Biography of charles valentin alkan compositions
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The actual stuff and substance of his music . . . is of such startling oddity, such intensely personal and individual quality, shot through with an eerie, uncanny feeling that makes it of irresistible fascination.
—Kaikhosru Sorabji, Mi Contra Fa
For someone thought by Liszt to possess the greatest piano technique of the age and equally esteemed by Busoni as one of the great composers for the piano after Beethoven, Charles Valentin Alkan has certainly fallen on hard times. Even before his death on Holy Thursday, 1888, Alkan had fallen into the unremitting obscurity from which he is only now beginning to emerge. History is happenstance: it can be as harsh to an Alkan as it can be kind to a Satie.
Though apparently a warm, if somewhat shy, young man, Alkan developed into a notorious misanthrope and hermit in his later years. During his periods of seclusion he wrote much of his daunting and beautiful music while slowly shedding his early friendships with Hugo, Delacroix, Sand, Dumas, Liszt, and others in that glittering circle. Late in life, Alkan emerged from his solitude to give a remarkable series of retrospective petits-concerts featuring works by then-disregarded composers such as Rameau, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart. At a time when the late Be
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List of compositions by Charles-Valentin Alkan
The following is a list of all the musical compositions of Charles-Valentin Alkan in order of opus number. Transcriptions are excluded from this list. All dates are publication dates except for unpublished works:
With opus numbers
[edit]- Op. 1, Variations on a theme from Steibelt's Orage concerto in E major (1828)
- Op. 2, Les omnibus, variations in C major (1829)
- Op. 3, Rondoletto Il était un p'tit homme in A major (1833)
- Op. 4, Rondo brillant in A major (1833)
- Op. 5, Largo al factotum, air du Barbier de Séville arrangé en rondo brillant (1833, lost)
- Op. 8 See 12 morceaux caractéristiques in 'Without opus numbers' below.
- Op. 10, Two Concerti da camera (1832–1837?)
- No. 1 Concerto da Camera in A minor (1832)
- Allegro moderato in A minor; Adagio in E major; Rondo: Allegro in A major
- No. 2 Concerto da Camera in C♯ minor (1834)
- Allegro moderato in C♯ minor; Adagio in A major; 1re movimento in C♯ major
- No. 3 Concerto da Camera in C♯ major (1837) (= orchestral version of Op. 13 No. 2. Orchestral parts lost, reconstructed by Hugh Mcdonald)
- No. 1 Concerto da Camera in A minor (1832)
- Op. 12, Rondeau Chromatique in B minor (1834)
- Opp. 12, 13, 15 and 16 (nos. 1-3) below
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Charles-Valentin Alkan
French composer and composer (1813–1888)
Charles-Valentin Alkan[n 1][n 2] (French:[ʃaʁlvalɑ̃tɛ̃alkɑ̃]; 30 November 1813 – 29 Walk 1888) was a Gallic composer focus on virtuoso musician. At picture height emulate his laurels in representation 1830s unthinkable 1840s fair enough was, be adjacent to his bedfellows and colleagues Frédéric Writer and Franz Liszt, in the midst the solid pianists be grateful for Paris, a city bring off which operate spent effectively his thorough life.
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