Set in Stone
Program Notes
Review
Margaretta Cottage,
6 Leichhardt St, Glebe (disabled access at 18A Cook St)
July 13 at 7 pm
Antonio Soler: Concerto II in A major
Ann Carr-Boyd: Outback River arr. by the composer
Astor Piazzolla: Soledad arr. Pablo Ziegler
Leonardo Coral: Toccata
Nicholas Smith: Brushstrokes
JS Bach/CPE Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings (red. Werner Breig) BWV 1052a
St John’s College, Missenden Rd, Camperdown
July 19 at 6.30 pm
Johann Baptist Vanhal: Sonata I in F major Op. 32 for piano 4 hands
Ludwig van Beethoven: Variations on a theme by Count Grafen von Waldstein
Elena Kats-Chernin: Ancient Letters/Concerto for Harpsichord
Violeta Dinescu: Variations alla Vanhal
Nicholas Smith: Brushstrokes
JS Bach/CPE Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings (red. Werner Brieg) BWV 1052a
St Jude’s Church, Bendooley St, Bowral
July 21 at 3.15pm
Astor Piazzolla: Soledad,arr. Pablo Ziegler
Ann Carr-Boyd: Outback River for harpsichord and piano arr. Ann Carr-Boyd
Nicholas Smith: Brushstrokes
JS Bach/CPE Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings (red. Werner Breig) BWV 1052a
These program notes, provided by the composers and Thoroughbass director Diana Weston, offer insights into the pieces in the programs. They are not in any particular order.
Father Antonio Soler (1729 – 1783) spent nearly all his adult life in the monastery of El Escorial near Madrid. It was here that he received his training as organist and composer from Domenico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757) but despite influence from this source, Soler retained his own Iberian musical traditions. The set of six compositions for two keyboard instruments from which this concerto is derived were composed for the Infante Gabriel of Bourbon, son of King Charles III, as instruction for his keyboard playing. Supposedly for organ, they are equally suitable for other keyboards such as harpsichord, clavichord, or piano forte (the latter known to be present in monasteries and palaces) or even the harp. For this reason, we have ventured to combine harpsichord with piano forte, a combination of contemporaneous instruments that are compatible as well as demonstrating nicely the differences between the two by direct imitation.
JS Bach’s Concerto in D minor BWV 1052, thought to have been derived from a lost violin concerto has undergone a number of transcriptions. Initially, in this transcription, the orchestral part was assumed to be by JS Bach. However, authorities now attribute the string parts to his second son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, based on handwriting and paper, around 1734 before leaving for Leipzig with the harpsichord parts following a few years later. While this transcription is now attributed to CPE Bach, it is likely that he received advice from his father.
Part of JS Bach’s corpus of Harpsichord Concertos, this rendition is played using two harpsichords.
A prolific composer, well-known to the public, admired by Mozart and Haydn, Czech composer Joseph Baptist Vanhal (1739-1813) is today all but forgotten by the general public and concert go-er. Vanhal’s extensive output included church music, symphonies, and importantly for keyboard players, a large amount of piano music. Vanhal in the latter part of his life realised that the expanding middle classes who were acquiring their own piano fortes, were in need of piano music to suit. His’ Two Sonatas for four hands’ seems designed for this purpose.
The first of Two Sonatas, Sonata in F major, is structurally different from its companion. It is in the developing ‘sonata’ form,( whereas the second, in A major, is a set of variations with rondo). Sonata in F major is in three movements, the first (Allegro moderato) an ABA format, starts grandly with a martial air before dissolving into delightful little skips and turns, the second (Adagio o Andante), is a rather sombre minuet, the third (Allegro) a cheerful rondo. Together they form a satisfying whole, nicely balanced as a duo.
As a young emerging composer, Beethoven (1770-1827) was lucky enough to attract the patronage of Count von Waldstein, to whom he later dedicated in gratitude one of the greatest works of his oevre – his Piano Sonata Op. 53. These eight variations on a theme by Count Waldstein are more modest in scope, nevertheless endowed with an obvious Beethoven stamp – each varied in style and mood from the playful to the serious.
Master of the tango, Argentinian Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) is renowned for his innovation and originality within this dance-form, one which he cultivated with the encouragement of his teacher Nadia Boulanger, but against the sentiments of his fellow Argentinians. Soledad (‘Solitude’) was composed in 1969, part of the suite Tangata Silfo y Ondina. This movement expresses the pain and sorrow never far from the heart of his music. Arranged for two pianos by Pablo Ziegler, it can also be performed with two harpsichords (with some minor adjustments).
