PARADIGM CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, Libby Gardner Concert Hall, Sept. 20

For its first concert of the new season, the Paradigm Chamber Orchestra focused on works from the classical and baroque eras. It was a well chosen program, and the ensemble, under music director Joel Rosenberg, played with polish and finesse.

Except for a pair of works, the concert was also a showcase for two of the group’s members: bassoonist Robert Bedont and flutist Tia Jaynes, both of whom are also members of Rosenberg’s American West Symphony.

Bedont gave a wonderfully clean and well articulated account of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Bassoon in A minor, RV. 498. He brought lyricism and finely crafted expressions to his playing and showed that the bassoon is indeed a remarkable melody instrument. The orchestra also played with expressiveness, and Rosenberg made sure there was a good balance between the soloist and the string ensemble.

Jaynes was featured in two pieces, the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice and the Badinerie from J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor.

The former is a calm, reflective piece and Jaynes captured the mood with her lyrical playing, while in the latter she let loose with some impressive bravura playing.

University of Utah pianist Heather Conner joined Rosenberg and the ensemble for an excellent performance of J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052. Conner played with fluid lines and seamless phrasings and brought nuance to her account. Rosenberg elicited articulate and cleanly phrased playing from the strings. It was a stand out virtuosic performance by both the soloist and the ensemble.

Also on the program were two early Mozart works, the Divertimento in F major, K. 138, and the Symphony No. 23 in D major, K. 181. Both were played with lyricism, finely molded phrasings and crisp articulation. In the K. 181, principal oboe Robin Vorkink played her solo in the Andante grazioso with polish and beautiful expressiveness.

UTAH SYMPHONY, Abravanel Hall Sept. 19; second performance 8 p.m. Sept. 20, tickets at 801-355-2787, 888-451-2787 or www.utahsymphony.org 

One would have thought last weekend’s season opening performance of Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony would be impossible to top, but the Utah Symphony and Thierry Fischer have done it again.

Thierry Fischer

Friday evening the orchestra and Fischer once again played splendidly and guest soloist Yefim Bronfman gave a spectacular account of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No 2.

With two incredible performances to get things started, 2014-15 has the makings to be the symphony’s most promising season to date.

The concert opened with Igor Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night).

Stravinsky’s short piece is a delightful mélange of modern and classical harmonies and vibrant rhythms. The writing is sectional, pitting the woodwinds against the brass; occasionally, the two work together. The woodwind and brass players were exceptional and Fischer’s direction brought a seamlessness to the performance that made the work sound cohesive.

Verklärte Nacht was originally written in 1899 as a string sextet. Schoenberg later made several arrangements of it for string orchestra. It is the composer’s final revision, from 1943, that Fischer and the Utah Symphony strings play this weekend.

The work is wrought with fin-de-siècle emotions and an intensity of purpose that make this a psychological thriller. Its darkness, though, is finally resolved, and a profound repose descends on the work in its closing measures.

Being an early work, Schoenberg embraced the Germanic romanticism and harmonic voluptuousness of the period, and Fischer elicited wonderfully expressive playing from his strings. It was an atmospheric and nuanced reading that captured the eloquent lyricism that courses through the work, even in its darkest moments.

Too often, performances of the string ensemble versions of Verklärte Nacht lack the intimacy of the original sextet. But Fischer’s perceptive reading underscored the chamber like quality of the original. His interpretation was subtle and beautifully expressed.

Yefim Bronfman (Photo Credit: Dario Acosta)

As remarkable as these two performances were, the real showstopper, however, was Bronfman’s amazing account of the Brahms concerto. His playing breathed new life into this well known and popular work. The Russian-born pianist is always in command. His playing is such that one has the impression that these works had been written expressly for him.

That was how his performance came across Friday. There was a naturalness and ease in the manner in which he wended his way through the bravura passages as well as the softer lyrical sections. The Second is a big, imposing work, but Bronfman never overplayed it. He played with sweeping lines and large gestures that allowed him to give a wonderfully articulated and expressed account. It was bold and forceful where the music calls for it and gorgeously poetic in its most intimate moments.

One of those moments was the opening of the third movement Andante. It begins with a cello solo that turns into a duet with the piano. New principal cello Rainer Eudeikis’ exquisite playing captured the tenderness of the melody; and he and Bronfman played off each other wonderfully.

Fischer and the orchestra complemented Bronfman’s perceptive playing magnificently. It was as if soloist, conductor and orchestra were one; it was the kind of musical collaboration one always dreams of finding but so seldom does. Quite honestly it was a match made in heaven.