A former student at Chetham’s Music School, Sarah Nicolls is an experimental pianist pushing innovation in piano performance. This can mean a lot of things but there was a very clear hint at what this concert would contain from seeing her piano on stage.
Experimental piano playing entails using the piano in a way that is not expected, such as plucking the piano strings, or hitting the frame with a mallet. Nicolls explained that she got an idea to re-model a piano in order to do this with greater ease. This type of piano playing goes back one hundred years, but really, there has been no change in the instrument to accommodate it. Nicolls took an Erard grand piano, built in 1900, removed the lid and placed it upright so it resembled a huge harp and adjusted the keyboard by 90 degrees in order to allow normal play.
Indeed, whilst having striking visual impact, the piano played as normal as any other, and thus her first composition started with a romantic style dramatic chord progression that was repeated, but then she added different bits and pieces – clothes pegs, magnets and who knows what else until the piano sounded quite different. At times it sounded like a set of African drums, othertimes it buzzed almost like a zither, and these various sounds, including the normal piano sounds, neatly layered over each other as if there were multiple instruments playing.
Nicolls presented this first piece with great humour, informing the audience that they were indeed allowed – and expected – to laugh as the piece progressed. She gave a very interesting and engaging commentary as the concert progressed, explaining why and how she is making this music with humour and anecdote. This made it more like a show than a formal concert. The music was accessible and was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience, which included a good number of young children.
Nicolls included two pieces by an early pioneer in extended piano technique, Henry Cowell. Both pieces – Aeolian Harp (1923) and The Banshee (1925) were written for string piano, which essentially was played by moving hands across and along the strings of a grand piano. In playing these pieces, Nicolls firmly place her own compositions on a par with Cowell, but also cleverly demonstrated how her physical restructuring of the piano allowed for such music to be played with greater ease and thus improved the performance of these pieces drastically. The fact that the sound board was projecting directly out to the audience also helped a great deal.
What Nicolls has done to the piano is nothing short of genius and should revolutionise alternative piano music. To that end, she is currently working to design a newer version that is lighter than the current model which is over 300 kilos in weight, frame included.
While Nicolls performed music that was easy to listen to and very accessible it was clear that the simplicity of some of her music was not an indication of lack of depth. Her final two compositions were very touching and showcased the potential of this new instrument.
The second of these was called 'Incessant Rain' and an interesting soundscape was created using loops. This provided a warm and beautiful atmosphere.
The first was from her album Twelve Years which is about climate change. This included loops, pre-recorded clips and spoken word alongside the live performance. 'Dead Safe' included spoken text from a speech by Greta Thunberg. It was a very impactful performance.
Nicolls is a talented musician and composer, with a natural ability to engage audience both through her charismatic personality and through her engaging music. By sheer chance, this music is also very engaging to watch – at times she looked like she was weaving a huge tapestry, creating physical art.
Although this type of music has been experimented with over the past 100 years, Nicolls is taking bold and innovative steps which really is driving the genre forward. It will be fascinating to watch where extended technique in piano will go in the near future.
Reviewer - Aaron Loughrey
on - 19/8/19
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