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= = = Family = = =
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Alkan was born Charles @-@ Valentin Morhange on 30 November 1813 at 1 , Rue de Braque in Paris to Alkan Morhange ( 1780 – 1855 ) and Julie Morhange , née Abraham . Alkan Morhange was descended from a long @-@ established Jewish Ashkenazic community in the region of Metz ; the village of Morhange is located about 30 mi... |
Alkan Morhange supported the family as a musician and later as the proprietor of a private music school in le Marais , the Jewish quarter of Paris . At an early age , Charles @-@ Valentin and his siblings adopted their father 's first name as their last ( and were known by this during their studies at the Conservatoir... |
= = = Prodigy ( 1819 – 1831 ) = = =
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Alkan was a child prodigy . He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at an unusually early age , and studied both piano and organ . The records of his auditions survive in the Archives Nationales in Paris . At his solfège audition on 3 July 1819 , when he was just over 5 years 7 months , the examiners noted Alkan ( who i... |
Alkan became a favourite of his teacher at the Conservatoire , Joseph Zimmermann , who also taught Georges Bizet , César Franck , Charles Gounod , and Ambroise Thomas . At the age of seven , Alkan won a first prize for solfège and in later years prizes in piano ( 1824 ) , harmony ( 1827 ) , and organ ( 1834 ) . At the... |
Young children , mostly Jewish , were given elementary musical instruction and also learnt the first rudiments of French grammar ... [ There ] I received a few lessons from the young Alkan , four years my senior ... I see once more ... that really parochial environment where the talent of Valentin Alkan was formed and... |
From about 1826 Alkan began to appear as a piano soloist in leading Parisian salons , including those of the Princesse de la Moskova ( widow of Marshal Ney ) , and the Duchesse de Montebello . He was probably introduced to these venues by his teacher Zimmermann . At the same time , Alkan Morhange arranged concerts fea... |
= = = Early fame ( 1831 – 1837 ) = = =
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Throughout the early years of the July Monarchy , Alkan continued to teach and play at public concerts and in eminent social circles . He became a friend of many who were active in the world of the arts in Paris , including Franz Liszt ( who had been based there since 1827 ) , George Sand , and Victor Hugo . It is not... |
In 1834 Alkan began his friendship with the Spanish musician Santiago Masarnau , which was to result in an extended and often intimate correspondence which only came to light in 2009 . Like virtually all of Alkan 's correspondence , this exchange is now one @-@ sided ; all of his papers ( including his manuscripts and... |
= = = At the Square d 'Orléans ( 1837 – 1848 ) = = =
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From 1837 , Alkan lived in the Square d 'Orléans in Paris , which was inhabited by numerous celebrities of the time including Marie Taglioni , Alexandre Dumas , George Sand , and Chopin . Chopin and Alkan were personal friends and often discussed musical topics , including a work on musical theory that Chopin proposed... |
At this point , for a period which coincided with the birth and childhood of his natural son , Élie @-@ Miriam Delaborde ( 1839 – 1913 ) , Alkan withdrew into private study and composition for six years , returning to the concert platform only in 1844 . Alkan neither asserted or denied his paternity of Delaborde , whi... |
Alkan 's return to the concert platform in 1844 was greeted with enthusiasm by critics , who noted the " admirable perfection " of his technique , and lauded him as " a model of science and inspiration " , a " sensation " and an " explosion " . They also commented on the attending celebrities including Liszt , Chopin ... |
= = = Retreat ( 1848 – 1872 ) = = =
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In 1848 Alkan was bitterly disappointed when the head of the Conservatoire , Daniel Auber , replaced the retiring Zimmermann with the mediocre Marmontel as head of the Conservatoire piano department , a position which Alkan had eagerly anticipated , and for which he had strongly lobbied with the support of Sand , Duma... |
Little is known of this period of Alkan 's life , other than that apart from composing he was immersed in the study of the Bible and the Talmud . Throughout this period Alkan continued his correspondence with Ferdinand Hiller , whom he had probably met in Paris in the 1830s , and with Masarnau , from which some insigh... |
Despite his seclusion from society , this period saw the composition and publication of many of Alkan 's major piano works , including the Douze études dans tous les tons mineurs , Op. 39 ( 1857 ) , the Sonatine , Op. 61 ( 1861 ) , the 49 Esquisses , Op. 63 ( 1861 ) , and the five collections of Chants ( 1857 – 1872 )... |
From the early 1850s Alkan began to turn his attention seriously to the pedal piano ( pédalier ) . Alkan gave his first public performances on the pédalier to great critical acclaim in 1852 . From 1859 onwards he began to publish pieces designated as " for organ or piano à pédalier " .