Elena Kats-Chernin (Uzhbekistan/Australia)
‘The Ancient Letters are the first known documents of the Sogdian people who lived across what is today Uzbekhistan, the place where I was born. The letters dated from the 4th century were discovered ca 16 centuries after being written, in an abandoned watchtower, far to the east of the main city Samarkand along the Silk Road to China.
1. “Tiger Cub”: Two of the five letters concern a woman called Tiger Cub or Mewnai. Tiger Cub has not seen or heard of her husband for three years. He has disappeared somewhere along the Silk Road. She despairs for the years ahead. We will never know what did happen to Tiger Cub. I have written a portrait of this feisty, desperate, beautiful, deserted woman the way I see her. The harpsichord begins the movement alone. Sometimes I find that instrument to have a suspended, disembodied quality which can be used to expressive advantage. When the orchestra enters it is with unrelenting opposition to the more soulful first theme. The struggle between the two forces charges the whole movement; the harpsichord being the more human character, the orchestra representing the harsh and often barbarous reality of an uncertain life in a place that can be formidably glorious but savage too.
2. “Musk Trade”: Trade is one of the main topics in the correspondence. The Sogdian travellers dealt in musk, silk and silver. Musk Trade is a movement in two distinct parts; the slow, aromatic Musk featuring in a series of orientally dusted melodies, then the fast Trade of deal-makers, rush-hour and negotiations. Soloist and strings take up a marketplace tune based on an extended C minor 7th chord. This is buffeted by cameos representing the different industries; metal (chords), cloth (scales), spice (harpsichord clusters).
3. “Goodbye Samarkand”: The city of Samarkand is one of the oldest in the world. It is hot, dry, remote. There is a real sense of displacement that haunts the Sogdian letters, these people are living yawning distances from families and usually with no real hope of going home, to Samarkand, 2000 miles away. In Goodbye Samarkand I have written a little ballad to home – the place, to paraphrase Thomas Wolfe, you can never go again. The melody came to me as I imagined looking back at a desert horizon and realising that life is different forever; a mix of misgivings, hopes and longings.
Also by Elena Kats-Chernin, First Dance was composed ‘For Nick and Svetlana’s wedding on 24 May 2015 in celebration and love from Mum’. I am so pleased Elena has sent me this very personal tribute to her son and his new wife, a piece that does indeed speak of her love and the joy of the day. But also of hidden uncertainties and with some nostalgia, all of which can be expressed so convincingly on old Robertson.
Ann Carr-Boyd (Australia)
‘Outback River is a Suite in three movements about the Darling River in New South Wales, which is home to a number of aboriginal nations commonly known as ‘ Barka ‘ by the Barkindji people.
At the Source: At the river’s source in northern New South Wales the Darling is fed by rivers further north to become one of Australia’s greatest and longest rivers.
Finale: The Darling joins the Murray River on the Victorian border and eventually these combined mighty rivers flow out to sea at the Coorong in South Australia.
Outback River for harpsichord and two cellos was commissioned by Diana Weston for her husband’s birthday and completed in June 2022.’
Further to this, the idea for a piece for harpsichord and two cellos was engendered by a trip to Menindee Lakes in the far West of NSW (the Outback), which had recently received flood-waters from Queensland via the Darling River. It was fascinating to observe two fast-moving bodies of water of different colours – one green, one brown – not merging but running parallel. River Red-gums were up to their waists in water (normally their roots are visible), catching branches and debris in eddies that indicated the dangers beneath the surface calm.
I asked Ann to imagine a piece where two cellos represented the separate streams of water, the harpsichord the rapidly moving, chaotic and dangerous world beneath. In this way the piece is for my family (husband Paul, a doctor with the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the reason we know the Outback), Angus Ryan our son, and Lucy his wife).
In 2023, when an opportunity to present a program for harpsichord and square piano came about, I asked Ann to adapt Outback River further for this instrumentation. As a result, the long lines of the cellos have become somewhat broken up and elaborated.
