Ahmet Alkan

Dong-Suk Kang, Yvan Chiffoleau, Olivier Gardon - Charles-Valentin Alkan: The Chamber Music (1992) Reissue 2008

Charles-Valentin Alkan - The Chamber Music (1992) Reissue 2008
Dong-Suk Kang, violin; Yvan Chiffoleau, cello; Olivier Gardon, piano

EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue&Log) ~ 304 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 189 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical | Label: Timpani | # 1C1139 | Time: 01:14:09

Alkan was counted in Busoni's pantheon of five romantics alongside Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. Brahms and Schumann are the references in the euphoric Grand Duo Concertant - nothing short of a 20 or so minute Sonata in three turbulent movements. This is a work of diving romance and if Alkan had stopped in the style of the first movement then we would have been able to 'place' Alkan. Instead we get a second movement that clamours in bass heavy capering for all the world like a picture of a Black Sabbath. As if to make ‘amends’ the finale is back to the helter-skelter tumble of vivacity we find in the first movement. This euphoria carries over into the Cello Sonata which is in four classically well-tailored movements. Alkan's originality or eccentricity (take your pick) returns for the Adagio which is part sentimental and part affecting. This perhaps offers a parallel with Joseph Holbrooke's chamber works in which sublime ideas and treatment suddenly find themselves up against kitsch music hall ditties. A wild saltarello with grand manner Hungarian gestures from the piano round out the picture.
Mark Viner - Charles-Valentin Alkan: Complete Piano Musok, Vol. 6 - Character Pieces and Grotesqueries (2023)

Mark Viner - Charles-Valentin Alkan: Complete Piano Musok, Vol. 6 - Character Pieces and Grotesqueries (2023)
XLD | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 281 Mb | Total time: 78:18 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Piano Classics | # PCL10275 | Recorded: 2018-2022

Mark Viner’s survey of the complete solo piano music of Alkan continues to turn up discoveries and reveal previously little-known or misunderstood sides of a protean figure in late French romanticism. Viner himself regards Alkan as ‘the most enigmatic figure in the history of music as a whole’.

Trio Alkan - Charles-Valentin Alkan: Chamber Music (2016)  Music

Posted by ArlegZ at Feb. 6, 2020
Trio Alkan - Charles-Valentin Alkan: Chamber Music (2016)

Trio Alkan - Charles-Valentin Alkan: Chamber Music (2016)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 271 Mb | Total time: 75:25 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Marco Polo / Naxos | 8.223383 | Recorded: 1991

Alkan’s chamber music deserves much more attention: It’s a crime that terrific works like his Sonate de concert for cello and piano have almost no chance to be heard. Naxos once again has raided the Marco Polo archives and resurrected this 1991 recording. There isn’t much competition available anymore, and only the 1992 Timpani recording has the same three works together in worthwhile performances. These pieces are all excellent chamber music, not to mention very difficult to play, and the Trio Alkan certainly is up to the challenge. These performers obviously appreciate the music in a way that brings out Alkan’s lyrical and whimsical qualities, which often are overlooked (or overpowered) in his piano works.
Dmitry Feofanov, Robert Stankovsky, Razumovsky Symphony Orchestra - Alkan: Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra (1998)

Dmitry Feofanov, Robert Stankovsky, Razumovsky Symphony Orchestra - Alkan: Piano Concerto, Op.39; Concerti da camera, Nos.1-3 (1998)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 198 Mb | Total time: 52:01 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Naxos | # 8.553702 | Recorded: 1995

The Alkan Piano Concerto is an orchestration by Karl Klindworth of the three Op. 39 Etudes referred to collectively by Alkan as 'Concerto' These are Etudes 8 to 10 of the Op. 39 set. In Alkan's lifetime the Concerto was never played complete and when it was played it was in excerpts. Thus the Portuguese virtuoso, Jose Vianna da Motta (whose symphony is available from PORTUGALSOM and has been reviewed on this site and whose piano concerto is soon to be released by Hyperion) performed the first movement in Berlin in 1903. Think of the orchestral treatment as an extension of Tchaikovsky's early symphonies (particularly No. 3) and add in a perpetually strenuous piano part typical of the high-flown romantic genre - rolling pearly runs of notes, clangorous heroism and gently reflective soliloquising.
Bernard Ringeissen - Charles-Valentin Alkan: Symphonie; Overture; Two Études, Op. 39 (1990)

Bernard Ringeissen - Charles-Valentin Alkan: Symphonie; Overture; Two Études, Op. 39 (1990)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 197 Mb | Total time: 61:51 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Marco Polo / Naxos | 8.223285 | Recorded: 1989

