Trio Arpavioluta: Engaging Concert from an Unusual Instrumental Combination
by Mark Gabrish Conlan • Copyright © 2022 by Mark Gabrish Conlan • All rights reserved
The November 5 concert at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral featured an ensemble I’d heard before – in fact’ as I’ve been writing this I’ve been listening to a CD I burned from their appearance 3 ½ years ago (June 2, 2018, to be exact) – the Trio Arpavioluda. The Trio Arpavioluta consists of three women: Cathay Blickenstaff on flute, Pälvikki Nykten on violin and viola, and Laura Vaughan on harp. Since the classical music repertory isn’t exactly bursting with music composed especially for that combination of instruments – according to Blickenstaff, who in addition to her flute duties serves as the group’s spokeswoman, the only pieces actually written for flute, violin and harp are a 1905 “Terzettino” by French composer Théodore Dubois (1837-1924) and a 1915 trio sonata by a far better-known French composer, Claude Debussy (1862-1918) – they’ve had to fill out their repertoire with a lot of transcriptions. Much of their repertoire was written for flute and/or violin plus piano, and Vaughan has painstakingly transcribed the piano parts for harp. The Trio Arpavioluta (who were oddly listed in this year’s program of upcoming church concerts as the “Laura Vaughan Trio” even though Blickenstaff handled the announcements and I have no idea how the group makes its decisions) played there last on June 2, 2018 in a concert billed as a fundraiser to pay for a rebuilding on the church’s piano, and I recorded the concert and burned it to a CD which I was listening to as I wrote the above.
Not surprisingly, given the paucity of repertoire for their particular combination of instruments, there was a good deal of overlap between Jule 2, 2018 and November 5, 2022. Both concerts featured the Dubois “Terzettino”; a trio sonata in D (Op. 15, no. 6) by Jean=Marie Leclair (1697-1764); five short pieces by Russian composer César Cui (1835-1918), one of the “Mighty Five” Russian composers even though he was actually Ukrainian; and charming arrangements of American folk songs “Shenandoah” and Stephen Foster’s “Oh! Susanna” by American composer Daniel Dorff (b. 1956). In 2018 the Trio Arpaqvioluta also played the Debussy sonata mentioned above (and it was easily the most substantial work on their program) and a “ringer,” the “Meditation” from Massenet’s opera Thaïs played by Pävlikki Nykten on violin with the church’s sub-organist, Gabriel Arregui, on piano). In 2022 they didn’t p lay the Debussy or Massenet; instead they performed an “Andante Religioso” by French woman composer Henriette Renié (1875-1956) and a really impressive piece of transcription on Laura Vaughan’s part, the first movement of Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp, K. 299, in which Vaughan played not only the part Mozart wrote for her instrument but a reduction of the original orchestral music as well. I wonder if Vaughan has worked her alchemy on the entire piece or just this movement – if she’s done the while thing I’d love to hear it sometime – but I can appreciate the wirk she did on that movement. I remember Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp because it was on side one of one of the first LP’s I bought from the Musical Heritage Society when I first joined it in 1976 – it was side one and the Clarinet Concerto, K. 622, the last piece Mozart actually completed himself, was on side two – and I remembered that record when the Trio Arpavioluta, whose music was mostly quiet and reflective, tore into the opening with precision, authority and power.
The November 5 concert at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral featured an ensemble I’d heard before – in fact’ as I’ve been writing this I’ve been listening to a CD I burned from their appearance 3 ½ years ago (June 2, 2018, to be exact) – the Trio Arpavioluda. The Trio Arpavioluta consists of three women: Cathay Blickenstaff on flute, Pälvikki Nykten on violin and viola, and Laura Vaughan on harp. Since the classical music repertory isn’t exactly bursting with music composed especially for that combination of instruments – according to Blickenstaff, who in addition to her flute duties serves as the group’s spokeswoman, the only pieces actually written for flute, violin and harp are a 1905 “Terzettino” by French composer Théodore Dubois (1837-1924) and a 1915 trio sonata by a far better-known French composer, Claude Debussy (1862-1918) – they’ve had to fill out their repertoire with a lot of transcriptions. Much of their repertoire was written for flute and/or violin plus piano, and Vaughan has painstakingly transcribed the piano parts for harp. The Trio Arpavioluta (who were oddly listed in this year’s program of upcoming church concerts as the “Laura Vaughan Trio” even though Blickenstaff handled the announcements and I have no idea how the group makes its decisions) played there last on June 2, 2018 in a concert billed as a fundraiser to pay for a rebuilding on the church’s piano, and I recorded the concert and burned it to a CD which I was listening to as I wrote the above.
Not surprisingly, given the paucity of repertoire for their particular combination of instruments, there was a good deal of overlap between Jule 2, 2018 and November 5, 2022. Both concerts featured the Dubois “Terzettino”; a trio sonata in D (Op. 15, no. 6) by Jean=Marie Leclair (1697-1764); five short pieces by Russian composer César Cui (1835-1918), one of the “Mighty Five” Russian composers even though he was actually Ukrainian; and charming arrangements of American folk songs “Shenandoah” and Stephen Foster’s “Oh! Susanna” by American composer Daniel Dorff (b. 1956). In 2018 the Trio Arpaqvioluta also played the Debussy sonata mentioned above (and it was easily the most substantial work on their program) and a “ringer,” the “Meditation” from Massenet’s opera Thaïs played by Pävlikki Nykten on violin with the church’s sub-organist, Gabriel Arregui, on piano). In 2022 they didn’t p lay the Debussy or Massenet; instead they performed an “Andante Religioso” by French woman composer Henriette Renié (1875-1956) and a really impressive piece of transcription on Laura Vaughan’s part, the first movement of Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp, K. 299, in which Vaughan played not only the part Mozart wrote for her instrument but a reduction of the original orchestral music as well. I wonder if Vaughan has worked her alchemy on the entire piece or just this movement – if she’s done the while thing I’d love to hear it sometime – but I can appreciate the wirk she did on that movement. I remember Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp because it was on side one of one of the first LP’s I bought from the Musical Heritage Society when I first joined it in 1976 – it was side one and the Clarinet Concerto, K. 622, the last piece Mozart actually completed himself, was on side two – and I remembered that record when the Trio Arpavioluta, whose music was mostly quiet and reflective, tore into the opening with precision, authority and power.
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