A recently issued CD - "Last Dance". Michael Tsalka and Diana Weston perform works from J.C.F.Bach to contemporary music on square piano and harpsichord

 

Keyboard artists Diana Weston and Michael Tsalka have recently recorded a second disc of classical and contemporary works for square piano and harpsichord on the Wirripang Media label. And, as in "Full Moon" (Wirripang Media, February, 2024), their previous joint recording, the artists offer the listener several works for 4 hands, solo pieces, earlier and contemporary repertoire and works by Australian composers. 

 

The disc's opening work is Sonata in A major for 4 hands by Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-1795), the lesser-known third of Johann Sebastian Bach’s four composing sons, the 16th of his twenty children. Like his brothers and father, J.C.F.Bach was known as a virtuoso keyboard player. Having spent time in London, where he was exposed to the music of Mozart and the burgeoning Classical style, he then brought back a fortepiano with him to Germany, meaning that one could assume that his chamber music from that time onwards might be intended for the fortepiano rather than the harpsichord. Performing Friedrich's Sonata in A major, Tsalka and Weston present hearty dialogue in the bold, sparkling Allegro movement and in the bonheur of the following Allegretto, the artists' playing testifying to Friedrich's reputed congenial nature, as heard throughout this charming sonata.

 

The music of Johann Baptist Vaňhal (1739-1813), whose prodigious gifts took him from rural Bohemia to the very top of the musical world in 18th-century Vienna, has fallen into relative obscurity. Indeed, Vanhal is a shadowy figure; only part of his vast output of music has been satisfactorily evaluated or even catalogued. (Michael Tsalka, however, brought renewed attention to the composer's fine keyboard writing in his recording of Vaňhal's Keyboard Capriccios (Grand Piano, 2015.) In the late 1770s, Vaňhal redirected his attention from composing symphonies and string quartets to writing much music for- and with keyboard, catering to the changing musical tastes of the Viennese public and enjoying the new opportunities offered by the fledgling Viennese music publishing industry. Of the two Op.32 Sonatas for piano 4 hands, we hear Tsalka and Weston's performance of Sonata No.1 in F major, a work highlighting the character of the square piano and the joy of house music. The sonata abounds in a sense of well-being and affection, also displaying the polish and élan of Vaňhal's music, its depth and whimsy, the latter apparent in the syncopated rhythmic play of the Allegro. 

 

Still within the domain of domestic music for 4 hands, the artists play L van Beethoven's Variations on a Theme by Count Grafen von Waldstein, a piece from the composer's last days in Bonn (a work  generally overlooked by Beethoven scholars!) Indeed, the theme-and- variations form plays an important role throughout Beethoven’s writing. Performing the piece on square piano, Weston and Tsalka give the stage to its major-minor duality, its colourful offering of pianistic writing and its variety of moods and gestures. Interestingly, we hear Beethoven trying out new and quite daring feats. Tsalka and Weston address the inventiveness and richness of this decidedly extravagant piece with panache, entertaining the listener with the spontaneity of quick-change artists.

 

Moving into the 21st century, we hear Prof. Tsalka's performance of "Brushstrokes" by Nicholas Smith (b.1934 UK, now residing in China), premiered by Tsalka in Ningbo, China in April 2024. Played on piano forte, it invites the listener to luxuriate in just over two minutes of richly mellifluous Romantic-style piano music. Dedicated by Spanish pianist/composer Joan Josep Gutiérrez Yzquierdo to Michael Tsalka, "Prelude and Fugue" was premiered by Tsalka at the Geelvinck Fortepiano Festival (Holland) in 2019. Inspired by Mendelssohn's writing, the Prelude (played on square piano) revisits the sweeping melodic outpouring and rich harmonic textures of the Romantic piano. Tsalka moves to the harpsichord for the ensuing Fugue - a single-subject, three-voiced, Blues-tinted fugue, its ambience suggesting "the swing of jazz", in the composer's words. Tsalka's intelligent performance calls attention to Gutiérrez Yzquierdo's resourceful and masterful writing in these two atypically paired movements.

