Violinist shows formidable skills

DAVID PARK, Dumke Recital Hall, University of Utah, Monday.

The next time David Park gives a recital, he'll need to move to a larger hall.

The assistant concertmaster of the Utah Symphony played a recital Monday in an overflowing Dumke Recital Hall, with some of the audience sitting along the sides of the stage.

What everyone in attendance witnessed Monday was violin playing of the highest order. Park is a consummate artist, one who possesses formidable technical skills as well as wonderful musicianship.

For the recital, Park played music by two masters of the violin — J.S. Bach and Niccolo Paganini.

Bach isn't normally associated with the violin, but his music for the instrument — and specifically that of the three partitas and three sonatas for solo violin — are on the same artistic and technical level as that of Paganini. And both were well represented on Park's recital.

Park opened his program with Bach's Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006.

Bach is a passion with Park. And his playing is such that he brings out the intensity of the musical experience with his dramatic interpretations.

Park played the partita with large, sweeping gestures and bold statements. There was nothing timid in his interpretation. It was decisive and commanding. This might not be everyone's idea of how Bach should be played, but for Park it worked remarkably well.

The same is true for the Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004, with which Park closed out the first half.

The Chaconne is one of the great monuments of the baroque period. One can see Bach's formidable compositional craft in the contrapuntal intricacies that unfold.

As with the E major Partita, Park played the Chaconne with unbridled passion and intensity of expression. His forceful playing was filled with a vibrancy that brought the music to life. It was a highly personal interpretation, but strikingly dramatic.

For the second half, Park played 12 of Paganini's Caprices, op. 1.

The Caprices are fiendishly difficult pieces that test the mettle of any violinist, and Park proved himself more than up to the challenges presented here.

Park showed remarkable technical astuteness as he navigated his way deftly through the pyrotechnics of each piece. It was a stunning tour de force.

At the end of the recital, Park still had enough energy to play an encore. This was the beautiful Sarabande from Bach's Partita No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1002.

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