Delmoni, Kosower are a powerful duo

PARK CITY INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL, Stanfield Fine Art Gallery, Monday, through Aug. 15, www.pcmusicfestival.com.

PARK CITY — One of the key components of the Park City International Music Festival's success is the combining of musicians who don't normally play together.

Festival co-directors Leslie and Russell Harlow have only seldom invited established groups to come to Park City. Instead, they rely primarily on the creative stimulation and the resulting dynamics that varied groupings bring to the concerts.

Over the years this has produced some vibrant ensembles and striking performances, including several early on at this year's festival. One of the most exceptional pairings so far took place at Monday's concert in the Stanfield Fine Art Gallery, when longtime festival violinist Arturo Delmoni joined forces with a relative newcomer, cellist Mark Kosower, for a spectacular reading of Dvorak's Piano Trio in F minor, op. 65.

Delmoni and Kosower make a powerful duo. Both play with a rich, voluminous tone that can fill any room. For the Dvorak, with its Brahmsian gestures and unbridled passions, the twosome's expansive reading was infused with intense expressiveness and gorgeously phrased lines.

Kosower's wife, pianist Jee-Won Oh, added immeasurably to this mix with her forceful style. Oh's playing has had a tendency to sound harsh and sometimes out of harmony with musicians with whom she's appeared — including her husband. However, for the Dvorak, her strong attacks and bold phrasings were the perfect complement to the two string players. The threesome's lucid interpretation of the F minor Trio created a rich tapestry of sound that captured the fervor and vitality of the music.

Kosower, Oh and clarinetist Russell Harlow joined forces earlier in the evening for an articulate and expressive performance of Ramiro Cortes' Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano. Cortes, who was the head of the composition department at the University of Utah from 1973 until his untimely death in 1984, wrote the Trio in 1981 for Harlow.

Each of the Trio's three movements is characterized by stark contrasts of expression and mood. This is bold, passionate and dramatic music, which the trio of artists captured skillfully with a luminous performance.

The threesome exhibited some wonderful ensemble playing, with a tautness that underscored the work's strong gestures and vivid lines. Particularly notable for how they were played were the gentle duets and solos for the clarinet and cello within the unforgivingly powerful confines of the opening movement.