Concerto for harpsichord and strings, Op. 42

Being married to a highly accomplished practitioner of the instrument, Kalabis knew the harpsichord exceptionally well – its weaknesses as well as its virtues of clarity, precision and agility. He would have known above all that in writing for it he had to take into account the rapid decay of a note once it has been struck on the keyboard and the consequent difficulty in sustaining a slow-moving melodic line. Baroque composers had ways of compensating for that shortcoming, not the least of which was to add decorations to notes which would otherwise die out too soon. Another was to combine the harpsichord with strings, which do not have that problem and can offer a quite different kind of articulation.

Kalabis’s Concerto for harpsichord and strings – which was completed in 1975 and first performed by the composer’s wife Zuzana Ruzickova with the Camerata Zurich – adopts an interesting economy in relating the solo instrument with the others. In the opening Allegro leggiero the composer at first treats the strings in much the same way as the harpsichord, presenting them with sharply articulated, rhythmically vital detached notes which combine with the busy solo part to give an impression of compulsively restless animation. It is only occasionally that there are more sustained notes on the strings and only gradually that melodic lines are discreetly drawn over continuing harpsichord activity. Following a central climax, a melodious string passage provokes a dramatic solo episode before full-scale joint activity is resumed.

In the Andante, far from attempting to cast the soloist in a lyrical role, Kalabis awards the melodic interest largely to solo strings. The harpsichord’s initial response is a series of dry chords and, although it develops its own expressive commentary, the strings are the leading protagonists in a movement of extraordinary emotional intensity. Beginning in much the same restlessly animated spirit as the first movement, the closing Allegro vivo recalls in an extended middle section the textures of the Andante, with sustained string lines set against harpsichord counterpoints. In spite of another renewal of rhythmic activity, a mood of poetic contemplation prevails at the end.