RIP Aurèle Nicolet

[Roslynmuse]

The Swiss flautist Aurèle Nicolet has died at the age of 90. I associate his name with my first acquaintance with the Karl Richter recordings of the Bach Brandenburg Concertos and numerous other DG Archiv recordings; I hadn't realised he'd commissioned and premiered much new music too.

[doversoul1]

The Swiss flautist Aurèle Nicolet has died at the age of 90. I associate his name with my first acquaintance with the Karl Richter recordings of the Bach Brandenburg Concertos and numerous other DG Archiv recordings; I hadn't realised he'd commissioned and premiered much new music too.

In my youth I prided myself in knowing Nicolet when the whole world (so it seemed to me then) was admiring J-P Rampal. Happy days.

R.I.P.

[Tony Halstead]

In my youth I prided myself in knowing Nicolet when the whole world (so it seemed to me then) was admiring J-P Rampal. Happy days.

R.I.P.

When I was at music college ( RMCM) in the early 1960s and being tutored in wind ensemble playing by the great Geoffrey Gilbert, it was he who told me that Nicolet was principal flute in the Berlin Philharmonic, and so could be heard on many of the DGG Karajan recordings of the time.
I was subsequently 'bowled over' when in 1985 I was asked to be the 'official' piano accompanist at a BFS event at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London celebrating the Marcel Moyse centenary. With only about 20 minutes rehearsal for each player I accompanied ( in no particular order either alphabetically or 'of merit') Aurele Nicolet, Peter-Lukas Graf, William Bennett, Charles Dagninon, Edward Beckett, Susan Milan and Michel Debost.
I seem to remember that Monsieur Nicolet played a very tricky piece by Enesco and I wished at the time that we had more time to rehearse it! I also remember that he had a wonderfully varied 'palette'of sound, from the merest whisper of tone to a very full-blooded and almost 'brassy' tone in the flute's low register.
RIP
Aurèle Nicolet

[BBMmk2]

How sad. I loved his playing of Bach, hmm flute sonatas, I think?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7m72TJlzaI

[Dave2002]

Very sad. Earlier he was one of my flute heroes, with a lovely tone. I didn't reaiise that he'd been in the BPO.
Flute players can produce different types of sound, though I don't always know quite how they do it. Maybe they don't always either. Some perhaps only have one basic type of tone, while others may be able to vary their sound. Sometimes one hears a player who really has a distinctive and lovely sound. I think Nicolet was one of those.

RIP
Aurèle Nicolet