has performed extensively in Scandinavia with the Medhamra
his lifetime, when few of his larger symphonic pieces were performed. Chamber Ensemble and with her husband Jonas Carlson.
In 1827, a German language music dictionary was published in which
Schubert's name did not even appear. At the time, despite the fact that Swedish cellist Jonas Carlson has an extensive performance back-
Schubert is now widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, writer ground in Scandinavia and North America, including approximately 250
of melodies, most of Europe was already headed toward the complexity chamber concerts. He has performed on television and radio in Sweden
and ambiguity of the high Romantic era. and Canada and on television in the United States and Brazil. He has
been a member of the cello section of the Gothenburg Symphony
When he was ten, his music teacher responded to his talent: "If I wished Orchestra, the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Stockholm
to instruct him in anything fresh, the boy already knew it. So I gave him Royal Opera Orchestra, and principal cello of the Musica Vitae Chamber
no actual tuition but merely talked to him and watched him with silent Orchestra for the opening ceremonies of the Swedish parliament in
astonishment." Every moment Schubert had to himself was spent 1997. Mr. Carlson has taught at Brandon University and the Eckhardt-
composing, and in 1812 Salieri accepted him as a student. Two years Grammatté Conservatory of Music in Canada and is presently the
later, to Salieri's astonishment, the 17-year-old presented him with the director of orchestral activities at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School. He is
341 pages of his fully orchestrated first opera. currently completing his doctorate in cello performance at the University
of Minnesota.
In the summer of 1818, he moved to Zseliz in Hungary to take up the
position of music tutor to the daughters of Count Johann Eterházy. American pianist Solon Pierce was born in Plymouth, Wisconsin and
He returned to Vienna a year later, receiving two opera commissions received his Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College. He also
from the Court Theatre. He received his first publishing agreement for holds a Master’s degree from the Juilliard School, where he worked with
his Erlkönig, but these better fortunes were not to last. Jerome Lowenthal and Abbey Simon. Further studies have been with
Howard Karp at the University of Wisconsin and Grant Johannesen and
Diane Walsh at the Mannes College of Music. He completed his doctoral
work at the University of Minnesota, where he worked with Alexander
Braginsky. Dr. Pierce has performed frequently in his native Wisconsin,
including appearances with the Festival City Symphony of Milwaukee
and the Madison Symphony, and in many other cities in the United Sates
and Europe. He is an ardent advocate of neglected and new music and The Trinity Lutheran Artist Series and
recently received an Alumni grant from Oberlin College.
The Northfield Arts Guild present
Elinor Niemisto has been a member of the area music scene for 20
years. She teaches child and adult harpists and performs at local
churches and parties. She is principal harpist with the Rochester (MN)
Orchestra and the La Crosse (WI) Symphony Orchestra. Elinor also The Cannon Valley Regional
brings soothing harp music to elderly and homebound residents of the
Northfield area. She is adjunct instructor of harp at St. Olaf College, Orchestra and Soloists
Carleton College, and Luther College.

Personnel Paul Niemisto, Conductor

Violin Cello Clarinet
Gail Nelson, Concertmaster Andrea Morics Karen Frawley
Ginny Culhane Jane Rinehart Kathy Szydlo
Laura Geissler
Jeremy Huseth
Mary Zoe Scott
Tim Vick Bassoon Berwald Trio: Mia Lai-Carlson, Violin;
Bob Hanson Chloe Wardropper William Child
Mihaela Irina
Deborah Knutson Bass
Thea Groth
Jonas Carlson, Cello; Solon Peirce, Piano
Karin Larson Doug Durand Horn
Hannah Reitz Karl Lear Trish Culbert
Sarah Rinehart Tom Schnauber
Dave Weinhandl Flute and Piccolo

Viola
Cathy Penning
Mary Zard
Trumpet
Kurt Stimeling Elinor Niemisto, Harp
Kim Evander Gary Meidt
Daniel Rinehart Oboe
Cindy Breederland Percussion
Brenda Rodgers Sonja Zieman