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= = = Reappearance ( 1873 – 1888 ) = = =
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It is not clear why , in 1873 , Alkan decided to emerge from his self @-@ imposed obscurity to give a series of six Petits Concerts at the Érard piano showrooms . It may have been associated with the developing career of Delaborde , who , returning to Paris in 1867 , soon became a concert fixture , including in his re... |
Those encountering Alkan at this phase included the young Vincent d 'Indy , who recalled Alkan 's " skinny , hooked fingers " playing Bach on an Érard pedal piano : " I listened , riveted to the spot by the expressive , crystal @-@ clear playing . " Alkan later played Beethoven 's Op. 110 sonata , of which d 'Indy sai... |
The biographer of Chopin , Frederick Niecks , sought Alkan for his recollections in 1880 but was sternly denied access by Alkan 's concierge – " To my ... enquiry when he could be found at home , the reply was a ... decisive ' Never ' . " However , a few days later he found Alkan at Érard 's , and Niecks writes of the... |
= = = Death = = =
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According to his death certificate , Alkan died in Paris on 29 March 1888 at the age of 74 . Alkan was buried on 1 April ( Easter Sunday ) in the Jewish section of Montmartre Cemetery , Paris , not far from the tomb of his contemporary Fromental Halévy ; his sister Céleste was later buried in the same tomb .
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For many years it was believed that Alkan met his death when a bookcase toppled over and fell on him as he reached for a volume of the Talmud from a high shelf . This tale , which was circulated by the pianist Isidor Philipp , is dismissed by Hugh Macdonald , who reports the discovery of a contemporary letter by one o... |
= = Personality = =
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Alkan was described by Marmontel ( who refers to " a regrettable misunderstanding at a moment of our careers in 1848 " ) , as follows :
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" We will not give the portrait of Valentin Alkan from the rear , as in some photographs we have seen . His intelligent and original physiognomy deserves to be taken in profile or head @-@ on . The head is strong ; the deep forehead is that of a thinker ; the mouth large and smiling , the nose regular ; the years have... |
Alkan was not always remote or aloof . Chopin describes , in a letter to friend , visiting the theatre with Alkan in 1847 to see the comedian Arnal : " [ Arnal ] tells the audience how he was desperate to pee in a train , but couldn 't get to a toilet before they stopped at Orléans . There wasn 't a single vulgar word... |
Alkan 's aversion to socialising and publicity , especially following 1850 , appeared to be self @-@ willed . Liszt is reported to have commented to the Danish pianist Frits Hartvigson that " Alkan possessed the finest technique he had ever known , but preferred the life of a recluse . " Stephanie McCallum has suggest... |
Alkan 's later correspondence contains many despairing comments . In a letter of about 1861 he wrote to Hiller : " I 'm becoming daily more and more misanthropic and misogynous ... nothing worthwhile , good or useful to do ... no one to devote myself to . My situation makes me horridly sad and wretched . Even musical ... |
Jack Gibbons writes of Alkan 's personality : " Alkan was an intelligent , lively , humorous and warm person ( all characteristics which feature strongly in his music ) whose only crime seems to have been having a vivid imagination , and whose occasional eccentricities ( mild when compared with the behaviour of other ... |
= = Judaism = =
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Alkan grew up in a religiously observant Jewish household . His grandfather Marix Morhange had been a printer of the Talmud in Metz , and was probably a melamed ( Hebrew teacher ) in the Jewish congregation at Paris . Alkan 's widespread reputation as a student of the Old Testament and religion , and the high quality ... |
Alkan 's Op. 31 set of Préludes includes a number of pieces based on Jewish subjects , including some titled Prière ( Prayer ) , one preceded by a quote from the Song of Songs , and another titled Ancienne mélodie de la synagogue ( Old synagogue melody ) . The collection is believed to be " the first publication of ar... |
The inventory of Alkan 's apartment made after his death indicates over 75 volumes in Hebrew or related to Judaism , left to his brother Napoléon ( as well as 36 volumes of music manuscript ) . These are all lost . Bequests in his will to the Conservatoire to found prizes for composition of cantatas on Old Testament t... |
= = Music = =
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= = = Influences = = =
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Brigitte François @-@ Sappey points out the frequency with which Alkan has been compared to Berlioz , both by his contemporaries and later . She mentions that Hans von Bülow called him " the Berlioz of the piano " , while Schumann , in criticising the Op. 15 Romances , claimed that Alkan merely " imitated Berlioz on t... |
Alkan 's attachment to the music of his predecessors is demonstrated throughout his career , from his arrangements for keyboard of Beethoven 's Seventh Symphony ( 1838 ) , and of the minuet of Mozart 's 40th Symphony ( 1844 ) , through the sets Souvenirs des concerts du Conservatoire ( 1847 and 1861 ) and the set Souv... |
As regards the music of his own time , Alkan was unenthusiastic , or at any rate detached . He commented to Hiller that " Wagner is not a musician , he is a disease . " While he admired Berlioz 's talent , he did not enjoy his music . At the Petits Concerts , little more recent than Mendelssohn and Chopin ( both of wh... |
= = = Style = = =
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" Like ... Chopin " , writes pianist and academic Kenneth Hamilton , " Alkan 's musical output was centred almost exclusively on the piano " . Some of his music requires extreme technical virtuosity , clearly reflecting his own abilities , often calling for great velocity , enormous leaps at speed , long stretches of ... |
unlike Wagner , Alkan did not seek to refashion the world through opera ; nor , like Berlioz , to dazzle the crowds by putting orchestral music at the service of literary expression ; nor even , as with Chopin or Liszt , to extend the field of harmonic idiom . Armed with his key instrument , the piano , he sought ince... |
However , not all of Alkan 's music is either lengthy or technically difficult ; for example , many of the Op. 31 Préludes and of the set of Esquisses , Op. 63 .
