{ Program Notes
the piano launches the finale’s stomping
main theme in the style of the Norwegian
halling folk dance. Providing an interlude
of repose, the solo flute sings a hauntingly
lovely melody in a slower tempo; the piano
gives it sensitive treatment with downward
slip-sliding chords. Reprising his opening dance music, Grieg builds excitement
to a brief solo cadenza of double-handed
octaves. Then the soloist transforms the
2/4 halling into a sparkling 3/4 waltz. But
Grieg has an even better idea for his finish.
He brings back the haunting second theme,
now in a splendid apotheosis in A major. As
annotator Michael Steinberg pointed out,
Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff would
later imitate this crowd-pleasing device, but
Grieg did it first.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two
clarinets, two bas