“American by birth, but living in Paris, Nicholas suffered from a respiratory illness”, said in a press release the artistic agency Jacques Thelen, stressing that Nicholas Angelich, virtuoso pianist, had not performed on stage since June 2021.
Nicholas Angelich: one of the most remarkable pianists of the last thirty years. Among other recognitions, he had received at the Victories of Classical Music, the Victory of the instrumental soloist of the year in 2013 and in 2019. The announcement of the death of the musician triggered a series of tributes. “Like your sound, you were luminous and tender at the same time (…) I will never again play a note of Brahms without being near you”French violinist Renaud Capuçon reacted on Twitter, saluting the memory of a “outstanding pianist” and a “sensitive, faithful, generous friend”.
Nicholas,
Like your sound, you were bright and tender at the same time.
You were an extraordinary pianist, a sensitive, faithful, generous friend.
Your sudden departure leaves us with a great void.
I’ll never play a Brahms note again without being near you.#NicholasAngelich pic.twitter.com/alaWF0tYAi— Renaud Capucon (@RCapucon) April 19, 2022
Born in the United States in 1970 into a family from Central Europe, he gave his first concert at the age of 7. He moved to Paris at the age of 13 to enter the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris and mainly follow the teaching of Aldo Ciccolini, then of so many other masters. Nicholas Angelich was a universally recognized and respected musician. From its origins, its multiple influences, it has made its strength. The meeting, the exchange, were his key words.
The exchange is inherent in the lives of musicians, he explained to us during a long interview in 2016, “notCould it be that the human experience of meeting, of travelling: leaving one’s home, one’s country, early enough to go and study elsewhere is very often the lot of young musicians”.
Angelich was a great interpreter of the piano works of Beethoven, Brahms and Liszt, but also of 20th century composers, including Messiaen, Stockhausen, Boulez and Bruno Mantovani. He had performed with many prestigious international orchestras, under the direction of great conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Sir Colin Davis, Kurt Masur or Myung-Whun Chung.
In the 2000s, Nicholas Angelich devoted many records to one of his benchmark composers, Brahms: from the Piano concertosNo. 1 and No. 2, to Variations Paganini, passing through the threesome and Quartets for piano and strings with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, lifelong accomplices and the Sonatas for violin and pianowith Renaud Capuçon alone.
He also recorded Beethoven’s 4&5 concertos with the Insula Orchestra and conductor Laurence Equilbey, his last release, in September 2018 and especially the complete Pilgrimage years by Liszt.