First Church Chamber Music Series
First Church
West Hartford
October 5, 2025
If you’ve read my music reviews before, you know that I’m a former clarinet player who still loves the instrument. Saxophones may look cooler, trumpets may be louder and guitars may be more popular, but there’s nothing like the reedy sound of a good clarinet.
I was in luck, then, that the monthly Chamber Music series at First Church in West Hartford featured several world-class clarinet players from the Greater Hartford area in one room.
Before I get into it, I want to give a couple of shout-outs. Michael Loveland on oboe, with James Boratko on piano were both lovely. They performed a piece by Claude Debussey, and Loveland made the oboe sing. And at the end of the show, the Foundry Saxophone Quartet was a lively and fun end to a day of great music.
But we’re here for the clarinets.
The concert opened with Trio for Two Clarinets and Bassoon, Op. 54 by Swan Hennessy. Clara Ruiz Medina and Chadwick Thomas were the clarinettists, and Morgan Pope was on the bassoon.
The first movement, Moderato, felt like a playful dance where the two clarinets were partners and the bassoon was trying to force its way in to steal a partner. However, the chaos of the dance gives way to a more orderly march by the end of the section. I’ve never heard the clarinet sound as martial as it did, but Medina and Thomas bring out the full bombasticness of the instrument.
Medina began her musical journey in her native Spain at 7 years old. She says her mother was her first teacher, and that she enjoys the clarinet because of how similar its sound is to the human voice. Still, even an accomplished musician who is finishing up her doctorate faces the same challenges with willpower as the rest of us- the difference is, she does the work.
“There are days that you want to practice, and days that you don’t,” she said. “You have to find the joy even when you don’t want to.”
The penultimate performance of the day was Clarinet Sonata Op. 167, by Camille Saint-Saëns. Clarinettist Xuan Qin was accompanied by Ho Man Cheung on piano.
Clarinet play is often associated with goodtime music thanks to talented performers like Doreen Ketchens, but the clarinet is unique in its ability to produce a mournful sound.
Qin, who hails from China and teaches music in the Hartford Public Schools system, has mastered the lower ranges of the clarinet. In the third movement of the sonata, titled Lento, Qin tames the natural bellow of the instrument into an artful wail, using great volume control to swell the woody sound of the clarinet and then backing off just as quickly, giving the section a feeling of progression, as if moving through darkened wood.
In the second half of the movement, Qin reaches the upper octaves, but maintains the same level of control, and the higher notes sound like a sorrowful refrain of the earlier notes, like sadness tinged with laughter and understanding. I felt like I had listened to a life experience, a lesson taught through hardship and pain that yields enlightenment, in the space of three minutes.
The concert was very enjoyable, and highlighted the international nature of music. Musicians from three continents came together to share wonderful music, for free, right in our own backyard.
NEXT
The First Church Chamber Music Series will continue on November 16.
Jamil goes to learn about sundials.
