Grieg in Dialogue - Pianist Oda Voltersvik with the Dakota String Quartet and Rawlins Trio
Event Details
Date: April 18, 5 p.m.
Location: First Lutheran Church, Sioux Falls
Tickets: $20
Payment: Online during registration or at the reception desk (cash/check accepted)
Registration helps us estimate attendance and prepare printed programs (approximately 100).
Performers
Doosook Kim, 1st violin
Magda Modzelewska, 2nd violin
Ioana Galu, viola
Sonja Kraus, cello
Oda Voltersvik, piano
Reserve Your Seat
Join us for a recital that follows the pianist’s curated sequence, concluding with the completed Grieg Piano Quintet.
A Program Shaped by Grieg’s Poetic Moods
The evening opens with piano works by Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) alongside pieces by composers active during and after his lifetime — Agathe Backer Grøndahl (1847–1907) and Wilhelm Peterson Berger (1867–1942). These selections highlight the composers’ “musical correspondances or similarities in the use of poetic moods and characters” drawn from Nordic nature, folk life, and atmospheric landscapes.
The program includes Grieg’s Lyric Pieces (To Spring, March of the Dwarfs, Evening in the Mountains), Backer Grøndahl’s Song of the Roses, and Peterson Berger’s Flowers from Frösö Island. The chosen Peasant Dances resonate directly with the Halling dance material that appears later in the Piano Quintet.
The Rarely‑Performed Grieg Piano Quintet
The second half features the centerpiece of the evening: Grieg’s Piano Quintet in B‑flat Major, EG 118. Grieg set down his pencil after 250 bars, leaving the work unfinished. In 2012 — 120 years later — composer Michael Finnissy (b. 1946) completed the score.
Finnissy’s contribution includes:
A Scherzo built on a Halling dance,
Imitations of music for Hardanger fiddle,
A slow, more introverted section,
And a final movement “built on Grieg’s own material, where themes previously presented by the strings appear in the piano part and vice versa.”
This performance offers a rare opportunity to hear the full work brought to life.