Metropolis: The Piano Music of Joshua Nichols

Five Stars: An excellent disc that offers a fine introduction t o the multifaceted music of Joshua Nichols

The name of Joshua Daniel Nichols was new to me (as it is to the Fanfare Archive, I notice). Nichols studied at Belhaven, Mississippi College, and Florida Atlantic and Arizona Universities. His work includes a book on how to listen to music and producing The Cultured Mind podcast as well as a notable output of compositions.

Three different pianists give fiercely dedicated performances of Nichols’ fascinating scores. This music has grit, is serious, yet is well variegated and harmonically consistent. The first piece, Ballade (2020), is based on a five-note theme that exhibits something of a major/minor duality. Over its seven-minute span, the work explores much terrain, including one particularly turbulent passage the composer marked as “Murderous”. Most interesting to this listener, though, is the deliberate deconstruction of the theme towards the end. Jenny Lee (given as Jenny J. Lee in her biography, Jenny lee elsewhere on the disc and booklet) is a fine pianist, allowing the volatility of Nichols’ score to shine through (in this aspect, Nichols’ piece shows affinities with Scriabin). Lee also has a strong rhythmic sense that enlivens the more active moments; she is able to find timelessness, too, as the music quietens. This piece really does reward repeated listening, incidentally. It is rich in invention and very carefully constructed.

Playing with the idea of a “Moment musical,” Nichols’ Moments musicaux (2022) are three independent pensées. The first is “A great slide with a side of funk”. There are two “objectives”: to slide downwards (musically and registrally) and to, in the composer’s own words, to “funkify” the rhythm. We hear another side of Jenny Lee here, as there is humor aplenty; there is also legerdemain to die for. The second, “Resting with no Rest” deliberately avoids downbeats. Effectively, the piece floats, suspended somehow; its disjunct near-pointillist surface carries ethereal beauty. Lee is superb (her Webern must be wonderful); the finale, “Marching hazard” takes us back to that humorous space, this time with (to my ears at least) an Ivesian bent. When the music moves into imitative territory, lee hardens her tone effectively, underlining the sudden rigor of Nichols’ processes. (the composer describes this passage as a “nightmarish fughetta”).

The theme of the next piece is taken from Pavel Chesnokov’s choral work, Salvation is Created. Written in 2020, this set of variations is notable for how Nichols understands, captures and maintains the essence of Chesnokov’s original throughout the set. Usefully, the individual variations are separately tracked: the first takes it to a dark space (the composer describes this as “gnarled and twisted like an old tree”), embedding the theme within the texture. The second has the melody in the tenor register, speckled with pointillist stars (almost Messiaen-like at times; intriguingly, the composer refers to the flitting gestures as “like a flitting and fluttering bird”). Instead of just “Variation 3,” next up is “Variation 3 in Major” (we hear a major mode in the right hand); this variation is markedly ethereal in nature before “Variation 4: Elevation”: makes the Messiaen reference official in an actual (chordal) hommage. The fifth and final variation is simply marked “Quick” and features the theme in the bass in an ominous, almost “Dies irae”-like incarnation. Nichols’ rhythmic processes and dislocations are particularly interesting here. Pianist Daniel Linder brings hyper-sensitivity to Nichols’ score, and full understanding.

The “Metropolis Sonata” (2022) is played by the third pianist on this recording, Fanya Lin. She is a pianist of great sensibility: no forte or fortissimo is ever ugly. The first movement (“Metropolis”) describes a city “whose form is palindromic”: hence the use of palindrome in the. music. “Towering” chords are intended to evoke skyscrapers and the like. Lee captures the inherent nervous energy of the music well. This is not a frenetic energy, though. The marking is “Slow, like a fantasia or bad dream”. She ensures the tension underlies the slower, contrastive melodies, too. The first movement effectively bleeds into the second, “Meadow”. Imagery of grassy fields on a cool spring night is appropriate,” says the composer: glistening dew amid an all-embracing calm. There is something post-Debussian, perhaps, about some of the harmonic areas and how they manifest in small groups of notes. What is for sure is Lin’s mastery of piano tone; particularly impressive is how she keeps the piano tone in the upper registers at the higher dynamic markings. And she keeps what Nichols calls a “fervent romantic outburst” within the confines of the piece, while allowing the return of the mood of the opening to register fully. Finally, “Suburb,” with its innocent rondo theme. The arrival of a fugue comes as something of a surprise (it is brilliantly done by Lin) before music from the first movement returns in the coda. Technically, Lin has it all (particularly impressive left-hand bass staccato, but her staccato generally is excellent: I imagine she could perform the Mephistophelean side of Liszt well).

Finally, pianist David Linder in the Petit Moments musicaux, a sequence of vignettes, or, as the composer would have it, little games. The longest is 1”19, but even within that Ncihols can take us to unexpected profundity (No. 2, Largo). The third, marked “Capricious,” is like a latter-day C. P. E. Bach in its unpredictable toccata energy, while the fourth’s longing is marked by a disconcerting core of emptiness. The marking of “Jovial” could be ironic as it comprises successions of granitic chords that eventually melt into downward arpeggisations. The melting, gently stirring penultimate piece is gloriously played by Linder, the combination of his ear for sonority and his clearly expert pedalling resulting in a magificent kaleidoscope of sound. The nervously jumping final Presto is punctated by acents that have an edge of ice in this recording.

The piano recording itself is simply fabulous throughout. No details are given regarding venues and dates, but Wiley Ross (engineering, editing, mastering, mixing) has done a fine job in offering a consistency of excellence here Nichols himself is the Producer.

An excellent disc that offers a fine introduction t o the multifaceted music of Joshua Nichols. Recommended. Colin Clarke