Festival ends week in spectacular fashion

PARK CITY INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL, Park City Community Church, through Aug. 15 (www.pcmusicfestival.com.)

PARK CITY — The Park City International Music Festival closed out its first week of concerts spectacularly on Sunday evening. The program featured two major 20th century composers (Ravel and Bartok) along with one of the foremost figures of the 19th century, Brahms.

Besides festival co-directors Leslie Harlow, viola, and Russell Harlow, clarinet, the performers at Sunday's concert in Park City Community Church included two longtime favorites: Philippe Djokic, violin, and Robert Moeling, piano.

Joining this talented pool of chamber musicians was newcomer Denise Djokic, cello, who made her festival debut at last Thursday's opening concert.

Spotlighted prominently at each of the three concerts in the first week, the young cellist made a favorable impression. Denise Djokic's artistry blends remarkable technique with keen musicality. She is one artist who will hopefully become a frequent guest at the Park City festival.

Denise Djokic opened the concert Sunday with her father, Philippe Djokic. Together they played Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello. This was a repeat performance, as they also played it during Saturday's concert in the Dumke Recital Hall. Sunday's encore performance lost none of the potency and intensity that was on display the previous evening. If anything, it was an even more dynamic reading. However, some of the raw energy that the two artists put into their performance Saturday was missing Sunday. In its place was a perhaps a more polished account of the work and a slightly more seamless delivery. Nevertheless, it was a well-articulated and executed interpretation.

Bartok's "Contrasts" for Clarinet, Violin and Piano followed the Ravel. True to its title, "Contrasts" is a fabulously vivid and descriptive piece that juxtaposes starkly divergent moods and character in each of its three movements. The opening movement ("Verbunkos," "Recruiting Dance"), is a highly caricatured piece, while the second movement ("Piheno," "Relaxation") calls to mind Bartok's "night music" in its ethereal glow. The closing "Sebes" ("Fast Dance") returns to the parody present in "Verbunkos," although here the dance revels in its virtuosity.

Russell Harlow, Philippe Djokic and Robert Moeling gave a stellar performance that captured the spirit and flavor of each movement with their lucid playing.

The concert closed with Brahms impassioned Piano Quartet in C minor, op. 60. Philippe and Denise Djokic, Leslie Harlow and Robert Moeling gave an intense, driven performance. They explored the emotional range of the work with their dynamic reading. Their intimate grasp of the music was evident in their nuanced, sensitive, yet powerfully charged interpretation. Particularly noteworthy was Denise Djokic's beautifully played duet with Moeling, which opened the third movement Andante, wherein she captured the shimmering melodic sweep of the music with her exquisitely phrased playing.

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