Charles-Valentin Alkan (November 30, 1813 - March 29, 1888), and his four brothers, all musicians, adopted their father's first name as their surname. Alkan Morhange (1780-1855) was the proprietor of a music school in Paris, and he early recognized among the musical talents of his sons the singular ones of young Charles-Valentin. Consequently, at the age of five Alkan was enrolled in the Paris Conservatory of Music, the breeding ground of many outstanding musicians and composers in the Nineteenth Century. Alkan studied composition and piano, making his debut at 12 years of age performing his own compositions as well as those of others. He seemed a star ascendant. Before he was 20 he embarked on the first of two trips abroad (the second two years later), the only times he was ever to leave Paris in his lifetime.
Marc-André Hamelin - Alkan: Symphony For Solo Piano, Trois Morceaux Dans Le Genre Pathétique (2001)

Marc-André Hamelin - Alkan: Symphony For Solo Piano, Trois Morceaux Dans Le Genre Pathétique (2001)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 74:08 | 245 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | Catalog: CDA67218

Marc-Andre Hamelin's first solo Alkan recording (CDA66794) met with the most superlative critical reception imaginable (culminating in Fanfare magazine's "one of the best releases of anything to have been made, a classic of the recorded era"). This follow-up proves to be no less spectacular. The disc is framed by two of the 'monster' works for which Alkan is notorious. The four movements of the Symphony for solo piano are taken from his magnum opus, the 12 Studies in the minor keys Op 39. This piece has become one of Alkan's best known but never has its finale (once described as a 'ride in hell') been so spectacularly thrown off.

Bruce Liu - Waves: Music by Rameau, Ravel, Alkan (2023)  Music

Posted by ArlegZ at Jan. 9, 2024
Bruce Liu - Waves: Music by Rameau, Ravel, Alkan (2023)

Bruce Liu - Waves: Music by Rameau, Ravel, Alkan (2023)
XLD | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 203 Mb | Total time: 61:16 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Deutsche Grammophon | # 486 4400 | Recorded: 2022

Victory at the 18th International Chopin Piano Competition in October 2021 turned Bruce Liu into a worldwide sensation. Deutsche Grammophon’s live album of his competition recordings was released to rave reviews the following month, and the Canadian-Chinese pianist pianist became an exclusive DG artist in March 2022. Now Bruce Liu, "a pianist with a captivating musical personality" (Financial Times), has recorded his highly anticipated debut studio album, spanning two centuries of French keyboard music.
Paul Wee - Charles-Valentin Alkan: Symphony for Solo Piano; Concerto for Solo Piano (2019)

Paul Wee - Charles-Valentin Alkan: Symphony for Solo Piano; Concerto for Solo Piano (2019)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 288 Mb | Total time: 78:32 | Scans included
Classical | Label: BIS ‎| BIS-SACD-2465 | Recorded: 2017, 2018

Charles-Valentin Alkan made his name as pianist in nineteenth-century Paris and seemed poised for a glittering career. But following a series of setbacks he withdrew into a life of relative seclusion, and as he receded from the public eye, so too did his music. It was never entirely forgotten, but it was not until the 1960s and 1970s that Alkan’s works began to emerge from obscurity. To quote the liner notes by Paul Wee, ‘Alkan’s music exhibits a formidable grasp of form and structure, a strong command of melody, a high sense of drama and an unprecedented exploitation of the capabilities of the piano.’
Marc-André Hamelin, Martyn Brabbins - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 7: Henselt & Alkan: Piano Concertos (1993)

Marc-André Hamelin, Martyn Brabbins, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 7: Adolph von Henselt & Charles-Valentin Alkan: Piano Concertos (1994)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 254 Mb | Total time: 69:56 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA66717 | Recorded: 1993

The coupling of works by Alkan and Henselt is not as arbitrary as might appear. Born six months apart, both enjoyed long lives and died within eighteen months of each other; both have been entirely overshadowed by their more illustrious contemporaries Liszt and Chopin (to the extent that they have been assigned to the footnotes of musical history), though both had an individual approach to the piano with a style as clearly defined and as idiosyncratic as their two peers; both were recluses, rarely playing their works in public; both were transcendent technicians, exploring the potential of their instrument in ways which were to influence other pianists and composers of piano music; both were eccentrics in their personal habits and lifestyles; both have been almost universally ignored by the majority of concert pianists; and neither of their names is known to the general music-loving public.
Marc-André Hamelin - Charles-Valentin Alkan: Concerto for Solo Piano (2007)

Marc-André Hamelin - Charles-Valentin Alkan: Concerto for Solo Piano (2007)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 204 Mb | Total time: 67:39 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | CDA67569 | Recorded: 2006

This is Marc-André Hamelin's second recording of the Alkan Concerto for Solo Piano (the first for Music & Arts dates from 1992) and he now trumps his previous ace with a performance of the Concerto of such brilliance and lucidity that one can only listen in awe and amazement.