INTERMEZZO CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES, Vieve Gore Concert Hall, July 28

The theme was big and bold at Monday’s Intermezzo Chamber Music Series concert. Three works were on the program that put the technical skills of the Utah Symphony’s two percussionists, Eric Hopkins and Keith Carrick, to the test — as well as the keyboard prowess of three of Salt Lake City’s preeminent pianists, Vedrana Subotic, Kimi Kawashima and Karlyn Bond. All five gave tour de force performances, as did local tenor Brian Stucki, who opened the concert with Hopkins in Iannis Xenakis’ stirring Kassandra.

Brian Stucki

Based on the Greek myth of Cassandra, who was both blessed and cursed by the ability to foresee the future, the piece is scored for male voice and percussion. The singer has to depict both Cassandra and the elders, requiring the performer to extend his range by extensive falsetto singing as well as plumbing the depths of his range. He also has to on occasion accompany himself on a psaltery.

Stucki gave a powerful account, singing with conviction and imbuing his role with emotional and expressive depth. It’s a challenging role but Stucki made it his own.

The dramatic percussion part punctuates and complements the vocal line. Hopkins, too, gave a forceful and virtuosic performance that was vibrant and compelling.

The other two works on the program focused on the piano.

Vedrana Subotic

Subotic and Kawashima, along with the two percussionists, mesmerized the large audience in Vieve Gore Concert Hall with a stellar reading of Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. One of the composer’s most significant works, the sonata is a virtuosic piece for the four players. It’s effect lies in part in the intricate interplay among the four musicians, and this quartet of players were absolutely intuitive as collaborators.

The two pianists played with an intensity that captured the relentless drive of the music. That was mirrored in Hopkins and Carrick’s playing as well. All four underscored the energy of the work with their robust playing, while in the Lento movement they captured the mysterious otherworldliness that Bartók so deftly created.

For the final work, Nicolai Kapustin’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion, Subotic teamed up with Bond, while Carrick played a trap set, leaving the array of percussion instruments in Hopkins’ hands.

Kapustin’s concerto is a whirlwind of jazz idioms and virtuosic writing for all four players. It’s an overwhelming piece that demands players of the highest technical and musical talent— and these four certainly delivered. It was another stunning performance of a work that is relentless in its high octane energy and rhythmic vitality.

BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL PARK CITY, Temple Har Shalom, July 27; festival runs through Aug. 11, tickets at the door or at www.beethovenfestivalparkcity.org 

Sunday’s Beethoven Festival Park City concert gave the sizable audience in Temple Har Shalom a chance to hear two seldom played works: Igor Stravinsky’s Concertino and Manuel de Falla’s Concerto for Harpsichord.

First on the program was the Concertino, in an arrangement by the late Utah composer Ramiro Cortés for harpsichord (Pamela Jones), violin (Manuel Ramos), viola (Leslie Harlow), cello (Cheung Chau), flute (Lisa Byrnes), oboe (Robert Stephenson) and clarinet (Russell Harlow) — an ensemble that worked quite well for this piece.

Pamela Jones

The seven players gave a rhythmically vibrant and well crafted account that captured the dynamics of the instruments in both solo and ensemble contexts. It’s a tricky piece that requires deft and nimble playing by the group and they acquitted themselves marvelously. They played with finesse and polish and conveyed the character of the one-movement work, with its pungent harmonies and neoclassical framework, with conviction and impressive technique and musicality.

The same group, without Leslie Harlow, also played de Falla’s challenging concerto. The work is written on a grand scale, and the sextet played with large gestures and broad expressions. It was a bold performance that brought out the work’s intricacies of rhythm as well as its well crafted instrumental interplay. The players once again exhibited stunning ensemble play as they shaped each of the three movements and played with a consummate sense of lyricism and expressiveness. It was a nuanced and wonderfully crafted interpretation that did justice to the work.

Between these two Jones played a couple of short pieces: Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in C major and Giovanni Dettori’s Lady Gaga Fugue, written in 2011 in the style of a keyboard fugue by J.S. Bach.

The concert concluded with a spectacular reading of Claude Debussy’s String Quartet. Ramos and Chau were joined by violinist Monte Belknap and violist Leslie Harlow, and the four gave a beautifully crafted, expressive account that was wonderfully nuanced. There was passion and emotional depth in their reading, and the expressions were finely articulated and executed. This was a masterful interpretation that captured the evocative character of the work as well as its dynamics and vitality.