Symphony ends season with grand finale

Next Saturday, the Coeur d’Alene Symphony Orchestra will close its 2006-07 season with a flourish, playing Robert Schumann’s Symphony No.1 in B flat major and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C Major, Op. 56.

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Schuler Auditorium on the North Idaho College campus.

Artistic director and conductor David Demand will open with the Schumann symphony, which the composer referred to as his “spring symphony.”

It was a happy time in a troubled life and the spring of the year when Schumann wrote this symphony. According to the program notes, he had just married his beloved Clara and was enjoying a productive period of writing and teaching.

On his manuscript score, he named the four movements, “Spring’s Awakening,” “Evening,” “Merry Companion” and “Spring’s Farewell.” But before publication, he removed those designations in favor of Andante, Larghetto, Scherzo and Allegro.

After intermission, Demand will step down from the podium to the piano to join Phillip Baldwin, violin, and Max Held, cello, for Beethoven’s concerto for piano, violin and cello.

While next Saturday’s performance of the Coeur d’Alene Symphony Orchestra will be the last of the regular season, plans are in the works for “Symphony in the Sand” at Honeysuckle Beach on Hayden Lake in July, a Sept. 2 outdoor concert at Liberty Lake and perhaps an outdoor concert in Coeur d’Alene’s City Park.

Plans for next season are ambitious, with works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Hayden and Beethoven on the menu. The traditional Christmas concert is set for Dec. 1, and the regional talent concert will be March 7.