Deseret Morning News, Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Music fest ends on spectacular note
By Edward Reichel
Deseret Morning News
PARK CITY AND SALT LAKE CITY MUSIC FESTIVAL, Park City Community Church, Sunday.
PARK CITY — The Park City and Salt Lake City Music Festival closed out its 22nd summer season in breathtaking fashion Sunday with a program that did credit to the refined sense of programming by festival directors Leslie and Russell Harlow.
Sunday's concert spotlighted the music of two composers who are unjustly ignored today, along with a seldom-heard work by one of German romanticism's leading lights.
The evening opened with Joaquin Turina's haunting Piano Quartet in A minor. Turina's music is quintessential Spanish, but he expands on it with his rich harmonic language derived from French impressionism. His music has a universality that makes him decidedly more cosmopolitan than his older contemporary Manuel de Falla. In de Falla's music, impressionism is subservient to the Spanish element. In Turina, they're on an equal footing.
The A minor Piano Quartet, his only foray into that particular instrumentation, is vibrant, emotional, impassioned, sometimes austere, sometimes bold, but always stimulating and moving.
The quartet of musicians who played the Turina, violinist Monte Belknap, violist Leslie Harlow, cellist Evan Drachman and pianist Gail Niwa, gave a compelling reading that captured the vibrancy of the coloristic score, as well as the intensely textured musical fabric. Their performance was expressive and nuanced, and it radiated a vitality that was incomparable for its forcefulness.
Even lesser known today than Turina's music is that of Anton Reicha. Born the same year as Beethoven (1770), Reicha never ventured beyond the strictures of classicism, as did Beethoven. Reicha's music is solidly classical in structure and thematic layout. But, contrary to what one might think, though his music is well conceived and planned, there is nothing stilted in his writing.
Reicha's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings was played in the second half of the concert. Performing it were clarinetist Russell Harlow, violinists Belknap and Dara Morales, violist Leslie Harlow and cellist Scott Ballantyne. The five brought a cohesiveness to the work that underscored the fluidity of the phrases and the expressiveness of the music.
Russell Harlow, in particular, is to be noted for his remarkable playing. He is without question one of the finest clarinetists and chamber musicians in the country. His rich, mellow tone is matched by his wonderful musicianship and extraordinary technique. And when he is joined by like-minded colleagues, the result is nothing short of spectacular.
Rounding out the evening was the "Fantasy Pieces" for Cello and Piano by Robert Schumann, played by Ballantyne and Niwa. Ballantyne's warm and sensitive playing is suited wonderfully to the romantic repertoire. He is a marvelous cellist who displays the highest degree of artistry. He was perfectly matched with Niwa, whose playing is remarkably compatible to Ballantyne's. Together, they gave a deeply felt, intensely expressive reading of these magnificent musical pearls.
E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com
© 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company