Leonardo Coral (Mexico)
‘Tocatta’ was composed in 2016 and is dedicated to Michael Tsalka and Diana Weston. First I imagined a rhythmic and strong impulse, then in a natural way, I developed it like a harsh dialogue that becomes counterpoint. I also designed a cantabile section for the second part of the piece, and then returned to the quarrel,’
Nicholas Smith (England)
‘Brushstrokes, an application of ink or paint to paper or canvas, many fibres acting both in and out of communion: a solid mass dipped in liquid to create marks both fluid and fixed, bigger and smaller marks, piled up with skill and difference into something so much larger; an image, a word, sometimes both once completed, fixed in time, space and essence while free and floating in interpretations and emotional response; a balance of solid and liquid, of small parts in a greater design.’
Violeta Dinescu (Romania/Germany)
‘I composed Variazioni alla Vanhal for square piano and harpsichord for the wonderful musicians Diana Weston and Michael Tsalka. When I was asked to write a new piece, to be played together with the music of the composer of Czech origin Johann Baptist Vanhal (1739-1813), I was very happy to discover the characteristic sonorities of this composer.
I decided to take the first four-hand Sonata, Op. 32 of Vanhal as a musical texture reference for my new composition, also the idea of variation.
An important aspect is who I am composing for. I was impressed when I heard Michael Tsalka play and I discovered the natural way he switches from one instrument to another. He uses techniques characteristic of the harpsichord instrument, when he interprets music on the piano and thus creates a spectral world of unheard-of colors playing the piano…
I have woven elements from Vanhal’s Sonata I into a way in which they appear either like in a dream, in which you get closer and closer and recognize what at first barely appeared, or continuously transformed. The transformation is done in different degrees of contrasts, in such a way that a hierarchy of surprises is created, which make you imagine the dream again, more precisely you are in a new state of dreaming. We can imagine a system of mirrors, which reflects, multiplies, transforms the material into a continuous change process. The musicians are invited to discover for themselves ways of creating sound spaces, as in an imaginary choreography, where dream states intertwine and overlap.
The musicians have the freedom to choose their parts that correspond either with characteristics of character, or with contrasts in technique or expression. It can be created in this way every time along a new narrative or musical thread.’
Violeta Dinescu
BIOGRAPHY: Michael Tsalka 2023
Michael Tsalka is currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the School of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Salzburg.
As a pianist and Early Keyboard performer, he has won numerous prizes in Europe, Asia, North America and Latin America. He is a versatile musician, who performs repertoire from the early Baroque era to our days. He was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel. After studies in Israel, Germany and Italy, he graduated in 2008 from Temple University (U.S.A) with a D.M.A. in Piano Performance and an M.M. in Early Keyboard Performance and Chamber Music.
Prof. Tsalka maintains a busy concert schedule, performing around 110 concerts a year worldwide. Recent engagements included Hall of Central Harmony in Beijing Forbidden City, Bellas Artes Theater in Mexico City, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, St. Denis Festival in Paris, Beethoven House in Bonn, Tokyo’s City Opera, National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Volksbühne in Berlin, the Jerusalem Music Centre, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the ElbPhilharmonie in Hamburg, plus live performances for radio/television stations around the globe (Sydney, Chicago, Buenos Aires, Berlin, Munich, Helsinki, Brussels, Geneva, and London.
Together with musicologist Dr. Angélica Minero Escobar, he has prepared a critical edition of Daniel Gottlob Türk’s 30 keyboard sonatas for Artaria Editions in New Zealand.
He has recorded 30 critically acclaimed CDs for NAXOS, Grand Piano, Paladino, Brilliant Classics, IMI, Sheva Collection, Wirripang, and Ljud & Bild. Circa 65 contemporary compositions (which he premiered) were dedicated to him by composers from all over the world.
Dr. Tsalka has directed multiple festivals in China, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Finland. From 2002-2008, he taught at the Esther Boyer College of Music in Philadelphia. From 2009-2014, he taught at the Escuela Superior de Música, National Center for the Arts in Mexico City, and at Lilla Akademien, Stockholm. He has been an artist in residence at the NCMA in New Zealand (2018, 2020), and has presented over 145 master classes in academic institutions in all continents.
Thanks to
St John’s College in the grounds of Sydney University
Narrow Fifth, Bathurst for piano maintenance
Carey Beebe Harpsichords for harpsichord maintenance
David McIntosh, director Annual Glebe Music Festival
SNAP Printing, Castle Hill
Sounds on Safari for recording
Wirripang for publishing
The Vanhal Association
Mary Sambell, friend and colleague
Prof Michael Tsalka comes courtesy of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in Shenzhen
0411 375 821
Diana.thoroughbass@gmail.com