主题：[讨论]About Alkan

Born in Paris, 30 November 1813, his name was Charles-Valentin Morhange. <! (Slonimsky and others have Charles-Henri Valentin Morhange.) >He (and his brothers) used their father's first name, Alkan, as their last. Charles-Valentin Alkan spent his life in and around Paris and died there on 29 March 1888.

Alkan was a prodigy. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six, where he studied both piano and organ. His teachers included Joseph Zimmermann, who also taught Bizet, Franck, Gounod, and Thomas.

In his twenties, he played concerts in elegant social circles and taught piano. His friends included Liszt and Chopin, George Sand, and Victor Hugo. By the age of twenty-four, he had built a reputation as one of the great virtuoso pianists of his day, rivalling Liszt and Thalberg. And then he withdrew into private study, with only occasional forays into the limelight, for the remainder of his life. In spite of his early fame and technical acomplishment, he spent most of his life in obscurity, performing in public only occasionally. There are periods of his life about which little is known, other than that he was immersed in the study of Bible and Talmud.

Alkan seems to have had few followers. One composer who does appear to continue Alkan's direction is Sorabji, although Sorabji claimed that his model was Busoni. Alkan had admirers, among them Busoni and Anton Rubinstein, who dedicated a concerto to him.

He wrote almost exclusively for the piano, as did Chopin. His most important works are the Grande Sonate "Les Quatre Ages" (opus 33) and the two sets of Etudes in all the major and minor keys (opus 35 and opus 39). These last match even the Transcendental Etudes of Liszt in scale and difficulty. Three movements of opus 39 together form the Concerto for Solo Piano, which takes nearly an hour to play and presents the greatest challenges to the performer.

Alkan's music is very complex, exciting, and challenging to both the performer and, to a lesser degree, the listener. Difficulty in these works sometimes appears to be present for its own sake. While his music often has the energy and density of Liszt, it is somewhat less agreeable.

For many years after his death, Alkan's work was almost completely forgotten. There has been a steady revival of interest in his compositions over the course of the twentieth century. Some of the most capable pianists of today are playing and recording his works.

some info from another site:

Alkan, and his four brothers, all musicians, adopted their father's first name as their surname. Alkan Morhange (1780-1855) was the proprietor of a music school in Paris, and he early recognized among the musical talents of his sons the singular ones of young Charles-Valentin. Consequently, at the age of five Alkan was enrolled in the Paris Conservatory of Music, the breeding ground of many outstanding musicians and composers in the Nineteenth Century. Alkan studied composition and piano, making his debut at 12 years of age performing his own compositions as well as those of others. He seemed a star ascendant. Before he was 20 he embarked on the first of two trips abroad (the second two years later), the only times he was ever to leave Paris in his lifetime.

In Paris Alkan was a member of an accomplished social circle that included many of the leading names of his times in thought and the arts. In 1838 he appeared in concert with his close friend and neighbor, Frédéric Chopin, and was warmly received by critics and public alike. To this day there is no definitive explanation of what ensued from this point, though surmise and conjecture aplenty have flourished. For six years Alkan disappeared from the concert stage. He performed for nearly two years, then dematerialized as public pianist for 28 more years; when he again appeared he was past 60.

I his time Alkan was considered the peer of Chopin and Franz Lizst in technique. He is widely thought of as an eccentric par excellence. In his later years he became intrigued with the pedalier, a pedal board that attaches to the piano and enables full performance of organ literature on the piano. He was fond of playing the compositions of Bach on this device, and composed copiously for it. His piano works require the utmost of skills, attesting to Alkan's own. Few performers care to attempt the difficulties of the Alkanian oeuvre in public, though some display their uncommon prowess by means of his works. The name of Alkan even now remains one capable of engendering vigorous debate in musical circles.