Alkan 1813-1888

[giles.enders]

Charles Henry Valentin Morhange - known as Alkan  Born  30 November 1813  Died 29 March 1888

It will be 200 hundred years since Alkan's birth on 30th November 1813. Some how his music has managed to cling to the fringe of the repertoire.  I mentioned this to a pianist friend who said 'So many notes and for what?'  I tend to agree, though I have just played the two Concerto da Camera which I think are worth a revival from time to time.

[thalbergmad]

There is much talk on piano forums about Alkan and I think that might be rather revealing, as my own ventures into his works gives me the vibe that it would only be of interest to pianists.

His "case" seems to have been taken up by the those who are satisfied with the conquering of absurd mechanical demands even though the music might be of average craft. The concerto for solo piano played by Hamelin that people rave about, is bordering on the boring to my ears.

My piano teacher commented about the amount of notes. Something along the lines of Chopin saying twice as much with half the notes, but that might have been with reference to Godowsky.

Thal

[eschiss1]

There seems to me quite a bit in Alkan that to the listener, if not to the pianist, is well worth the trouble for the (uneven, not always, to say redundantly and unnecessarily, since these words go without saying) - well, let's say that I hear much greater mystery and menace in the first movement of the Op.39 concerto than in what little I have so far heard by Thalberg and Kalkbrenner (yes, in harness with passages of a certain naïve-seeming joy even greater than that which one finds at the end of Beethoven's Op.111 variations, though not unbearable or probably more than seeming naiveté for all that),  that in the 49 Esquisses, the Cello sonata and the Chant "Fa" (I have not yet heard the complete recording of the Chants) for instance I hear inventiveness and forward thinking (sometimes, as in the Chant aforementioned which as often noted ends on an augmented chord A-C#-F - the F a held note throughout the piece, as implied by the title--- rather forward thinking) put to good use (or so, I'll admit, it seems to me.) I wouldn't be quite so quick to discard Alkan with yesterday's news, but my impressions are as ever only subjective and &c.  He was, however, a -far- better contrapuntist than Chopin (though Chopin was generally a better composer, that does not mean that I don't regret his deficiencies in that regard or believe them to be advantages in disguise, as I think some probably do; being able to do counterpoint, voice-leading, &c with great skill is an art worth having fully mastered in all its aspects, as far as I know, and the results show in music where one isn't writing a formal fugue (there are some in Alkan's works, of course- e.g. the development section of his -very- fine (imho) Sonata Les quatre Ages, Op.33's 2nd movement (Quasi-Faust) which I have in two or three recordings and which may possibly have been heard by, and even had some influence on, Liszt when he wrote his B minor sonata, though this seems a tenuous connection historically (not much -specific- evidence, I think...? Yes, I know the two composers met...) even if musically an easy one to follow...))

[Jonathan]

My own opinion of Alkan is his music is incredible. 
Not all of it is finger breakingly difficult - try the Esquisse, Op.63 for a start.  The first one (can't remember the title) is about ABRSM Grade 5.  Similarly, the "Man in Clogs" also from Op.63 is also about grade 5.  I have struggled with Le Festin D'Esope for years on and off also bits of the Symphony for solo piano.  The fact that i cannot play them does not detract from my pleasure of listening to them!
I would recommend starting with this recording of the Esquisse: http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67377&vw=dc

[giles.enders]

In view of the comments elsewhere on this forum, I am wondering what people feel about Hamelin's performances of Alkan?  Which pianists do they prefer to interpret his works?