Search - Alkan, Liszt, Lewenthal :: Piano Music of Alkan

Discovering Alkan

Robert W. Allen | Northfield Falls, Vermont United States | 11/05/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Many years ago, as I understand the story, Ray Lewenthal was in New York City's Central Park when he was attacked by a mugger. He recovered, swore he'd never return to New York City ever, and moved to France to recouperate. While there, he made the happy discovery of some works by the eccentric French composer, Charles Valentin Alkan. The rest, as they say, is history.
My own discovery of Alkan happened when I was in college at the University of Vermont in the late 60's. A fellow music student had discovered a recording of Lewenthal playing Alkan and spent a great deal of time trying to convert the rest of us to a better understanding of Alkan. And so it was.
While I now delight in owning collections of Alkan's music performed by others, especially Hamelin, I believe that Lewenthal is the best of the bunch, and I couldn't be happier that these recordings have been reissued. I particularly wanted this one because it included Lewenthal's performance of the Hexameron, a work by Liszt, Thalberg, Czerny, Chopin ,etc., and is based on the principal that "anything you can play, I can play louder and faster." This whole CD, in fact, is pure fun from the opening of the eccentric Festival of Aesop to the final fiery conclusion of the Hexameron. Just keep telling yourself that a weird French composer who collected parrots can't be all bad."

(No title)

offeck | New York, NY -- United States of America | 01/25/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This disc was my introduction to Alkan. From Alkan, I've gone to Busoni, Stevenson, Godowsky, Thalberg, and, most recently, Sorabji. Being an Alkan-holic, I now have recordings from such pianists as Hamelin, Smith, Reach, Gibbons, McCallum, Feofanov, Martin, Ponti, Ringeissen, Ogdon, Petri, and Howard.Coming full-circle, this disc is probably the best introduction to Alkan and Alkan-like-composition(s) and performance(s) out there. I would (and I do) recommend it to anybody and everybody, especially those who claim to be piano-philes, but somehow can't move beyond the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata. The disc is more than affordable, the pianism is outstanding, the liner notes are detailed and anything but boring, the music is over-all very enjoyable, and the sound on the disc is spectacular, and increasingly so, in proportion to the volume at which it is played. -- You just can't go wrong with this disc.Highlights: Track 1, track 2 (but most importantly the last last minute or so), track 7, and--most of the Hexameron, but in particular--track 19."