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Moreover , in terms of structure , Alkan in his compositions sticks to traditional musical forms , although he often took them to extremes , as he did with piano technique . The study Op. 39 , no . 8 ( the first movement of the Concerto for solo piano ) takes almost half an hour in performance . Describing this " giga... |
Some of Alkan 's music gives hints of the obsessiveness which some have detected in his personality . The Chant Op. 38 , no . 2 , entitled Fa , repeats the note of its title incessantly ( in total 414 times ) against shifting harmonies which make it " cut ... into the texture with the ruthless precision of a laser bea... |
= = = Works = = =
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= = = = Early works = = = =
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Alkan 's earliest works indicate , according to Smith , that in his early teens he " was a formidable musician but as yet ... industrious rather than ... creative " . Only with his 12 Caprices ( Opp.12 – 13 and 15 – 16 , 1837 ) did his compositions begin to attract serious critical attention . The op . 15 set , Souven... |
= = = = Early maturity = = = =
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Alkan 's large scale Duo ( in effect a sonata ) Op. 21 for violin and piano ( dedicated to Chrétien Urhan ) and his Piano Trio Op. 30 appeared in 1841 . Apart from these , Alkan published only a few minor works between 1840 and 1844 , after which a series of virtuoso works was issued , many of which he had played at h... |
A number of Alkan 's compositions from this period were never performed and have been lost . Among the missing works are some string sextets and a full @-@ scale orchestral symphony in B minor , which was described in an article in 1846 by the critic Léon Kreutzer , to whom Alkan had shown the score . Kreutzer noted t... |
= = = = Internal exile = = = =
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During his twenty @-@ year absence from the public between 1853 and 1873 Alkan produced many of his most notable compositions , although there is a ten @-@ year gap between publication of the Op. 35 studies and that of his next group of piano works in 1856 and 1857 . Of these , undoubtedly the most significant was the... |
In the same year appeared the Sonate de Concert , Op. 47 , for cello and piano , " among the most difficult and ambitious in the romantic repertoire ... anticipating Mahler in its juxtaposition of the sublime and the trivial " , and with its four movements showing again an anticipation of progressive tonality , each a... |
The Esquisses of 1861 are a set of highly varied miniatures , ranging from the tiny 18 @-@ bar no . 4 , Les cloches ( The Bells ) , to the strident tone clusters of no . 45 , Les diablotins ( The Imps ) , and closing with a further evocation of church bells in no . 49 , Laus Deo ( Praise God ) . They were preceded in ... |
Two of Alkan 's substantial works from this period are musical paraphrases of literary works . Salut , cendre du pauvre , Op. 45 ( 1856 ) , follows a section of the poem La Mélancolie by Gabriel @-@ Marie Legouvé ; while Super flumina Babylonis , Op. 52 ( 1859 ) , is a blow @-@ by @-@ blow recreation in music of the e... |
Alkan 's publications for organ or pédalier commenced with his Benedictus , Op. 54 ( 1859 ) . In the same year he published a set of very spare and simple preludes in the eight Gregorian modes ( 1859 , without opus number ) , which , in Smith 's opinion , " seem to stand outside the barriers of time and space " , and ... |
Alkan 's return to the concert platform at his Petits Concerts , however , marked the end of his publications ; his final work to be issued was the Toccatina , Op. 75 , in 1872 .
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= = Reception and legacy = =
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Alkan had few followers ; however , he had important admirers , including Liszt , Anton Rubinstein , Franck , and , in the early twentieth century , Busoni , Petri and Sorabji . Rubinstein dedicated his fifth piano concerto to him , and Franck dedicated to Alkan his Grand pièce symphonique op . 17 for organ . Busoni r... |
For much of the 20th century , Alkan 's work remained in obscurity , but from the 1960s onwards it was steadily revived . Raymond Lewenthal gave a pioneering extended broadcast on Alkan on WBAI radio in New York in 1963 , and later included Alkan 's music in recitals and recordings . The English pianist Ronald Smith c... |
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