Album insights
Jean Louis Nicodé, despite being unfamiliar to most classical music listeners, may ring a bell for some piano music aficionados. He is known for arranging Chopin's Allegro de concert op. 46 for piano and orchestra. This single arrangement brought him limited fame in 1880 when he published his adaptation of the entire first movement of Chopin's "rejected third piano concerto" for piano and orchestra. Nicodé inserted a developmental section after bar 206 consisting of transposed passages from Chopin and his own materials, expanding the movement from 280 to 393 bars and embellishing the piano part towards the end. Other arrangements of the Allegro de concert have been done by André Messager, Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, Australian Alan Kogosowski, and more recently, Austrian pianist Ingolf Wunder.
The French pianist Setrak recorded Nicodé's version of Chopin's Allegro de concert. Since the release of Nicodé's Faschingbilder in 1954, showcasing his skill as a melodist and orchestrator, only a handful of his orchestral works have been released on LP and CD with no recordings of Nicodé's piano works found by the author. Nevertheless, records and contemporary accounts reveal Nicodé as a remarkable musician deserving more recognition than he currently receives.
John Alexander Fuller Maitland, in his book "Masters of German Music" from 1894, mentions four composers who could continue the German musical hegemony established by Bach and Handel, namely Hans Sommer, Cyrill Kistler, Richard Strauss, and Jean Louis Nicodé. Educator and critic Eduard Hanslick, in a review on Richard Strauss's tone poem Don Juan, shared disdain for both Nicodé and Strauss, critiquing their focus on orchestration over creative substance.
Born into a German Huguenot family in 1853, Nicodé showed musical talent early on with violin and piano lessons from his father and organ training from a church organist. By age eight, he was studying under reputable musicians, eventually becoming the piano accompanist for renowned singers and embarking on a successful teaching and conducting career before retiring in 1900.
Nicodé's compositions, particularly the Six Phantasiestücke: Andenken an Robert Schumann, op. 6, present a blend of admiration and imitation for Robert Schumann's style. While impressive, these pieces echo Schumann so closely that they could be perceived as pastiches. Delving into Nicodé's Opus 18 reveals a departure from Schumann's influence, showcasing his own unique voice as a composer in variations and fugue over an original theme dedicated to Anton Rubinstein.
Nicodé's Opus 22, "Poësieen," further delves into his musical identity, drawing inspiration from various composers while maintaining a distinct musical persona. These compositions offer an engaging glimpse into Nicodé's artistic evolution, inviting listeners to appreciate his piano works as true expressions of musical craftsmanship.