Clarinetist Morales dazzles in Chiarina’s affecting world premiere
The Chiarina Chamber Players were joined by clarinetist Ricardo Morales for the world premiere of Reinaldo Moya’s I Will Dance, and Dance with You. Photo: Albert Ting
The Chiarina Chamber Players flexed their muscles as one of Washington’s foremost chamber groups with “A Clarinet Celebration” Sunday night at St. Mark’s Capitol Hill. The program’s highlight featured the renowned clarinetist Ricardo Morales in a successful world premiere.
That new work, commissioned by Chiarina, was I Will Dance, and Dance with You by Venezuelan composer Reinaldo Moya. A graduate of his nation’s El Sistema, Moya has just completed a four-year term as composer-in-residence of the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra.
Moya’s work is dedicated to his brother, who died unexpectedly in 2022. During a pre-concert talk, the composer described how writing the piece felt like “threading a needle.” Moya said his brother’s death forced him to grapple with two sides of commemoration—on one hand, a celebration of a life well lived, and on the other, a deep grief for that life being abruptly cut short.
Moya expresses those tensions in four contrasted movements, scored for clarinet, violin, cello and piano, that alternate between exuberance and somberness. Each movement takes inspiration from a different style of music: Brazilian choro (or chorinho), American jazz, Venezuelan waltz, and Spanish flamenco. Morales was joined by Chiarina’s cofounders, Carrie Bean Stute (cello), and Efi Hackmey (piano) with Domenic Salerni (violin).
A composition based on such wide-ranging genres can run the risk of sounding like a pastiche. Yet Moya’s bridging of folk genres and art music was largely successful, creating an engaging interplay that further accentuated the tensions between the celebratory and the mournful.
As the first movement began, the music was modern in sound, verging on the atonal, but suddenly changed gears and leapt into a delightful choro. The movement continued to oscillate between these two extremes in a surprisingly fluid way.
In the second movement, the quartet achieved an ethereal quality , repeating a hypnotic four-note motif over complex harmonies, conveying a hazy feeling a la Gershwin’s “Summertime.” The third movement truly danced, showing the composer’s comfort in writing in the style of his homeland, accented by Stute’s pizzicato line.
The fourth and final movement of the work was particularly potent. The writing was so evocative that one could have sworn for a moment they were, in fact, in a flamenco tablao in Seville, instead of a church on Capitol Hill.
More important than simply evoking the musical idiom, Moya’s writing captured the essence of the pained yearning that flamenco music can communicate. In the center of the movement, the instruments rumbled in their lowest registers, reaching the depths of grief, but, as the piece culminated, the violin and clarinet rose higher and higher, on long sustained notes, retaining a deep sense of longing, which is the sentiment on which the piece ended.
Morales, principal clarinet of the Philadelphia Orchestra for over two decades, demonstrating supreme virtuosity across all four movements. He showed his strength both as a soloist and ensemble musician, singing through the texture when needed, and then expertly dropping back into a supporting role. He particularly shone in the dancing moments, producing a bubbly sound that exuded delight.
Moya’s composition succeeded in expressing the complexity of emotions over the passing of a loved one, and the artists received a deservedly enthusiastic ovation.
The more “celebratory” works indicate by the program’s title came with the framing pieces: Bartok’s Contrasts and Brahms’s Clarinet Trio in A minor.
In Bartok’s challenging trio, it was plain to see why Morales is so highly regarded. Morales contrasted the pizzicato of the violin and the springy chords of the piano with clarinet lines of the most perfectly velvety texture. Each note in the fast runs was clear and incisive. Morales seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, smiling and appearing at complete ease in performance, but likewise playing with a commitment and intensity that was extremely engaging to watch. The Bartok performance overall seemed slightly uneven in style with violinist Salerni’s more low-key style less reactive to Morales and pianist Hackmey.
In the Brahms Clarinet Trio, Morales was joined by pianist Hackmey and cellist Stute. The clarinetist played some of the most dramatic crescendos and diminuendos one is ever likely to hear. The softness he could attain was intensely quiet, almost with a mystical quality. Both colleagues matched the energy that Morales provided—Stute, especially—and the trio performance attained enviable corporate synergy, nicely rounding out Chiarina’s enterprising and rewarding program.
John Richardson is a professional singer based in Washington DC. He is a recent graduate of Oxford University, where he studied history and sang sacred choral music. John was raised on a steady diet of art music. A pianist and trombonist, he has played and sung for most of his life as a soloist and ensemble musician.
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