Something that the Park City Music Festival excels in is the quality of its performances. This is due in large part to the incredibly talented musicians that come to Park City to perform and also to the festival's enlightened programming. After nearly three weeks of concerts, the organizers of this festival have shown their audiences how extremely varied chamber music can be.
Sunday's concert was no exception. It was a glorious evening of music made all the more memorable by the presence of world-renowned violinist Elmar Oliveira. Oliveira, who has performed in Utah on numerous occasions, made his debut at the Park City Festival this week, sharing the spotlight with several equally illustrious colleagues.The concert opened with the rarely heard "Duo for Violin and Viola" by the 20th century Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. This melodic, brisk and refreshingly exuberant piece was played by Oliveira and his wife, violist Sandra Robbins.
This was followed by an unusual arrangement of the Mozart Piano Trio in F major, K. 496, for clarinet and string trio.
Harlow was the clarinettist in this performance, together with violinist Arturo Delmoni, violist Leslie Harlow and cellist Gayle Smith. Russell Harlow's clarinet had a luscious tone and blended well with the three strings.
This is a fine arrangement of the work, obviously done for a clarinetist since that instrument dominates the music. But as performed by these musicians, the strings never strayed into the background. The string players offered a strong performance and were on equal terms with the clarinet.
The evening's tour de force was Tchaikovsky's string sextet, "Souvenir de Florence," written after a prolonged visit to Italy. The music here is somewhat atypical for Tchaikovsky, in that it doesn't abound in lush, sentimental melodies (as, for example, in his symphonies and other larger works). Rather, the music is quite strong and dramatic, but nevertheless melodic.
In spite of being labeled a souvenir from Florence, there isn't much Italian-inspired music here until you get to the last movement, which is a lively, rhythmic dance piece in the style of a tarantella.