Ernst Toch's early piano works are marked by his use of harmony and the way he plays with tonality, more than anything else. The pieces on this disc by
Christian Seibert all feature a theme or melody, but Toch frequently changes key or uses more than one key at once to cast a theme in a new light. The resulting music is angular and chromatic, but in a playful way, not jarringly, particularly in
Seibert's hands. The Capriccetti and Kleinstadtbilder have streamlined textures and feel intimately balletic, as if one or two dancers were acting out a tableau for each caprice or picture. Often Toch mixes moods as well as tonalities in these miniatures. The other works on the disc are only slightly more substantial in length and in texture, and are more abstract, more serious, in their disposition. The use of thematic material is most obvious in the Sonata, where it serves as an anchor, just as a particular technique anchors each of the etudes. The Burlesques, again, are more substantial than the opening miniatures, but they contain the same humor and picturesque expression. The third burlesque gives
Seibert a chance to be virtuosically showier, sounding as it does like hyperactive
Debussy.
Seibert has an impressive touch and control that allow the listener to immediately hear, understand, and enjoy all the contrasts in Toch's music.
Seibert proves that not all music from the 1920s and 1930s is intimidating.