Keyboard arrangements of Mozart’s compositions, ranging from one of his earliest minuets to his tribute to J.S. Bach, reveal the variety and fecundity of his...

Keyboard arrangements of Mozart’s compositions, ranging from one of his earliest minuets to his tribute to J.S. Bach, reveal the variety and fecundity of his imagination, not least in the inspired collection made by the great pianist Edwin Fischer, and in the excerpts from the playful Londoner Skizzenbuch. They are performed on two original and newly restored instruments, the Tangentenflügel – a transitional keyboard instrument with a unique tone quality that sounds like a harpsichord endowed with dynamics – and the pantalon square piano. This is the first recording ever made of a historical pantalon. Pianist and Early Keyboard performer MICHAEL TSALKA has won numerous international prizes. A versatile musician, he studied at Temple University under the guidance of Joyce Lindorff, Lambert Orkis and Harvey Wedeen. Other mentors include Dario di Rosa, Malcolm Bilson, David Shemer, Charles Rosen and Sandra Mangsen. Michael Tsalka maintains a busy concert schedule with recent performance highlights including Zhonghe Hall in the Forbidden City, Beijing; Palacio de Bellas Artes Theatre in Mexico City; The Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg; The Metropolitan Museum in New York; the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg; and Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He is currently head of the keyboard department at the Vanke Meisha Arts Academy (VMAA) in Shenzhen, China.

 

REVIEW:

 

Considering that probably most of the pieces included here are available in other recordings, this disc’s main interest may well be the instruments Tsalka selected for the recording. The tangent piano is not a rarity anymore. In the course of time, it has earned its place among the instruments representatives of historical performance practice use for the interpretation of keyboard music written in the second half of the 18th century, especially by composers from Germany and Austria. It has been involved in recordings of the oeuvre of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. In the booklet, Pooya Radbon writes about the tangent piano that "[its] design integrates elements of the harpsichord and clavichord into the fortepiano. The tangent piano’s strong, bright resonance is produced by pivotless bare wooden staves, striking from below relatively thin strings. The resulting tone quality is quite unique, like a harpsichord suddenly endowed with the ability of producing dynamics". Other attempts to save the harpsichord from being sidelined by the fortepiano were the addition of pedals to the traditional harpsichord, but these are far less convincing than the tangent piano. It is not known for sure that Mozart played the tangent piano, but he certainly knew one of its main builders, Franz Jakob Späth. Here Tsalka plays an original instrument, built around 1797 by Johann Wilhelm Berner, who seems to have worked for Späth. Whereas in the case of the fortepiano the use of an instrument of a much later date than the music is often problematic because of the changes in the building of the instrument, that is not relevant here, as the tangent piano probably has changed very little with time.

 

The other instrument is hardly ever used in recordings, and even many who have a special interest in historical keyboards, may not know it or heard it in recordings. Around 1700, the German violinist Pantaleon Hebenstreit developed a large dulcimer with a soundboard containing a combination of 200 gut and steel strings. These were probably played with hammers. Its sound was appreciated by music lovers, but it was a large beast of almost 270 cm long, and therefore hardly transportable. It inspired keyboard builders to make a keyboard which was easier to operate, lacking dampers but with regular iron and brass strings and several handstops. Pantalon was one of the names with which it was known. Most of such instruments had a rather narrow range, but the pantalon used in this recording, built around 1780 by Gottfried Maucher, has a compass of five octaves. This recording is claimed to be the first to feature a historic pantalon. However, I should mention here a recent three-disc set with music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, in which Pierre Goy plays a pantalon from 1776. Never mind, it is highly interesting to hear this kind of instrument, even though Mozart may never have played it. That said, I personally find the tangent piano much more satisfying, especially because its larger palette of colours. I certainly am not keen to listen to a pantalon for an hour or so. From that angle I wonder how frequently it is going to be used in recordings.

 

The reader will have gathered by now that this is a most intriguing recording. Mozart aficionados who don’t have some of the pieces in other recordings, have the opportunity to fill a couple of white spots in their collection. However, this disc will especially attract those who have a particular interest in historical (keyboard) instruments. It offers the opportunity to hear an instrument they may never have heard before and only have read about in books or encyclopedias. Michael Tsalka is a sensitive interpreter who knows exactly how to handle the two instruments, making sure that their respective qualities come fully to the fore. The better-known pieces, such as the Fantasy in f minor and the Adagio in b minor, show that as an interpreter, he can compete with anyone.

 

– MusicWeb International