Nicolas Hodges

Nicolas Hodges (born 1970, in London) is a pianist living in Germany.

Early years

Nicolas Hodges was born into a musical family. His mother sang in the BBC Singers, including under Boulez in works by Nono. His father was a keen amateur musician, and at one time a BBC Studio Manager. He was educated at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford, Winchester College, and the universities of Cambridge and Bristol.

Hodges sang as a treble in Christ Church Cathedral Choir and in that capacity recorded Bach Motets (on ASV) as well as performing in Benjamin Britten's ''War Requiem'' with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, in concert in the Royal Festival Hall and Birmingham Town Hall, as well as on the EMI recording of the work. He also performed with the choir in the Penderecki '' St Luke Passion'' in the BBC Proms, with the composer conducting: the concert was televised.

Hodges studied the piano with Robert Bottone at Winchester, and subsequently with Susan Bradshaw and Sulamita Aronovsky. He also took lessons with Yonty Solomon and, as a Lieder accompanist, with Geoffrey Parsons and Roger Vignoles; he studied composition at school with Michael Finnissy, and at University of Cambridge with Robin Holloway and Alexander Goehr. He also attended master classes at Dartington by Morton Feldman (1986) and Robert Saxton (1988).

Career

Hodges is known mainly as a player of contemporary music. Many composers have written works for Hodges to perform, notably Elliott Carter ( ''Dialogues'' for Piano and Orchestra, 2003), Salvatore Sciarrino, James Clarke, Michael Finnissy, Jeroen Speak, Konrad Boehmer, Harrison Birtwistle and Betsy Jolas.

Hodges still plays classical repertoire occasionally, bringing praise from critics. Andrew Clements wrote "There was the Op 77 Fantasie ..and the late A major sonata Op 101, which Hodges played with an intelligence and insight that suggests he ought to be heard more in the 19th-century repertoire." Of a performance of Beethoven's Bagatelles op. 126, Suzanne Yanko wrote that "his performance was engrossing... What we heard was an authoritative, assured and, at times, stunning rendition of the bagatelles that brought out their many contrasts."

Hodges has recorded music by many contemporary and recent composers. His first CD was of the complete piano works of Bill Hopkins, and he has also recorded music by John Adams, Michael Finnissy, Harrison Birtwistle, Beat Furrer, Justin Connolly, Brian Ferneyhough, Elliott Carter, Konrad Boehmer and many others.

Nicolas Hodges has been a member of Trio Accanto since 2013. Hodges performs in duo with the Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen, and with German pianist Michael Wendeberg with whom he has recorded Boulez's two books of ''Structures''.

Since April 2005 Hodges has been Professor of Piano at the Musikhochschule, Stuttgart.

Notable collaborations

Harrison Birtwistle

Hodges first met Birtwistle in 1987, at the Queen Elisabeth Hall foyer, as recounted in an interview with Tom Service:

He has more piano works of Birtwistle in his repertoire than any other pianist, and has recorded all but ''Responses''. Moreover Birtwistle has composed three works for Hodges to date, ''Gigue Machine'' (dedicated to Hodges) and ''Variations from the Golden Mountain'' for solo piano, as well as ''Intrada'' for piano and percussion (with Colin Currie).

Hodges has spoken of the details of their collaboration on Gigue Machine.

In his speech accepting a British Composer Award for ''Gigue Machine'' Birtwistle said of Hodges: " eis becoming like my Peter Pears."

Elliott Carter

Carter wrote Hodges the piano concerto Dialogues. The work was commissioned by the BBC and completed in 2003. It was first performed on 23 January 2004 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Southbank Centre, London, by Hodges with the London Sinfonietta under the conductor Oliver Knussen.

Pascal Dusapin

Hodges met Dusapin around 2002. Hodges premiered ''Jetzt Genau'', and subsequently ''Slackline'' for cello and piano, with Anssi Karttunen. He recorded the concerto ''A Quia'' for BIS, a recording Dusapin described as "the work's real premiere". Dusapin is writing Hodges a new cycle of solo pieces, ''Piano Works''.

Wolfgang Rihm

Hodges premiered the concerto ''Sotto Voce II'' and recorded it for CD. Subsequently, Rihm composed a new version of ''Zwei Linien'' for him, which he premiered and performed in the Berliner Philharmonie, Lucerne Festival and elsewhere. Trio Accanto has recorded ''Gegenstück'' on CD. Hodges has many other works by Rihm in his repertoire.

