Nicodé Piano Music on Toccata

[4candles]

Some members will be delighted to hear that a series of recordings of piano music by Jean-Louis Nicodé is forthcoming from Toccata Classics. The first volume has just been added to their Pipeline page and includes the following, in first recordings:

• Piano Sonata, Op. 19
• Scherzo, Op. 19a
• Italienische Volkstänze und Lieder, Op. 13

Pianist: Muen Vanessa Chen

4c

[Alan Howe]

Interesting, but this is early Nicodé and probably unrepresentative of his mature style.

[4candles]

Still an unsung composer though! 

[Alan Howe]

Absolutely. It's just that the composer's main claim to fame rests on his later music, such as Das Meer and Gloria! (both never recorded).  Thanks for telling us about this upcoming recording, though.

[Alan Howe]

I have relocated the discussion of Nicodé's Gloria to the earlier thread on this subject.

[Alan Howe]

The Piano Sonata in F minor from 1879 is a major work - of that there is no doubt; and, at 38:31, it looks forward in scale to the grandiose works of Nicodé's full maturity. What I can't quite work out in my mind is where the composer belongs stylistically*. I think I was expecting something more radical-sounding than it actually is - maybe something along the lines of Draeseke's Sonata quasi Fantasia, Op.6. In fact what struck me was the work's relative conservatism, with its roots in late Beethoven and hints of composers such as Chopin, Schumann or Liszt. Nevertheless, it's a striking work, sonorously played and recorded on this CD. And the extensive liner notes by William Melton not only analyse the works on this recording, but also chronicle Nicodé's life and major compositions - a most invaluable source of information on this scandalously neglected late-romantic composer.

*I've actually just found this quote from Ateş Orga's review of an earlier recording of Nicodé's piano music:
His elder contemporary Felix Draeseke viewed him as "more conservative than radical ... a moderate progressive [rather] than a cacophonist." He was a solid tonalist, a complex polyphonist and a master orchestrator, with a keen sense of the epic.
https://www.classicalsource.com/cd/ein-liebesleben-simon-callaghan-plays-piano-music-by-jean-louis-nicode-hyperion/