Classical review: Missouri debut for the Park Brothers guitar duo

The 2024-2025 St. Louis Classical Guitar (SLCG) concert season started this past Saturday (September 14) at a new primary venue, Salem United Methodist Church in Frontenac, and with different artist than originally scheduled. In place of the young British guitarist Jack Hancher, SLCG presented The Park Brothers, a young Korean-American guitar duo from Los Angeles, in their Missouri debut, to an audience of about 90. As often in guitar recitals, transcriptions and arrangements mainly featured in the selections.

The Park Brothers opened with three anonymous Renaissance-era works transcribed by Patrick Russ, for a low-key start. Next was an arrangement of the ‘Intermezzo’ from the opera “Goyescas” by Enrique Granados (1867-1916), moving into Spanish territory, which is pretty much inevitable with classical guitar recitals. Wesley Park, the younger brother (on the left in the picture above), introduced this work. Following the Granados, Alex Park (on the right of the picture, with glasses) performed a solo set, with his own spoken introductions. He began with a Prelude and Gigue attributed in the program to the German composer Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750), but actually composed by the Mexican composer Manuel Ponce (1882-1948), with the attribution by Ponce to Weiss as an esoteric joke. Alex Park continued with the “Variations on a Theme of Handel” by the Italian composer Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829), where the original theme was Handel’s harpsichord piece “The Harmonious Blacksmith”.

The brothers reunited for the remainder of the first half. The last ‘set’ began with a transcription by Ronald Ravenscroft of the “Laudate Dominum” (“Praise ye the Lord”) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. For guitar nerds, the brothers mentioned that their instruments date from the 1960s, from the noted Spanish guitar maker José Rivera, and contain Brazilian rosewood, which is now an endangered species. To close the first half, the brothers returned to Spain for two more transcriptions of music from ballets by the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946), the ‘Song of the Will o’ the Wisp’ from “El Amor Brujo” (“Love, the Magician”) and ‘The Miller’s Dance’ from “The Three-Cornered Hat". The last especially made for an up-tempo first-half closer.

The second half began with the sweet-natured “Terezinha de Jesus” by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959), arranged by the Spanish composer Emilio Pujol (1886-1980). Next was a Patrick Russ transcription of the song ‘De los álamos vengo, madre’ (‘I come from the poplars, mother’) from the “Cuatro madrigales amatorios” (“Four Madrigals of Love”) by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999). The next work was a Spanish solo classical guitar standard, “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” by Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909), in a somewhat oddball arrangement by John Williams (the Australian guitarist, of course) and Paco Peña. To paraphrase Alex Park’s introduction, this arrangement kept the solo guitar version intact in one part, while the second line by Williams and Peña was more like an accompaniment and complement. Speaking just for myself, I’m not sure that the second line added anything to the original, although the brothers played it well, with Wesley Park on the original line and Alex Park on the second line.

Wesley Park then had his own solo set, which began with two very famous works of Johann Sebastian Bach, the Prelude No. 1 in C major from “The Well-Tempered Clavier”, Book I, in a transcription by Christopher Parkening (a mentor and teacher to the Park Brothers), and ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’ in a transcription by Rick Foster. It was jarring, at least to me, to hear these works in very different keys from the originals, although Wesley Park did well with them. His final solo selection was “Koyunbaba”, the most famous work of the Italian composer Carlo Domeniconi (born 1947), although both the composer and this work were new to me. Wesley Park shared some guitar geek trivia with the information that this work requires tuning the guitar to C-sharp minor. From my own first-ever hearing of “Koyunbaba”, it seemed rather too long for its material. However, from the quality of Wesley Park’s performance, this felt like the concert’s highlight up to that moment.

That is, perhaps, until the next selection, which reunited the brothers for the final set. This selection was “Evening Dance” by Andrew York (born 1958), effectively a theme and variations, and another new listening experience for me. Mr. York minimizes virtuoso flash here for a more contemplative mood, and this work felt like the concert’s still center-point, a highlight at a mellower level. The Park Brothers picked up the pace for the final printed program selection, “Jongo” by the Brazilian guitarist Paulo Bellinati (born 1950), for a happy closer. For their encore, the Park Brothers chose the Act II ‘Dance’ from Manuel de Falla’s opera “La vida breve”, an energetic feel-good finish (even if the opera’s plot itself isn’t).

The Park Brothers’ musicianship was generally solid, a few momentary phrasing hiccups and bobbles aside. Their spoken introductions were down-to-earth and friendly. From audience chatter, the Park Brothers evidently won themselves new friends in the Midwest. It’s easy to imagine a return visit from them down the line.