Piano Classics: Alkan - Concerto for Piano Solo - Vincenzo Maltempo - Classical Piano CD

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Product Details:

• Product Type: Audio CD
• Label: Piano Classics
• Catalog Number: PCL0061
• Artist: Vincenzo Maltempo (piano)
• Composer: Charles Valentin Alkan (1813-1888)
• Genre: Classical / Romantic Piano
• Recording Date: June 2013, Studio I Musicanti, Rome
• EAN: 5065001863806
• Condition: Brand New, Factory Sealed

Product Features

• Format: 1 CD
• Tracks: 6
• Total Duration: 69 minutes 18 seconds
• Repertoire: From 12 Études dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39
• Packaging: Standard jewel case, shrink-wrapped
• Manufactured: In the EU
• Sound Engineer / Producer: Giovanni Caruso
• Musical Supervision: Dario Paolini, Giovanni Caruso

Overview

Charles Valentin Alkan is the great outlier of 19th-century piano music. A contemporary of Chopin and Liszt, equally celebrated in his own time, he spent decades in near-total reclusion — rarely performing, rarely publishing — and left behind music of staggering difficulty and originality that most pianists still sidestep today.

The centerpiece of this disc is the Concerto pour piano seul in G sharp minor, extracted from the monumental 12 Études dans tous les tons mineurs Op. 39. Three études — Nos. 8, 9, and 10 — make up its three movements: an "Allegro assai" running nearly half an hour, a searching "Adagio" of just over twelve minutes, and a ferocious "Allegretto alla barbaresca" to close. There is no orchestra. The piano plays everything — melody, harmony, bass line, and every orchestral texture Alkan could imagine — for over 51 minutes of continuous, unrelenting music. It is one of the most technically demanding works in the solo piano repertoire.

Vincenzo Maltempo is one of the few pianists alive with both the technique and the musical intelligence to navigate it convincingly. His playing here is precise without being mechanical, powerful without tipping into noise. The three shorter pieces that follow — "Comme le vent," "En rythme molossique," and "Scherzo diabolico" — round out the program with characteristic Alkan bite and wit.

Recorded in Rome in June 2013 for the specialist label Piano Classics, this disc belongs in any serious collection of Romantic piano music.

Interesting Facts

• Charles Valentin Alkan (born Morhange, 1813) was by many accounts one of the greatest pianists of the 19th century; Chopin reportedly said he knew no one with a finer piano technique.
• The Concerto pour piano seul (Op. 39, Nos. 8-10) is considered one of the most technically demanding concerto-scale works ever written — all performed by a single pianist without orchestra.
• Alkan lived as a near-recluse for decades in Paris, rarely giving concerts after the 1840s; his reputation was largely rediscovered in the 20th century through the advocacy of pianists like Raymond Lewenthal and Ronald Smith.
• "Comme le vent" (Op. 39, No. 1) translates as "Like the wind" and lives up to its name — a prestissimo étude in A minor that runs barely four and a half minutes at full speed.
• "Scherzo diabolico" (Op. 39, No. 3) in G minor is one of Alkan's most performed pieces; its relentless prestissimo tempo and angular phrasing make it a favorite showpiece for virtuoso pianists.
• Vincenzo Maltempo is an Italian pianist who has devoted much of his career to recording the complete piano works of Alkan — a project of rare ambition given the music's extreme difficulty and obscurity.

Track Listing

Charles Valentin Alkan - From: 12 Études dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39

Concerto pour piano seul, in G sharp minor (Op. 39 Nos. 8-9-10)

1. Allegro assai - 29'13
2. Adagio - 12'04

3. Allegretto alla barbaresca - 9'52

4. Comme le vent, Prestissimamente, in A minor (Op. 39 No. 1) - 4'41

5. En rythme molossique, Risoluto, in D minor (Op. 39 No. 2) - 8'27
6. Scherzo diabolico, Prestissimo, in G minor (Op. 39 No. 3) - 4'44

Total time: 69'18

Publishers

Piano Classics, 6 Church Row, Moore Park Road, London, SW6 2JW. info@piano-classics.com. Manufactured in the EU.

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