Monsieur Charles-Valentin Alkan

[perprocrastinate]

I have an on/off obsession with this composer. Some days I can't stand his music, some days he's the only composer I can listen to.

I've noticed a lack of Alkan on this forum, so this is an attempt to stir up some discussion.

If you're an admirer of his music, what do you like about it? What don't you like about it?

Oh, and if you do like Alkan and you haven't entered into a total state of obsession with his music yet, take a look at these links:

Alkan Illustrated (some sort of video biography, narrated by many including Jack Gibbons)

Someone on YouTube who plays way too much Alkan for his own good

Some talk on Alkan, narrated by Raymond Lewenthal

[j_menz]

If you're an admirer of his music, what do you like about it? What don't you like about it?

Alkan is both an extraordinary melody writer, comparable to Chopin, but also an extraordinary writer for the piano, using it's resources to the very full and in ways that even today are challenging and fresh. His music is one of those rare instances of composition that change the way one thinks about the capabilities of the instrument. He has an enormous range of emotional content, from the amusing to the tragic, and such a varied approach to ways of writing for the piano.

What don't I like about him? That he's so bloody difficult (and in soooo may ways). Even when he's mechanically accessible, he is demanding of the very highest abilities to bring out his music.

Someone on YouTube who plays way too much Alkan for his own good

Such a thing is not possible. And in any case, he plays mostly other stuff. Love his In Futurum.

[emrysmerlin]

What I hate about Alkan:
1. The monstrous technical difficulty of his music
2. The lack of proper transition in some of his music

What I like about Alkan:
1. The monstrous technical difficulty of his music
2. Original voice
3. Lots of short pieces and occasional long pieces that are longer than enough
4. The climaxes in his works

[orangesodaking]

Hello. I have been an admirer of Alkan's music for a few years, and have played a few of his works, though none of the major works (yet!!)

I think he speaks with a freshness, and that's what appeals a lot to me. This freshness is partly because he isn't performed as much as the other Romantic era composers, but also because he had such an old-school outlook on music making coupled with the modern (in his day) advancements in compositional, musical, and technical abilities.

I feel he was a compositional genius on both the large and small level. Here is an excerpt from his massive concerto for solo piano that encompasses everything I love about him.

And on the smaller scale, here is one of his fantastic, mystical miniatures... The first of 49 in the massive set. He also wrote other wonderful sets of miniatures, such as the Preludes Op. 31.

In my opinion, his greatest "rather accessible" work is the Cello Sonata Op. 47.

[chopin2015]

Hello. I have been an admirer of Alkan's music for a few years, and have played a few of his works, though none of the major works (yet!!)

I think he speaks with a freshness, and that's what appeals a lot to me. This freshness is partly because he isn't performed as much as the other Romantic era composers, but also because he had such an old-school outlook on music making coupled with the modern (in his day) advancements in compositional, musical, and technical abilities.

I feel he was a compositional genius on both the large and small level. Here is an excerpt from his massive concerto for solo piano that encompasses everything I love about him.

And on the smaller scale, here is one of his fantastic, mystical miniatures... The first of 49 in the massive set. He also wrote other wonderful sets of miniatures, such as the Preludes Op. 31.

In my opinion, his greatest "rather accessible" work is the Cello Sonata Op. 47.

I love La vision!! Great!

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I've noticed a lack of Alkan on this forum, so this is an attempt to stir up some discussion.

What are you talking about?!

[perprocrastinate]

What are you talking about?!

It's true. Believe it.

[redrobin62]

I've been listening to the Grande Sonata 'Four Ages' recently. Man! Marc-Andre Hamelin's performance is stunning. I'm sure Liszt was aware of this piece and probably thought it to be one of the most difficult and musical pieces he'd ever heard. Would those ffff work on an 1832 Pleyel pianoforte? Probably had ladies scrambling out of the room!

[jlh]

I fell in love with that Sonate several months ago... and will be playing it this Sunday for a recital. 

[ahinton]

I've been listening to the Grande Sonata 'Four Ages' recently. Man! Marc-Andre Hamelin's performance is stunning. I'm sure Liszt was aware of this piece and probably thought it to be one of the most difficult and musical pieces he'd ever heard. Would those ffff work on an 1832 Pleyel pianoforte? Probably had ladies scrambling out of the room!

I've long wondered about certain of the demands made on pianist and pianos by Chopin, Liszt and especially Alkan, particularly during the three decades from 1830 to 1860. Even Chopin's Op. 10 Études put the Pleyels and Érards of the day through rather more than their paces and some of Liszt's Transcendental Studies and Sonata and Alkan's Opp. 35 & 39 seem to be calling for instruments of much sturdier construction and greater sustaining and projecting power than had been designed by that time.

Best,

Alistair

[j_menz]

I've long wondered about certain of the demands made on pianist and pianos by Chopin, Liszt and especially Alkan, particularly during the three decades from 1830 to 1860. Even Chopin's Op. 10 Études put the Pleyels and Érards of the day through rather more than their paces and some of Liszt's Transcendental Studies and Sonata and Alkan's Opp. 35 & 39 seem to be calling for instruments of much sturdier construction and greater sustaining and projecting power than had been designed by that time.

Surely the same is true of the demands Beethoven places on the instrument.

I suspect they were in fact sturdier than we allow.

[ahinton]

Surely the same is true of the demands Beethoven places on the instrument.

I suspect they were in fact sturdier than we allow.

It is indeed true of Beethoven's later work for keyboard, of course, but the sturdiness, projecting and sustaining power of those Érards, Pleyels et al to cope even with the Hammerklavier is open to question, so the ability of such instruments to cope with Alkan's Grande Sonate and solo concerto from p. 39 must surely be even more so...

Best,

Alistair

[j_menz]

It is indeed true of Beethoven's later work for keyboard, of course, but the sturdiness, projecting and sustaining power of those Érards, Pleyels et al to cope even with the Hammerklavier is open to question, so the ability of such instruments to cope with Alkan's Grande Sonate and solo concerto from p. 39 must surely be even more so...

Yet one of the contemporary accounts we have of Alkan playing in his later years is of him playing the Hammerklavier on his Érard; a complimentary account at that.  It says little about the projecting power of the instrument, it being played en chambre, but it appears to have otherwise been up to the job.

[chopin2015]

Alkan and I have the same Birthday!