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Artist
Charles-Valentin Alkan
12+ albums
Classicalpianofrenchromanticclassique
about
Charles-Valentin Alkan (November 30 1813–March 29 1888) was a Jewish French composer and one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day. His compositions for solo piano include some of the most fiendishly difficult and physically demanding ever written, and performers who can master them are few and far between. At the height of his fame in the 1830s and 1840s he was, alongside his friends and colleagues Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, among the leading pianists in Paris, a city in which he spent virtually his entire life. Alkan earned many awards at the Conservatoire de Paris, which he entered before he was six. His career in the salons and concert halls of Paris was marked by his occasional long withdrawals from public performance, for personal reasons. Although he had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances in the Parisian artistic world, including Eugène Delacroix and George Sand, from 1848 he began to adopt a reclusive life style, while continuing with his compositions – virtually all of which are for the keyboard. During this period he published, among other works, his collections of large-scale studies in all the major keys (Op. 35) and all the minor keys (Op. 39). The latter includes his Symphony for Solo Piano (Op. 39, nos. 4–7) and Concerto for Solo Piano (Op. 39, nos. 8–10), which are often considered among his masterpieces and are of great musical and technical complexity. Alkan emerged from self-imposed retirement in the 1870s to give a series of recitals
top songs
1
25 Preludes dans tous les tons majeurs et mineurs, Op. 31: No. 8 La chanson de la folle au bord de la mer: Lentement
10,4512Recueil de chants, Op. 65: No. 6, Barcarolle
9,5093Premier Nocturne, Op. 22
9,214448 Esquisses, Op. 63, Book 1: No. 1, La vision
7,1265Sonate de concert en mi majeur pour violoncelle et piano, Op. 47: III. Adagio
3,5516Scherzo diabolico, Op. 39, No. 3
2,56773 Grandes etudes, Op. 76: III. Mains reunis
2,4978Nocturne in B major, op. 22
2,407925 Preludes dans tous les tons majeurs et mineurs, Op. 31: No. 12 Le temps qui n'est plus: Andante
2,2311048 Esquisses, Op. 63, Book 4: No. 42, Petit air a 5 voix
2,109albums
ALKAN: Preludes, Op. 31
Alkan: Esquisses (49 Sketches), Op. 63
Alkan: Piano Works
ALKAN: The Railway / Preludes / Etudes / Esquisses
ALKAN: Etudes, Opp. 12 and 76
Chopin & Alkan: Sonates pour violoncelle et piano, Op. 65 & Op. 47
ALKAN: Esquisses, Op. 63
Alkan: 12 Etudes, Op. 35 / Le Festin D'Esope / Scherzo Diabolico
Alkan: 12 Etudes, Op.39
Alkan: 11 Pièces dans le style religieux, Op. 72, Étude Alla-Barbaro
Alkan: Complete Recueils de Chants, Volume Two
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Alkan: Le festin d'ésope, Vol. 2