Latino Love Affair
playing has been described as ‘dazzling’, and ‘bristling with creativity and emotion’ – and he is back with us in 2018! Presenting a selection of contemporary and historic pieces with a distinctly Latin feel, keyboard virtuoso Michael Tsalka joins Thoroughbass for two concerts in Sydney and the Southern Highlands.
Escande, Piazzolla, Howlett/Concerti by JS. Bach, A. Scarlatti and Benda accompanied by Thoroughbass’ Shaun Warden, Shaun Ng (violins), Tara Hashambuoy (viola), Lucy Cormack, Angus Ryan (cellos) and Diana Weston (harpsichord).
We take this opportunity to introduce Michael and Diana’s brand new CD Lady Huang’s Album, soon to be released world-wide.
Where & When
April 28 2018 @ 5 pm at Mosman Art Gallery
April 29 2018 @ 3 pm at St Jude’s, Bowral
Review
https://www.classikon.com/review/michael-tsalka-joins-thoroughbass/
Program
Notes
Music past and present from Spanish and Italian-speaking countries dominates this concert. Overall, there is a distinctly summery feel, complete with the occasional thunderstorm.
Several of the pieces on the program are part of a new recording we have made – a CD entitled Lady Huang’s Album after a piece of the same name by Diana Blom. On her instigation, Michael Tsalka and I have partnered in a number of new works recorded courtesy of Ian Stephenson and Western Sydney University, published by Australian label Wirripang and ‘officially’ released at the PlayHouse, Western Sydney University Kingston campus on April 26.
From Argentina, harpsichordist and composer Pablo Escande demonstrates the power, colour and vibrancy of the harpsichord supremely well. Strangely named 3 stukken a 4 main, (three pieces for 4 hands), the first two (Capricho and Naïve) were composed in 1988, the third (Tocatta) in 2003. He has performed them repeatedly all over the world with good reason.
Taking her inspiration from the tale of ‘Don Quixote’, May Howlett tells us ‘The concept of duality as perceived by Cervantes in his tale of the heroic, self-styled knight-errant, Don Quixote, and his long-suffering squire, Sancho Panza, is voiced by ‘duelling’ harpsichords in Tilting at Windmills. The interplay between the Don’s majestic chords and the squire’s erratic scale passages reference modal or folk motifs and rhythms.’ May’s wildly exciting piece expresses all the drama and pizzazz you’d expect from a Spanish hero, these passages giving way to some unsettling ones, where you know things for the knight have gone horribly wrong.
Astor Piazzola’s ‘Fuga y misterio’ borrows from the baroque in form (da capo, with the ‘B’ section improvisatory) and structure (fugal), while placing itself securely in the twentieth century with the ubiquitous tango rhythm which Piazzola derived from the night-clubs and streets of Buenos Aries. Because of this, his music often has a sinister edginess to it. In this arrangement for two keyboards, the ‘misterio’ is quite confrontational, even threatening.
In a departure from sunny climes, Estonian Arvo Pärt’s piece ‘Summa’ follows his characteristic minimalist trend, one inspired by Gregorian chant. The word ‘summa’ is derived from the Latin meaning ‘whole’ and has been applied to theological or philosophical treatises.
Though born in Bohemia, Georg Anton Benda’s two year stay in Italy was formative. Following his time there, he achieved something of a reputation as a composer of melodramas, in which music accompanied a spoken text. This tendency is also evident in his brilliant concerto for harpsichord and strings, in which Italian influences prevail.
Alessandro Scarlatti’s concerto is one of a collection of 6 compositions of two movements each, the first a fugue, the second lighter in nature. The orchestral part has been completely reconstructed by Italian scholar and violinist Ottavio Dantone from the existing keyboard part. The cadenza was composed by Ann Carr-Boyd on my request, for which I thank her.
Like the little-known Benda, giant Bach also studied Italian works assiduously, especially Vivaldi, but also Marcello. Bach faithfully copied out many of their concertos for violin and other instruments in order to understand their workings, and produced ‘new’ harpsichord pieces in the process. The Italianate style is manifest in many of Bach’s concertos for harpsichord, including the exuberant and sunny-natured Concerto in E.
