"Prevailing Winds Deliver World Class Music Making"

Monday, September 23, 2002

Paradigm opener is superb By Edward Reichel Deseret News music critic PARADIGM CONCERT SERIES, with the Paradigm Chamber Players, conducted by Joel Rosenberg, Saturday, Sept. 21, Wasatch Presbyterian Church. Second performance Sunday, Sept. 29, 3 p.m., Jubilee Center, 309 E. 100 South.       The Paradigm Concert Series opened its 2002-03 season Saturday evening in its new venue, the Wasatch Presbyterian Church, with an all-Mozart program.       Music director Joel Rosenberg gathered some of the area's most talented musicians for a stimulating concert that featured the Austrian composer's Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, K. 498 ("Kegelstatt") and his Serenade in B flat major, K. 361 ("Gran Partita").       To open the concert, clarinetist Scott Harris and pianist Cassandra Broadhead joined Rosenberg, on viola, for a first-class performance of the trio. All three are excellent musicians who play with sensitivity, thoughtfulness and heartfelt feeling. Their playing was imbued with subtlety and a keen ear for nuances and balance. And the result was a well-executed and articulate performance of one of Mozart's most introspective works. This was chamber music of a high order.       The three movements of the trio are all reflective and evoke an atmosphere of peaceful simplicity. The gentle lyricism that flows through each movement was captured beautifully by the three artists. They made the most of the tender, dreamy mood that pervades the music, as well as the remarkable interplay among the three instruments.       After intermission, Rosenberg conducted the winds of the Paradigm Chamber Players in a captivating performance of the "Gran Partita" Serenade.       Rosenberg's interpretation brought out the large gestures of this work and captured the vibrant energy of the music perfectly.       The ensemble did an extraordinary job with its precise playing and its clean and sharp phrasings. Their playing was cohesive, the music was seamlessly executed, and all of the movements were nuanced and finely tuned.       Especially noteworthy was the beautiful playing of oboist David Clayton and clarinetists Harris and Gary Merrell. With their many solo passages, they contributed enormously to the success of this performance.       SALT LAKE TRIBUNE - Wednesday, January 31, 1996 by Lance S. Gudmundsen "Super Playing Bowls Over Audiences" Facing less- than- packed houses, the organizers of two concerts on Super Bowl Sunday were good sports. "Thank you for coming out for our Super Bowl music," said Audrey Terry in prefacing the last in a series of four concerts presented by the Contemporary Music Consortium in Nunemaker Place on the campus of Westminster College of Salt Lake City. ....."Three Movements for Five Winds" by Ramiro Cortés, who made his home in Utah for a dozen years before his death in 1984, was highlighted by playful exchanges by The Prevailing Winds ensemble: flutist Laurel Ann Maurer, oboist Amy Brough, clarinetist Scott Harris, hornist Linda Atkin and bassoonist Joyce Mahoney. All played meticulously. The piece was replete with playful exuberance and even jocularity as the instruments converse - like exotic birds from atop their limbs in a rain forest.".....   SALT LAKE TRIBUNE - Friday, February 21, 1997 Jeff Manookian "Prevailing Winds, Kibbe a Delight"         The Prevailing Winds (flutist Laurel Ann Maurer, oboist Susan Swidnicki, clarinetist Scott Harris, hornist Linda Atkin and bassoonist Joyce Mahoney) presented an entire evening devoted to the compositions of California-based Michael Kibbe Tuesday in the Jewett Center at Westminster College.     Kibbe gave an informative pre-concert lecture. The concert represented the artist's compositional, arranging and orchestrating abilities.     The single-movement Wind Quintet No. 5 ''In Winter,'' based on two four-note motives, opened the varied program. Kibbe said this piece would ''stretch the ears.'' But not much stretching was required. Although definitely a new work, it established itself with immediate audience interest. The composition was cohesive despite its collage-like writing. The instrumentalists of The Prevailing Winds equally shared melodic and harmonic responsibilities with first-class elan.     Wind Quintet No. 4, subtitled ''The American,'' had a healthy hint of coquettishness. There wasn't one ounce of unfriendliness in this Kibbe creation. Nor did it venture so far to the right that the most sophisticated ear could not find solace in the work's unfolding. This composition shared in the same spirit as Prokofiev's ''Classical'' Symphony.     Swidnicki gave a charming solo in the equally charming ''Andante con moto.'' This second movement displayed well-crafted counterpoint. The playful ''Scherzo'' movement contained interesting harmonic twists -- sharing a kinship to Bartok in his playful moods. Precision ensemble for the players was as good as the composition itself. A light-hearted and somewhat tame demeanor graced the fourth movement which was punctuated by a final tongue-in-cheek toot bringing out warm applause from the audience.     Kibbe took Bartok's ''Rumanian Folk Dances'' and orchestrated them for woodwind quintet. The arrangement was expertly straightforward as the musicians thoroughly immersed themselves into this popular Bartok work. Stylings from the players lent an attractive flair to the six-movement grouping.     Receiving its world premiere Tuesday, Kibbe's Wind Quintet No. 5 ''Sonic Options'' proved an audience favorite. The composer required the players to stand at various points of the auditorium, surrounding the audience, for a different aural experience. The instrumentalists were also asked to double on percussion equipment to add to the overall effect. Kibbe warned the audience that this was the ''most abstract'' piece of the evening. But nobody seemed to be squirming during the work's germination.     Landing on ''terra firma familiare,'' Kibbe concluded the printed program with his arrangement of three tunes from Gershwin's ''Porgy and Bess.'' It was hard to believe this was being played by only five instrumentalists. At times it sounded like a mini-orchestra.     For an encore, the Prevailing Winds offered up a composition by -- who else? -- Michael Kibbe. The parting ditty was a tango, ''Pink Flamingo.'' The Prevailing Winds put on a dandy show. They have established themselves as a major ensemble on the Utah scene.     Jeff Manookian, Intermountain Chamber Orchestra conductor, is The Tribune's music critic. back to The Prevailing Winds back to Scott Harris