After you saying that, I was really struck by it when listening to some Alkan later on.  One can criticise these aspects of his music; the fact that some pieces are very repetitive &c.  But if it is vulgar in that way, it still seems it's setting a historical precedent for that sort of style, neh?

Get Hamlelin's new recording of the Concerto for Solo piano - it's amazing!

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//CDA67569.htm

Restarting this thread for Anna's benefit:

Anna, the 3 Ronald Smith Alkan CDs I have are as follows:

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//5854842.htm

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//APR7032.htm

and lastly (which seems to have been deleted for the moment so I can only find one copy on Amazon for £25!)

EMI Double Forte no. 7243 5 75649 2 2 which includes the Four ages Sonata, some of Op.39, Op.31 & Op.35, Op.61, Op.76 and Op.16 (phew!)

Hope this helps...

Hi Jonathan,

The Ronald Smith that I have is the first one that you list, been playing it a lot the last couple of days.

Are you intending to get the new Alkan on Brilliant?  Certainly £7 for two cds is good value nit one shouldn't always be swayed by a cheap price.

Do you remember, oh many moons ago, you wrote me a a couple of pages about your Liszt recommendations?  I must try and find that again, I've changed computers since then but I know I had a print out.  If it has gone walkabout did you keep a copy?

Ho Jonathan,

Sorry, didn't see your reply, I clicked Notify of Replies but nothing  happened.  No, it was on the BBC3 Official Boards, about 2 pages of A4.  More of a Novella really.    Let me have a rummage here first over the next few days to see if I can find it.  Must be the evenings drawing in and the mists sweeping down the Valley but somehow there is a certain gloominess and angst in Liszt which suits the prevailing mood.

As promised (from the Liszt thread):


Scratch that - the Alkan marches arrived on Wednesday just gone.  Better late than never, I suppose!  Played no.1 through several times in the last few days - it's not actually too hard, i think the hardest part is probably the speed!   

Hi Increpatio,
I dislike metronones a great deal!!  My new piano teacher (I restarted lessons after an 18 year gap just before Christmas and then stopped them again when I realised how ill I was) suggested I get one and I responded "not likely"  I may borrow my parents one though to get an indication of the speed (I'll never, ever be able to play "Comme le vent" Op.39 no.1 at even 1/2 the speed it's supposed to go at!)

Hmmm, in terms of influences, I feel that a lot of the more linear elements in his works do have some classical (maybe even mozartian or hadynesque? (I've not thought about the Haydn aspect before, I think the comparison might be more convincing even, than the one w/ Mozart)) influence, though it manifests in a very different way with him than it does others.  Other audible influences would be those of Jewish folk music (which I've talked about with Ian before: alas there hasn't been to much published on this aspect to date).  I think I'd rate his ties with Liszt to be higher than his ties with Wagner, if only because many of his pieces are narrative in structure.  Many of his shorter pieces are straight from the tradition of parlour music, and there do they sit.


Hmm; I don't know if he himself would be fond of such a comparison:


(Charles Valentin Alkan: His Life And His Music, P15, William Alexander Eddie)



(I haven't read the book; but did a google book search and this came up).

His use of form is more classical than romantic I think, not that he doesn't also go to extremes here, but one gets the feeling that he's pushing it in very different (arguably more limited) directions than ... [cannot finish this sentence without without a good chance of saying something extremely ignorant].