La Escondida! How does one explain the curious title of Michael Tsalka's
recently-issued disc of Schubert piano works? Here is the explanation:
Prof. Tsalka and his wife, musicologist Dr. Angélica Minero Escabar, were on a
concert tour of New Zealand in March 2020, when Covid broke out. Musician
friends invited them to stay at La Escondida (The Hidden/Concealed One),
their beautiful property on the South Island. Tsalka writes: "For the
first time in ages, I had the rare gift of time to spare…Cherished projects,
long forgotten or set aside by the rigours of our regimented schedules, found
their way back into my mind and soul." It was during his time at La
Escondida that the unique program for this disc crystallised in Tsalka's mind.
The idyllic time, spent there, surrounded by nature, music and good company, came to
an end in June 2020, when commercial flights finally resumed.
Franz Schubert's Originaltänze op. 9
(D 365) were the composer's first dance publication (although not Schubert’s first waltzes.) The 36 dances appeared in 1821,
published by Cappi & Diabelli. Schubert was 24. The title was probably
given by the publisher. Schubert might have labelled them Walzer, Ländler
or Deutsche Tänze (despite their origin being more Austrian than
German), those terms, in those days, being more-or-less interchangeable. The
original manuscript is lost, but it is known that some of the pieces were
written in 1818 (or earlier) and that nine of them (Nos. 5-13) were composed in
a single day! Probably the best-known, Trauerwalzer (No.2) (Sadness
Waltz) was (outrageously) published by Schott under Beethoven’s name in 1826,
only to reappear two years later with a new title, “Sehnsuchtswalzer”
(Waltz of Longing). What spring to mind on hearing these pieces are the
convivial pictures we have seen of Schubert at the piano, surrounded by friends
listening, dancing and joking, the kind of get-togethers that formed the basis
for the long tradition of Schubertiardes, one which continues to this very day.
Austrian lawyer, musician and writer Leopold von Sonnleithner, one of
Schubert’s closest friends and a passionate advocate of his music, wrote that
Schubert never danced at these soirées, but that, inspired by his friends'
enjoyment, he was always ready to sit down at the piano for hours and improvise
the most beautiful waltzes. On hearing a recording of Schubert's 36 Originaltänze
played on a Romantic historic fortepiano when visiting Berlin-based
historic keyboard builder Sebastian Niebler, Tsalka talks of the "curious,
hypnotic effect" of the work. In the disc's liner notes, he
mentions "the process of recreating on a modern Steinway the vibrancy and
naive grace of the Biedermeier salon…" I, myself, have always been
fascinated by miniature forms in music, or, rather, by how to play and listen to them, and the
effect resulting from how they stack up. Tsalka's reading of the 36 dances goes
far beyond addressing Schubert's extraordinary gift for melody, the composer's
attention to voice-leading and changes in texture, register, dynamics, metre
and rhythm. One hears how the artist probes each piece to connect with its
character, be it wistful, melancholy, yearning or majestic, or to address the dances
of a more folk-like nature, the hearty, weightier textures of those arising
from German peasant dances from the Middle Ages. Indeed, Ländler melodies were
fashionable in 18th- and 19th-century Vienna. With the first 13 dances all in
the key of A-flat major, monotony plays no part here. The only dance in a minor key
is No.22 in G-sharp minor, its first curious section wavering puzzlingly
between the major and minor modes, a paradox to be met again in later works of
Schubert. Tsalka's playing is clean, intimate, subtle and free of overuse of
the sustaining pedal. His lightness of touch allows for the tiniest filigree
details of this uncluttered style to be heard, as he flexes tempi and engages
in some discerning embellishment. Drawing the listener into the charm and magic
of these small jewels, each dance seems to whisk the listener's curiosity onto
the next.
Composed in September 1828 only weeks
before his death in November of the same year, Schubert's Sonata in B-flat
major D.960 was the last and lengthiest of the composer's final three piano
sonatas. An expansive, large-scale composition, it has constituted an ongoing
and evolving part of Prof. Tsalka's musical repertoire and thinking, from
performing it at his final doctoral recital in Philadelphia in 2008, to
playing it on various historic- and modern pianos, a "cross-fertilisation
process…a profound, familiar friend who keeps sharing new secrets and altering
one's worldview", in the artist's words. As to describing the strokes of
genius existing in this sonata and how they are dealt with by the artist, words
tend to become banal and inadequate. Always judiciously paced, always eloquent,
Tsalka's reading of it recreates the sonata's large canvas and its
"players", giving expression to the work's pianistic wellspring, to the composer's
exceptional melodic writing and, of course, to Schubert's vivid palette of
emotions. Never thick or over-pedalled, Tsalka's playing takes the listener
into the work's many layers, into the depths of the mind, into the final sum
and substance of Schubert's existence via the fragility, the otherworldliness,
the lyricism, the playfulness, the urgency and the buoyant optimism woven
through the final B-flat major Sonata.
Brilliant, short-lived and incredibly
prolific, Franz Schubert remains one of the most intriguing figures in music
history. While his music attracts a wide audience, some of his private life
remains shrouded in mystery; significant portions of his works have been
overlooked. Michael Tsalka has chosen two works that bookend Franz Schubert's
creative life. Inspired and inspiring, this disc makes for a profound listening
experience.
In late July 2025, Prof. Tsalka returned to
New Zealand's South Island to prepare for the recording sessions of this disc. La
Escondida was recorded on a Steinway grand piano on August 2nd 2025 at the
Nelson Centre for Musical Arts (New Zealand) for the RATTLE label. Michael Tsalka has dedicated the
disc to his teacher, the late Prof. Harvey Wedeen (Temple University) and to
Margarita and Miles Jackson, who hosted him and his wife at La
Escondida. The project was funded by the School of Music, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen CUHK-SZL.
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| Michael Tsalka (GVAGAIN Studio,Shenzhen) |
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