Alkan: The Railway / Preludes / Etudes / Esquisses

Martin

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Cat No: 8553434

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099443425

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: ALKAN

Description
Charles-ValentinAlkan (1813 -1888) PreludesOp. 31, Nos. 1, 13, 17 & 25 ImpromptusOp. 32 (II), Nos. 1 & 3 Lechemin de fer, Op. 27 EtudesOp. 35, Nos. 6, 8 & 12 Marche funebre: Andantino, Op.39, No.5 EsquissesOp. 63, Nos. 1- 5, 8, 10, 13, 16, 18, 21, 32, 38, 43 & 48 Scherzodiabolico, Op. 39, No.3 The name of Alkan wasonce joined with Chopin, Liszt, Schumann and Brahms, as one of the greatestcomposers for the piano in the age that followed the death of Beethoven. At thesame time he won praise as one of the most remarkable pianists of his time.Nevertheless much of his life was spent in eccentric obscurity, withdrawn fromsociety .In recent years there has been a revival of interest in his music, ledat the beginning of the twentieth century by Busoni and furthered by otherchampions. This interest has yet to result in any widespread attention to Alkanamong performers, for whom he often presents very considerable technicalproblems. Alkan was born Charles-ValentinMorhange, the eldest of the five children of Alkan Morhange, a music-teacherwhose forebears had settled in Paris in the Marais, the Jewish quarter of thecity. He and his brothers chose to use their father's name in preference to thefamily name and all were to make their careers in music in one way or another.Charles-Valentin Alkan made his first concert appearance as a violinist at theage of seven in 1821. At the Conservatoire he was a piano pupil of JosephZimmermann, future father-in-law of Gounod and teacher of Bizet and CesarFranck, and won considerable success as a child prodigy, exciting even theadmiration of Cherubini. He enjoyed the particular favour of aristocraticpatrons, including the Princess de la Moskova and other members of the Russiancircle in Paris, his success prejudicedto his momentary chagrin by the first appearance of the young Liszt. WithChopin he felt greater affinity. The two had much in common, and both were tobecome respected in t Paris as private teachers to the aristocracy, althoughChopin never isolated himself from society , as Alkan was to, and his musicalinnovations were to take another form. In the 1830s, hisstudies at the Conservatoire now concluded with great distinction, Alkansettled at an apartment in the Place d'Orleans. He continued to busy himself asa composer, chiefly for the piano, pub1ishing music that Schumann, indulging inhis early musical journalism, found false and unnatural, these the least of hisstrictures. Certainly Schumann himself would have found insuperable technicaldifficulties in the Troi5 Grandes Etude5 of 1838, one for left hand, onefor right hand, and the third for both hands together. In March, 1838, after a seriesof concert appearances in Paris which had estab1ished him as a performer of the first rank,Alkan appeared in a recital with Chopin, before an enthusiastic audience. Thisseems to have been his last public concert for some six years, during which itwas rumoured that a possible affaire with a married woman had led t
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