Alkan: A forgotten master?

[in_love_with_liszt]

I personally adore nearly all of Alkan's works, to me it sounds highly programatic, almost as if it were a soundtrack to some incredible movie. My favorite music to go to sleep to are his Esquisses, and I'm not sure that I could even pick a single  favorite piece of his that I like the most; his etudes in the major and minor keys are great, the sonata is amazing, and the 3rd mvt. of the trio in Gm I would concinder one of the most beautiful pieces of all time. All of his music has a certain finesse and distinctiveness to it that I wonder why it is so underplayed.

[jcromp78]

It is definately worth exploring most of his music. op 15 and op 76 etudes are pretty amazing also. The twelve etudes in minor keys are downright wild requiring explosive virtuosity almost constantly. Get the recording of these etudes by Jack Gibbons to see what I mean. For other pieces try Marc Andre Hamelin. Alkan is awesome to hear and to play (or attempt)

[IllBeBach]

I would really like to study and hear some of his music more.  I have of course read about him, and recently I've been playing a nocturne I downloaded online of his that is beautiful.  Thanks for the info!

[Max]

I think Alkan was one of the greatest Romantic composers....if only he had written a Piano Concerto...

[steve]

He wrote several: there are at least two concerti da camera (from op 10, from which a third concerto has apparently been pieced together from what notes remained) and the concerto for solo piano, which is formed from the 8th, 9th and 10th études from op 39, douze études dans les tons mineurs.

[joell12068]

Naxos has a very nice CD of all 3 Concerti da camara plus Karl Klindworth's arrangement of the first movement of Concerto - Op39 no8 - for piano and orchestra.

[in_love_with_liszt]

The solo concerto is awesome!   I especially like when the melody comes back in the "A tempo Con Brio" section, and all the repeated notes sound very accurately like the strings of an orchestra.....it's soooo cool. That is defintely a piece that amazes the heck out of me just from the awesome variety of sounds you're able to produce from a piano!

[faulty_damper]

It is definately worth exploring most of his music. op 15 and op 76 etudes are pretty amazing also. The twelve etudes in minor keys are downright wild requiring explosive virtuosity almost constantly. Get the recording of these etudes by Jack Gibbons to see what I mean. For other pieces try Marc Andre Hamelin. Alkan is awesome to hear and to play (or attempt)

Erm... Jack Gibbons and Alkan do not mix very well if the parts of his Symphony I heard were any indication to the rest of his pianistic ability.  I had to beg Shagdac to turn the CD off so I didn't have to listen to such "crap".  It was horrible in the first opening bars and it didn't improve much.  There was no phrasing and some phrases went on a bar longer than it should have.  The end of the first movement was anti-climactic and was petty and superficial where it should have been the opposite.

Marc-Andre Hamelin's recording (Hyperion label) is by far the best.  Just ask Comme le Vent.

Steven Osborne has recorded all of the Esquisses as well also from the same label and it is pretty good.

[Max]

O_O

I'll have to look out for those recordings...

Yeah Hamelin is my favourite performer of Alkan (and most other obscure composers..heh), some people like Ronald Smith, but it doesnt have the grandeur of Hamelins playing. Hamelin makes it sound easy, so you can concentrate on the music.

[Regulus Medtner]

Both Jack Gibbons (the ASV set of the op.39 etudes etc)and Ronald Smith are excellent Alkan performers.

[in_love_with_liszt]

Yeah I don't think Hamelin is a good pianist myself.

[cziffra777]

Yeah I don't think Hamelin is a good pianist myself.

He can certainly play the right notes, but I've always thought his playing was missing some important qualities. His playing comes off as too controlled.

[donjuan]

The solo concerto is awesome!   I especially like when the melody comes back in the "A tempo Con Brio" section, and all the repeated notes sound very accurately like the strings of an orchestra.....it's soooo cool. That is defintely a piece that amazes the heck out of me just from the awesome variety of sounds you're able to produce from a piano!

I was listening to the piece today and I was just thinking that very thought!!

[in_love_with_liszt]

I was listening to the piece today and I was just thinking that very thought!!

I don't know why Alkan notated that section "Quasi-tamburo" (like a drum). I honestly think it sounds like strings! *crosses out "tamburo" and writes "string."* There. All better!  

[Daevren]

Yes, Hamelins playing is too controlled and dry for some composers. But for Alkan it works out quite well.