 

The disc features two works of Aspasia Nasopoulou (b.1972 Greece, now residing in Holland), many of her works being inspired by literature, mythology and philosophy from different cultures. "Io" refers to the Greek tale of Io, who was transformed by Zeus into a calf. The harpsichord piece, commissioned in 2018 for Diana Weston, is a programme work, vigorous in its uncompromising style. Weston engages rigorously in its profusion of harpsichord textures to create a convincing musical observation of the story's sequence of events (described in the liner notes), the myth's dramatic storyline only finding peace when Io is eventually restored to her original human state. The work falls into eight sections, these correlating with the eight phases of the moon. The 3*1 Suite, consisting of three pieces (Tsalka, piano forte) takes inspiration from three Rubaiyat poems of Persian mathematician/philosopher Omar Khayyám (1048-1131). The model upon which Nasopoulou bases the three miniatures here is that of the 4-line Rabaiyats, a form also alluding to the content course of the poem. Tsalka's articulate and riveting playing of the mostly atonal pieces, each somewhat descriptive via developing motifs, each highly contemplative, takes the listener into both the mystery and universality of these ancient poems.

 

Violeta Dinescu (b. 1953, Romania, now residing in Germany) composed "Variazioni alla Vanhal" for Diana Weston and Michael Tsalka. Performed on harpsichord (Weston) and square piano (Tsalka), the work takes its inspiration from Vaňhal's Sonata No.1 in F major Op.32! and is largely improvisational. In its many sections, some mere fragments, Dinescu invites the artists to take the lead from motifs from Sonata No.1. This they do with verve, bold freedom and fantasy, displaying fine teamwork, taking on board the process described by Dinescu as "like a dream…continuously transformed…a hierarchy of surprises…every time along a new narrative of musical thread". 

 

And to the three works by Australian composers. Two works of Ann Carr-Boyd (b.Australia, 1938) featured in "Full Moon" were inspired by Australian nature scenes, as are her two works in "Last Dance". "Moonacres Farm", offering an alluring timbral meeting of piano forte (Tsalka) and harpsichord (Weston), draws the listener into its marvellously serene mood, the artists' performance in collusion with the composer's concept of it as "suggestive of the moon hovering over paddocks and trees". The two movements of "Outback River", a reworking of the piece commissioned by Diana Weston in 2022 (originally for harpsichord and two 'cellos) were inspired by the  surging Darling River in New South Wales when pervaded by floodwaters. Again, played on square and harpsichord, the artists give a bracing, involved and evocative performance of Carr-Boyd's rich canvas, its multilayering descriptive of the power, the vibrancy (and dangers) of sweeping floodwaters, the composer's meandering melodies and richly-fashioned textures never far removed from the tonal/modal setup.

 

"First Dance" (2015) by prolific Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin (b.Tashkent, 1957), is played by Diana Weston on piano forte. Written in honour of the wedding of Kats-Chernin's son, Weston's touching rendition of the piece strikes a personal note, its flowing, sentimental melodiousness woven throughout the piece with a trace of melancholy.

 

Dr. Weston (Sydney, Australia) and Prof. Tsalka (Israel-China) have performed and recorded together for some years. Recorded in July 2024 in Naremburn, Sydney, Australia, "Last Dance" commands sound quality that is real and articulate. The instruments played are an original square piano (piano forte) labelled Robertson, made by James Smith (Liverpool, c.1835) and restored by Jennifer Roberts and Marcelo Costi (Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia); and a Flemish reproduction harpsichord by Marc du Cornet. In this fitting follow-up to "Full Moon", Tsalka and Weston once again call attention to the varied (and extending) repertoire written for historic keyboards, the artists' outstanding renditions reflecting scrutinous probing into each work and style. 

 Diana Weston (Thorough Bass)

Michael Tsalka (Geelvinck Muziek Musea)