Of their collaboration, Hodges has written:

Rebecca Saunders

Rebecca Saunders and Hodges first met at Darmstadt in 2000. Hodges took part in the premiere of ''Chroma'' at Tate Modern in 2003. Saunders wrote the double concerto ''Miniata'' for Hodges, and subsequently ''Crimson'' for solo piano, ''Choler'' for two pianos (premiered and recorded with Rolf Hind), ''Shadow'' for solo piano, which was part of Hodges' Studies project. She has also composed a major trio entitled ''That Time'' for Trio Accanto, with Hodges at the piano.

In 2019, it was announced that the tenth Roche Commission would go to Rebecca Saunders. The resulting piano concerto ''to an utterance'' was premiered by Hodges with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra under Enno Poppe in the Lucerne Festival on 4 September 2021.

Salvatore Sciarrino

Pietro Misuraca has described Hodges as "currently ciarrino'sfavourite pianist". Sciarrino himself wrote of Hodges:

Hodges premiered Notturno No. 3, Notturno No. 4, Due Notturni Crudeli, and the piano concerto ''Il clima dopo Harry Partch''.

Personal life

Nicolas Hodges is married with four children.

He has confessed to being "a terrible record collector". He was a named supporter of the restoration by Arrow Films of Walerian Borowczyk's film Goto, l'île d'amour.

Bibliography

Interviews

* Stein, Tim: ''Pedalling furiously'', The Independent, 19 January 2004
* Service, Tom: ''Sharp Shooter'', The Guardian, 29 October 2004.
* Service, Tom: ''Expressivity and Critique in Lachenmanns Serynade'' in: Helmut Lachenmann Music with matches, edited by Dan Albertson, Contemporary Music Review 24 (2005), Vol. 1, pp. 77–88.
* Anderson, Colin: ''New Romantic'', International Piano, Sept/Oct 2006, pp. 44–47
* Clark, Andrew: ''Nicolas Hodges and the case for ‘difficult’ contemporary music'', The Financial Times, 17 January 2014
* Hamilton, Andy: ''To Boldly Go'', International Piano, May/June 2014, pp. 62–65
* ''Profile: Nicolas Hodges'', Tempo Volume 69, Issue 272 April 2015, pp. 100–102
* ''Q&A with British pianist Nicolas Hodges'', Pianist Magazine, 22 March 2018
* ''Shaping the future of the piano concerto'', Gramophone Online, 25 October 2018
* Nemecek, Robert: ''Ich bevorzuge die Freiheit'', Piano News (Issue 4, 2018), pp. 78–80

Texts by Hodges

* ''Wolfgang Rihm - zum 60. Geburtstag'', UE Musikblätter 2 (December 2011–May 2012), p. 25 (abridged German translation)
* ''Wolfgang Rihm's Sotto Voce 2 - thoughts after the premiere'', Klangspuren Newsletter 2007, expanded version (2009) booklet to Kairos CD 0012952KAI, pp. 4–5
* ''Peter Ablinger: Voices and Piano'', booklet to Kairos CD 0013082KAI, pp. 9–10
* A Volcano Viewed from Afar': The Music of Salvatore Sciarrino'', Tempo, New Series No. 194 (Oct., 1995), pp. 22-24
* ''Finella circa 1990'' ribute to Robin Holloway Tempo, New Series No. 226

Texts by others

* Mark Delaere: 'Gigue Machine and other Gigs: Birtwistle in Europe and Beyond' in Beard, David; Gloag, Kenneth; Jones, Nicholas (editors): Harrison Birtwistle Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2015.), p. 286.
* Jim Igor Kallenberg: "Intergalactic mutant music: The music of Christian Wolff and the politics of 1968. Christian Wolff in conversation with Jim Igor Kallenberg", Wien Modern 31: Sicherheit. 28.10.-30.11.2018. Essays (Festivalkatalog Band 2), pp. 90–95, esp. p. 91 on Trio Accanto and Wolff's Trio IX - Accanto.
* Pietro Misuraca: ''Salvatore Sciarrino - Itinierario di un alchimusico'', Undamaris Edizioni, Palermo, 2008, esp. pp. 109–110
* Richard Steinitz: ''Explosions in November - The first 33 years of Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival'', University of Huddersfield Press, 2011, esp. p. 75y
* "I want to create a wide range of spaces for listening..." - Rebecca Saunders in dialogue with Jörn-Peter Hiekel, in ''Roche Commissions 2021 - Rebecca Saunders'', Roche/Lucerne Festival, 2021, esp. pp. 26-27

External links

Nicolas Hodges' websiteGeneral Management Nicolas HodgesNicolas Hodges at AllMusicNicolas Hodges at Discogs
*Two reviews of Hodges' concerts in ''The Guardian''

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodges, Nicolas
1970 births
Living people
English composers
English classical pianists
Male classical pianists
People educated at Winchester College
Piano pedagogues
British music educators
State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart faculty
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century British male musicians