popular music: Charles Alkan

popular music: Charles Alkan

popular music:

Charles Alkan

Charles-Valentin Alkan: Concerto For Solo Piano

Charles-Valentin Alkan, Marc-André Hamelin

Music & Arts Program, 2001

One of the best
Hamelin or Alkan fans shouldn't bother reading the rest of this review. This is an essential disk. Buy it. If Hamelin receives any negative criticism at all, it seems to follow a regular formula: his technique is divine, but the interpretation is too rigid, fake, ...

Alkan: Symphony for Solo Piano

Charles-Valentin Alkan, Marc-André Hamelin

Hyperion UK, 2001

Please listen to the OTHER tracks in this CD as well.
Even though the highlight of this CD is the Symphony for Solo Piano, I think the supporting tracks are the real reason why I would recommend this CD. They are all titled in very bizarre names, and I'm afraid most listeners would listen to them once and put them away ...

Alkan: Piano Works; Ronald Smith

Charles Alkan, Ronald Smith

EMI Classics, 2004

Exceptional Pianist/Inspirational Composer
Ronald Smith died on the 27 May 2004 a week before I was due to hear him perform in concert at the age of 82. Obviously I was incredibly upset by his death and not having ever heard him play - especially ALKAN. Ronald Smith was the man who re-established ...

Alkan: Grande sonate 'Les quatre âges', Sonatine, Le festin d'Esope

Charles-Valentin Alkan, Marc-André Hamelin

Hyperion UK, 1995

One of the best solo piano recordings ever made.
This disc is totally astonishing. One you start listening to it you will not be able to stop. The Grande Sonate is one of the most beautiful, moving, complex pieces of music for solo piano ever written. Hamelin brings it to life like no one else can. If you have ...

Alkan: Concerto for solo piano; Troisième recueil de chants

Charles-Valentin Alkan, Marc-André Hamelin

Hyperion UK, 2007

Hamelin Runs Alkan's Gauntlet... and Wins
Charles-Valentin Alkan probably holds the most uneven status of any composer in music history: Schumann saw him as mediocre and Busoni believed him the greatest piano composer next to Beethoven and Liszt. Today, Alkan is gradually becoming more recognized as a musical ...

Henselt: Piano Concerto, Op. 16; Variations de Concert, Op. 11; Alkan: Concerto da Camera, Op. 10/1; Concerto ...

Charles-Valentin Alkan, Adolf Henselt, ...

Hyperion UK, 1994

A "fun concerto"!
I just read a comment on one of my favourite pianoconcerto's, the one from Henselt. The writer referred to it as "a fun concerto with no profundity". I dont agree to that! I love its warm, dark, romantic flows of music. Its an exeptinal Romantic concerto, and if you ...

The Composer Pianists

Charles-Valentin Alkan, Ferruccio Busoni, ...

Hyperion UK, 1998

Astonishing listening
Hamelin is astonishing in his readings of these works- I especially enjoy the Scriabin, Busoni, Feinberg, and Medtner. His playing delivers subtle dynamics and the pure intensity of an inspired artist. If you truly love to hear the most difficult piano works ...

Alkan: 12 Études, Op. 39

Charles-Valentin Alkan, Jack Gibbons

Asv Living Era, 1995

An incredible recording! Gibbons' Alkan is superb!
Alkan's Magnum Opus (39) has been seen recorded many times over the past years in part, as well as in whole. Jack Gibbons demonstrates that his interpretation of this monstrously challenging set stands at the very top of the list. Out of the 250+ CDs I own, I would ...

Nocturnes (Complete) [Box Set]

Charles-Valentin Alkan, Frederic Chopin, ...

Brilliant Classics, 2005

some parallels
The idea of creating a "nocturnal anthology" is an excellent one, and I wonder how nobody has thought of it until very recently. Van Oort's creation is not entirely unique. Similar disk entitled "Nocturnal World" and performed by Dimiter Terziev has appeared recently ...

Cello Sonatas by Alkan & Chopin
Alban Gerhardt, Charles-Valentin Alkan, ...

Hyperion UK, 2008

Great Pianists of the 20th Century: John Ogdon, Vol. 1

Charles-Valentin Alkan, Ferruccio Busoni, ...

Philips, 1999

A "Must Have" for the keyboard lover. Shattering brilliance.
John Ogdon was one of the centuries most interesting pianists. An artist of spectacular technical capacity, he was also one of the great musical explorers. His performance of Charles-Valentin Alkan's astounding Concerto for Solo Piano would make these CDs worth having ...

Alkan: Piano Music, Volume 1: 12 Etudes, Op. 35

Charles-Valentin Alkan, Bernard Ringeissen

Naxos, 2001

Amen - great pieces
Tacky (the guy below me) said just about everything there is to say about this CD but I would like to add one other thing. As well as #7, etudes #10 and #11 are two of the greatest Romantic-era pieces I have ever heard. #10 will leave you stunned, I guarantee it. The ...

Alkan: Oeuvres pour piano
Charles-Valentin Alkan, Huseyin Sermet

Valois, 2002

Marc-André Hamelin Live at Wigmore Hall

Charles-Valentin Alkan, Ludwig van Beethoven, ...

Hyperion UK, 1995

Truly phenomenal
From track 1 on, it is clear that Hamelin is one of piano music's most meteoric talents ever to blaze the pianistic firmament. He dispatches Beethoven as if driven by the very fires of Hell. Surprising, as elements of wry humour are often a characteristic of this ...