Patrick Rucker’s essential introduction to Reicha (in his review of ‘Reicha Rediscovered, Vol 1’ – 11/17) emphasised his roles not only as composer but also as teacher and theorist. That inaugural disc interspersed a pair of sonatas with a sampling of some of his didactic music, including a taster of Op 97 in the form of its Introduction. The new disc immerses us in Reicha the pedagogue as it embarks on the first 13 of the 34 Études in Fugal Style … for the Use of Young Composers.

Rather than simply compile an anthology of contrapuntal exercises, Reicha accompanies each with an introductory prelude-style piece, in the manner of Op 97’s clear model, Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, or Hindemith’s Ludus tonalis. The preludes may be melancholy, as in the E minor No 1, or more effusive, as in the full-fledged (if hardly revelatory) variations of No 3. Like Bach, these preludes too become character pieces, often making use of canon, chaconne or dance rhythms. The feeling lingers, though, that Reicha is not possessed of Bach’s thematic imagination, and few of them stick in the mind or provoke one to wonder at any compositional sleight of hand.

Ilić argues persuasively for the variety of fugal approaches in these pieces but, again, there is little here of the sense of wonder at Bach’s ability, in the ‘48’, to present a compendious range of fugal types and styles, despite Reicha’s occasional idiosyncratic turn of harmony. Dynamic markings are sparse in the score and so too in the recording, which barely strays outside a range between mezzo-piano and mezzo-forte: a pity given the greater profile that might have been granted to the syncopated pedal points of the seventh prelude or the pecking repeated notes of the ninth fugue.

One can imagine Reicha’s students – who included Berlioz, Franck, Liszt and Gounod – finding these pieces invaluable as primers for their own contrapuntal studies. Despite Ilić’s zeal for this music, however, the modern listener may not find himself panting in anticipation for Nos 14 34 of these studies.