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Trinity Lutheran Church and music director Jim
Streufert for making their sanctuary available for this concert. We extend
thanks to the Northfield Community Education and Recreation
Department and the music staff at Bridgewater Elementary School for
providing rehearsal space for the CVRO. This concert is made possible
in part by grants provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the
McKnight Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an
appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature. We greatly appreciate
continuing support by the Community National Bank of Northfield. Trinity Lutheran Church, Faribault
Sunday, November 24, 2002 at 7:30 p.m.
As Vienna was becoming increasingly fond of Rossini and his Italian
counterparts, many Viennese composers began composing works "in the
Italian style," to keep up with demand and compete for their own place in
the concert hall. Schubert wrote two “Overtures in the Italian Style"
which enjoyed many performances. Both have lyric Adagio introductions
followed by lively Allegros, and are fine examples of Schubert's versatility
in style and form. Schubert's talent for writing beautiful melodies is
clearly evident.
Triple Concerto for piano, violin, cello, and orchestra in C Major, Op.
56 (1804)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) composed a Triple Concerto for
Piano, Violin, Cello, and Orchestra, which holds a unique place in the
composer's output as well as in the rest of music history. Little is known
of Beethoven's motivation for writing such a work, but the result is one of
great beauty and ingeniousness. He composed the concerto during the
period, 1802-04, and it received its first public performance in 1808. The
special challenges of writing a concerto for this instrumental combination
fall into two main categories: challenges of form and those of balance.
The work begins mysteriously with cellos and basses presenting the
three themes of the orchestral exposition through an expansive
crescendo. The slow movement is an eloquent Largo, presented simply
without development, scored for muted strings with light comments from
the winds. Although there is no actual break, the Largo movement ends
with an expectant hesitation before spilling into the final movement, an
elegant rondo in the form of a Polonaise.
It’s interesting that no one refers to Op 56 as a ‘Piano Trio’ Concerto. It
really is a concerto for three soloists who, although they need to work
together as a team, as often as not take turns to enjoy the limelight. This
doesn’t suit every front-rank soloist, of course. And it doesn’t benefit the
structural integrity of the concerto either, what with so much of the
material being repeated for the different solo instruments. The result is
that our interest can be divided rather than multiplied.
Danses Sacrée et Profane (1904)
Until the development of the pedal system found on modern harps, it was
extremely difficult for composers to write chromatic music for the
instrument, because the harp's strings were tuned diatonically (that is, to
the pitches of the major scale). Early in the 20 th century there was a rival
design to this kind of harp, a "cross-strung" instrument, with a separate
string for every one of the chromatic pitches, which enjoyed a brief
vogue. In 1903 the Pleyel Company (which had introduced the
instrument in 1897) commissioned from Claude Debussy (1862-1918) a
work to be used as a test piece at the Brussels Conservatory. He
composed his Danses in the spring of 1904; there is nothing in the work
that cannot be played on the standard pedal harp, and that is almost
invariably used for modern performances.
The two dances are both subtly inspired by Spanish music, which
Debussy had absorbed thoroughly, even though he only once in his life
crossed the border into Spain, and that was to spend a few hours at a
bullfight in San Sebastian. The Danse sacrée, slow and ritualistic, may
have been inspired in part by a short piano piece of a Portuguese
composer, Francisco de Lacerda (1869-1934), who shared a friendship
with Debussy and Satie, but it also seems to breathe the same air as
Satie's Gymopedies, which Debussy loved. The second dance is a lively
and lilting waltz, mostly in the key of D, but with chromatic alterations and
a great deal of modulation to show off the chromatic possibilities of the
instrument.
Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was only 24 when his piano solo Pavane
pour une Infante défunte (Pavane for a dead princess) became the rage
of the drawing rooms and salons of Paris in 1899, but the work already
held the unmistakable stamp of his style. A graduate of the Paris
Conservatoire, young Ravel had worked with Gabriel Fauré and was an
admirer of Emmanuel Chabrier and Erik Satie. Yet though he was an
ardent scholar of a wide range of musical forms, his own musical
language was immediately apparent in this short piece: in the lightness of
touch, in the change of mood and timbre using harmonic rather than
dynamic shifts, and in the deftness of melody.
The Impressionist movement was in full flower, and the Pavane may
have gained some interest because of the strong image that its title
conjured. Who was this dead princess? Ravel always assured listeners
that the title was nothing more than a fancy of his, that he imagined the
tune to be "a slow Spanish dance to which a little princess may once
have danced.”
The work was popular enough that Ravel orchestrated it in 1910, and it is
this version that we hear tonight. It unfolds on a stately eighth-note
pulse, following the form of the Renaissance pavane, a Spanish courtly
dance. Ravel states the main theme first with horn (the “dead
princess”?), then with a flute and oboe duet, and finally in the strings,
growing from pianissimo to fortissimo in the course of the last few bars.
We end this concert with the Pavane as a memorial tribute to our
neighbor and friend, Paul Wellstone.