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| Isabel Doraisamy © 2017 |
“Lady Huang’s Album” - music for one or two harpsichords - is a new and
unique recording presenting new music of living composers from Australia, Italy
and the Americas and performed by two renowned keyboard artists -
Australian-born Diana Weston and Israeli-born Michael Tsalka. Several of the works were written for them.
Four of the works on the recording are written for four hands (with Tsalka
playing the primo part in pieces written for two harpsichords), the first being
“Tilting at Windmills” (2017) by Australian composer and actress May Howlett
(b.1931), a work inspired by Cervantes’ tale of Don Quixote and his squire
Sancho Panza. Of the musical elements suggesting Howlett’s tongue-in-cheek but
endearing description of the characters, the Spanish aspect - harmonic and
rhythmic - is quite dominant (we even hear what a castanet effect). The
composer refers to “the Don’s majestic chords and the squire’s erratic scale
passages” in a colourful scene that alternates between gently appealing whimsy
and intensity. Another work, this time strongly Australian in subject is
“Crimson Rosella”, by musicologist/composer, broadcaster and writer Ann
Carr-Boyd (b.1938); this was commissioned by Diana Weston for herself and
Michael Tsalka, to be played on two harpsichords. Titled “in honour of one of
Australia’s most spectacular and beautiful birds”, the piece consists for four
sections, some of its material adapted from earlier works of Carr-Boyd. A mix
of tonal and atonal modes, I think I heard the bird’s wing flutterings and bird
call motifs. As the work progresses, the potpourri of dances and intensely
loaded chords seems to move away from the bird, or does Boyd-Carr perhaps aim
to describe the observer’s emotions on viewing the most splendid of parrots
with its dramatic, eye-catching markings? Composed in 2016 and dedicated to
Tsalka and Weston, “Toccata” by Mexican composer Leonardo Coral (b.1962), opens
with small, separate jagged motifs, creating a “harsh dialogue”, in the
composer’s own words. This is followed by a more pensive, introspective flowing
section before returning to the feisty, teasing energy-infused ideas of the first
section, thus to sign out of the masterful, quick-witted miniature. In
the last work for four hands is “3 Stukken a 4 main” (Three Pieces for Four
Hands) by Argentinian-born composer, arranger, harpsichordist and organist
Pablo Escande (b.1971), the first of the miniatures is a fiery, intense and
joyfully brash Capricho. In contrast, the middle piece titled “Naive” mixes
harpsichord registers in amiable, cantabile and wistful expression. The final
Toccata is invigorating and entertaining in its driving, unrelenting Latin
rhythms. I can only agree with Diana Weston, who claims that the skilfully
written work “demonstrates the power, colour and vibrancy of the harpsichord
supremely well.” In these works, the experience Weston and Tsalka have accrued
in performing together is a major factor in what can only be referred to as
uncompromising musical collaboration.
The pieces performed by Diana Weston here are all by Australian composers.
“Green Leaf for Elke” by prolific composer Elena Kats-Chernin (b. Uzbekistan,
1957) is based on the first movement of her award-winning ballet “Wild Swans”
(2002). Written in memory of opera director Elke Neidhardt, “Green Leaf
for Elke”, a gently arpeggiated “poem”, touching and reflective in its
tonal/modal mix, invites the listener to follow its relaxed harmonic process
and join its elegiac course. It is surely no coincidence that recorder player
Benjamin Thorn (b.1961), artistic director of the New England Bach Festival and
arranger of works by such composers as Strozzi, Castello and Caccini, chose
dance movements freely based on the same ground for “Underground Currents”
(2010). Referring to the pieces somewhat based on tonality as “creating
resonances of chaconnes and passacaglias”, Thorn’s writing comes across as improvisatory
in character as it frequently veers off course to the unexpected with the wink
of an eye. Originally from New Zealand, Diana Blom (b.1947) moved to Australia
in 1969. The four pieces of “Lady Huang’s Album” (1984), from which the disc
takes its name, are influenced by music of the ch’in, a seven-string long
Chinese zither. In the work, the composer, whose time in Hong Kong and Malaysia
has clearly provided the inspiration and background for writing in this style,
introduces playing techniques idiomatic to the ch’in and Chinese scales. Blom’s
writing is eloquent and sophisticated; Weston’s rendition of the four
miniatures, so convincingly indicative of the plucked instrument, is
descriptive, subtle and beguiling, enticing the listener into the evocative
world of Chinese music and art. A real treat! The piece was dedicated to Mrs.
Grace Wei Huang.
Eclectic in taste, an artist performing from the classical music tradition,
through jazzy and tango styles to his own compositions and improvisations,
Italian early keyboard player and award-winning composer Gabriele Toia (b.1967)
has dedicated “Variations on a Ground” (2016) to Michael Tsalka “as well as to
some of the composers who most influenced my music”, of whom he mentions Béla
Bartók, Ligeti, Chick Corea, Ennio Morricone and Alban Berg. The 13 variations
are based on a ciaccona bass from Vivaldi’s Concerto in G-minor RV 107. The
sections, some more harmonic in emphasis, others exploring the countless
textural possibilities offered by the harpsichord, form a rich kaleidoscope of
musical ideas. In playing that is not simply virtuosic but strategic,
sensitive, rich in detail, shapes and imagination, Tsalka inspires and moves as
he gives expression to the particular character and mood of each variation of this
outstanding piece of music. Harpsichordist and organist Max Yount (b.1938, USA)
is well also known as a teacher and composer. Michael Tsalka, whose connection
with Yount goes back several years, has premiered works of his. “Sonatine”
(2014) is an intense and complex piece, its tripartite construction concluding
with a rondo which is, in the composer’s words, “interspersed with jazzy
episodes”. Tsalka’s reading of it is sincere, objective and erudite but it is also
entertaining (we remain unaware of its original programmatic content) as its
personal appeal grows on one with listening.
Recorded in 2017 for the Wirripang Label, Australia, listeners will
appreciate the disc’s lively sound quality. Bristling with interest and
variety, Diana Weston and Michael Tsalka present its selection of contemporary
works in performance that is profound, discerning and insightful.
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