Charles-Valentin Alkan - Paraphrases, Marches & Symphonie for Solo Piano (Mark Viner)

Information

Composer: Charles-Valentin Alkan

1. Salut, cendre du pauvre!, paraphrase, Op. 45
2. Super flumina Babylonis, paraphrase, Op. 52
3. Trois Marches quasi da cavalleria, Op. 37: I. Allegro molto
4. Trois Marches quasi da cavalleria, Op. 37: II. Allegro vivace
5. Trois Marches quasi da cavalleria, Op. 37: III. Allegro
6. Alleluia, Op. 25
7. Marche funèbre, Op. 26
8. Marche triomphale, Op. 27
9. Douze Etudes dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39, Nos. 4-7 'Symphonie': I. Allegro Moderato
10. Douze Etudes dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39, Nos. 4-7 'Symphonie': II. Marche funèbre. Andantino
11. Douze Etudes dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39, Nos. 4-7 'Symphonie': III. Menuet
12. Douze Etudes dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39, Nos. 4-7 'Symphonie': IV. Finale. Presto

Mark Viner, piano

Date: 2021

Label: Piano Classics

https://www.piano-classics.com/articles/a/alkan-paraphrases-marches-symphonie-for-solo-piano-op39/

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Review

Mark Viner’s fourth volume in his complete Alkan odyssey is artfully conceived and astutely ordered. He opens with the only two works the composer designated ‘paraphrases’: Salut, cendre du pauvre! (‘Hail, ashes of the poor’) and Super flumina Babylonis (‘By the waters of Babylon’), neither of them paraphrases of other composers’ works but of literary subjects, the former an elegy entitled La mélancholie by Gabriel-Marie Legouvé, the latter an interpretation of Psalm 137. These are dramatic tone-paintings with unpredictable twists and turns, memorable themes and capricious turns of phrase, a gift for any pianist who has dismissed the inveterate pooh-poohing of Alkan in conservatoires. Viner responds to the composer’s unique voice with great sensitivity and imagination.

He then gives us five marches: the Trois Marches quasi da cavalleria (only the first has been recorded previously), the last of which is a jolly affair that might put you in mind of Percy Grainger’s Children’s March; and the pairing of the Marche funèbre, Op 26, and Marche triomphale, Op 27, both of them dedicated to the delightfully titled (and powerful) Duchess of Montebello. The two march sets are separated by the brief, extraordinary Alleluia, Op 25.

Viner ends with the masterpiece that is the ‘Symphony for Solo Piano’, four studies which are themselves part of the masterpiece that is the Douze Études dans tous les tons mineurs. The average pianist might struggle for years to get the outer movements of the Symphony under their fingers and still come nowhere near what is required. (Raymond Lewenthal’s advice if Alkan’s metronome mark seems too fast: ‘Do not think for a moment that you know better. You will only bore your audience and lull them to sleep.’)

The finest performances on disc of this amazing work are by Raymond Lewenthal (albeit closely recorded and sadly shorn of the first-movement repeat – RCA, now download only), Jack Gibbons, the phenomenal Paul Wee (the best option if you want Alkan’s Symphony and Concerto on the same disc) and, my benchmark, Marc-André Hamelin. It is one of the great Canadian’s finest recordings and one which, incidentally, inspired the young Mark Viner to investigate Alkan. If I say that the newcomer bears comparison, then that should be sufficient indication of its merit. Hamelin’s lighter touch and greater expressive range give him the edge in the first movement (the coda is simply breathtaking). All five pianists give you a fist-clenching roller-coaster ride to remember in the fiendish Presto finale – ‘a wild ride in hell rather than to it’ (Lewenthal again).

Hamelin’s disc also has the two paraphrases and Alleluia. The Piano Classics booklet is an exceptional and detailed 20-page essay (English only) by Viner himself that even includes the text of the Legouvé elegy; Hyperion’s is their customary high-quality three-language note. In short, another exceptional release from this outstanding British talent.

-- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Mar/Alkan-v4-PCL10207.htm

https://www.amazon.com/Paraphrases-Marches-Mark-Viner/dp/B08LNJHS2L

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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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Mark Viner, born in 1989, is recognised as one of the most exciting British concert pianists of his generation and is becoming increasingly well-known for his bold championing of unfamiliar pianistic terrain. Viner studied at the Purcell School of Music with Tessa Nicholson, then at the Royal College of Music with Niel Immelman, graduating with a distinction in 2013. Viner won 1st prize at the Alkan-Zimmerman International Piano Competition in Athens, Greece in 2012. He is very active in the recording studio and his recordings on the Piano Classics label have garnered critical acclaim.

https://www.markviner.com/

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