"Memories of Corsica"
Reviewed in the Washington Post
November 18th, 2008

Music
The Verdehr's Colorful 'Memories'
Tuesday, November 18, 2008; Page C03

The Verdehr Trio has become a perennial favorite at the Phillips Collection, where twice a year it presents new works -- which it has usually commissioned -- for its unusual combination of clarinet, piano and violin. The trio continued that tradition Sunday afternoon, dispatching a Mozart divertimento as an appetizer but quicklysettling down to some intriguing new works written for it in the past few years.

Rick Sowash composed his "Memories of Corsica" for the Verdehr in2007, and it's an engaging, colorful tone poem in the time-honored genre of musical travelogue. Opening with a depiction of the island's shimmering heat and empty villages, it quickly turns light and dancelike in the "Aromatic Breezes" section and closes with a forceful and even jaunty movement, full of exuberance and laughter.

-- Stephen Brookes