Charles-Valentin Alkan

Charles-Valentin Alkan (November 30 1813–March 29 1888) was a French composer and one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day. His compositions for solo piano are among the most fiendishly difficult ever written and are relatively rarely performed.

Music

Like Chopin, Alkan wrote almost exclusively for the piano. His music requires a dazzling and almost inhuman virtuosity to perform. One of his pieces most often heard today is the bizarre Marche funebre sulla morte d'un papagallo (Funeral march for a parrot), for three oboes, bassoon and voices, which is one of his few non-piano works to survive. Other notable compositions include the Grande Sonate Les Quatre Ages (opus 33), depicting the Four Ages of Man, and the two sets of etudes in all the major and minor keys (opus 35 in the major and opus 39 in the minor). These easily exceed even the Transcendental Etudes of Liszt in scale and difficulty. Numbers eight, nine and ten of opus 39 together form the Concerto for Solo Piano, which takes nearly an hour to play and presents a great challenge to the performer. Number four, five, six and seven together constitute the Symphony for Solo Piano. He also wrote a set of variations Aesop's Feast and a programmatic piece Le Chemin de fer (1844) which may be the earliest composition giving a musical picture of a railroad. His chamber music compositions include a violin sonata, a cello sonata, and a piano trio.

Related Topics:
Funeral march - Oboe - Bassoon - Etude - Transcendental Etudes - 1844

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Musically, many of his ideas were unconventional, even innovative. Some of his multi-movement compositions show "progressive tonality" which would have been familiar to Carl Nielsen (for example, the first chamber concerto begins in A minor and ends in E major). He was rigorous in avoiding enharmonic spelling, occasionally modulating to keys containing double-sharps or double-flats, to the annoyance of pianists who are forced to deal with aberrations such as distant keys such as E# major and occasional triple-sharps.

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Alkan seems to have had few followers. One composer who does appear to continue Alkan's direction is Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, although Sorabji claimed that his model was Ferruccio Busoni. (Sorabji did, however, promote Alkan's music in his reviews and criticism, and composed a work with a movement "Quasi Alkan".) Alkan had admirers, among them Busoni and Anton Rubinstein, who dedicated a concerto to him. Debussy and Ravel both studied his music under teachers who knew Alkan personally and noted their debt to his examples.

Related Topics:
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji - Ferruccio Busoni - Anton Rubinstein

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For many years after his death, Alkan's work was almost completely forgotten. There has been a steady revival of interest in his compositions over the course of the twentieth century. His works have been recorded by Egon Petri, John Ogdon, Raymond Lewenthal, Ronald Smith and most recently Jack Gibbons, Marc-André Hamelin, Bernard Ringeissen, and Stephanie McCallum among others. He is buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris.

Related Topics:
Egon Petri - John Ogdon - Raymond Lewenthal - Ronald Smith - Jack Gibbons - Marc-André Hamelin - Stephanie McCallum - Cimetière de Montmartre

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Notable compositions

• Op. 10 Two Concertos da camera
• No. 1 Concerto da Camera in A minor
• No. 2 Concerto da Camera in C-sharp minor
• Op. 12, Trois Improvisations dans le style brilliant
• Op. 13, Trois Andantes romantiques
• Op. 15, Trois Morceaux dans le genre pathétique
• Op. 16, Tre Scherzi
• Op. 25, Alleluia
• Op. 26, Marche funèbre
• Op. 31, Préludes
• Op. 33, Grande Sonate Les Quatre Ages
• Op. 35, Douze Études dans tous les tons majeurs
• Op. 39, Douze Études dans tous les tons mineurs
• No. 1 Comme le vent
• Nos. 4-7 Symphony for solo piano
• Nos. 8-9 Concerto for solo piano
• Op. 45, Salut, cendre de pauvre!
• Op. 52, Super flumina Babylonis (Paraphrase of Psalm CXXXVII)
• Op. 61, Sonatine
• Op. 63, Forty-eight Esquisses
• Op. 69, Impromptu sur le Chorale de Luther
• Op. 76, Trois Grande Études for piano
• Fantaisie in A-flat major for the left hand
• Introduction, Variations and Finale in D major for the right hand
• Mouvement semblable et perpetuel (Rondo-Toccata) in C minor for hands reunited