Charles-Valentin Alkan - Symphony for solo piano (Marc-André Hamelin)

Information

Composer: Charles-Valentin Alkan

• (01) Symphony for solo piano
• (05) Salut, cendre du pauvre!, Op. 45
• (06) Alleluia, Op. 25
• (07) Super flumina Babylonis "Paraphrase du Psaume 137", Op. 52
• (08) 3 Morceaux dans le genre pathétique, Op. 15

Marc-André Hamelin, piano
Date: 2001
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67218

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Review

Alkan’s Symphony for solo piano is far more difficult to bring off than Marc ­André Hamelin makes it sound. Not that it is by any means his most pyrotechnically extreme composition‚ but its first movement in particular is chunkily textured and stiff in construction‚ and it takes every ounce of Hamelin’s pianistic ingenuity to minimise its defects. A combination of restrained dynamics and volatile phrasing is the recipe‚ and this allows the outbursts on the final pages to crown the structure magnificently. The four movements grow in character‚ and Hamelin rises to their mounting technical challenges. He steamrollers through the scherzo‚ which is like an industrial stength version of the corresponding movement in Chopin’s Funeral March Sonata‚ and he rides the bucking bronco finale with astonishing ease. Alkan’s quirky individuality may be even more pronounced in his Concerto and his Grande Sonate (the latter brilliantly recorded by Hamelin on Hyperion CDA66794‚ 12/95)‚ but given this kind of advocacy the Symphony is certainly an exhilarating experience.

The shorter works on offer sum up the curious mixture of Lisztian rant‚ Brahmsian muscular sturdiness‚ early ­Romantic rhetoric and uninhibited experimentalism that Alkan’s detractors find so disconcerting and his supporters so compelling. In every instance Hamelin is a fluent and idiomatic advocate – supremely deft in the proto ­impressionistic flurries of Le vent‚ yet also thoughtful and exploratory in the later religious pieces‚ and alive to the possibilities of coloration even when the surface of the music seems to be unrelievedly grey.

Hyperion’s recording matches the high standards of all its Hamelin issues‚ and François Luguenot’s extensive booklet essay reproduces‚ and intelligently comments on‚ interesting contemporary critiques by Schumann and Liszt of Alkan’s shorter works.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:

ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****

http://www.classicalcdreview.com/alkan.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Alkan-Symphony-solo-piano-C/dp/B00005JJ3N

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Charles-Valentin Alkan (30 November 1813 – 29 March 1888) was a French composer and pianist. At the height of his fame in the 1830s and 1840s he was, alongside his friends and colleagues Chopin and Liszt, among the leading pianists in Paris, where he spent virtually his entire life. His music requires extreme technical virtuosity, reflecting his own abilities. Busoni ranked Alkan with Liszt, Chopin, Schumann and Brahms as one of the five greatest composers for the piano since Beethoven. For much of the 20th century, Alkan's work remained in obscurity, but from the 1960s onwards it was steadily revived.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-Valentin_Alkan

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Marc-André Hamelin (born September 5, 1961 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer. Hamelin is recognized worldwide for the originality and technical brilliance of his performances of the classic repertoire. He has made recordings of a wide variety of composers with the Hyperion label. He is well known for his attention to lesser-known composers especially of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and for performing works by pianist-composers. Hamelin has also composed several works, including a set of piano études in all of the minor keys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc-Andr%C3%A9_Hamelin

http://www.marcandrehamelin.com/

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