Alkan: Complete Piano Duos & Duets

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Goldstone and Clemmow's complete survey is a welcome addition to the catalogue, for these pieces show a different side to Alkan's music personality, making thoughtfully genial music with friends... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2011, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 21st Feb 2011
Catalogue No: TOCC0070
Label: Toccata Classics
Length: 70 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

April 2011

Editor's Choice

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Alkan: Benedictus, Op. 54 (Arr. R. Smalley)

Work length8:18

$2.00

$2.60

Goldstone and Clemmow

Alkan: Impromptu sur le choral de Luther, Op. 69

Work length13:10

$4.00

$5.20

Goldstone and Clemmow

I. Quarter note = 63 (Arr. R. Smalley)

Track length4:14

$1.00

$1.30

II. L'istesso tempo: Quarter note = 63 (Arr. R. Smalley)

Track length1:22

$1.00

$1.30

III. L'istesso tempo: Quarter note = 63 (Arr. R. Smalley)

Track length1:53

$1.00

$1.30

IV. L'istesso tempo: Quarter note = 63 (Arr. R. Smalley)

Track length5:41

$1.00

$1.30

Alkan: Saltarelle, Op. 23

Work length6:53

$1.00

$1.30

Goldstone and Clemmow

Alkan: Variations-fantaisie on themes from Mozart, Don Giovanni, Op. 26

Work length2:39

$2.00

$2.60

Goldstone and Clemmow

Introduction

Track length1:49

$1.00

$1.30

Theme. Venite pur avanti

Track length0:50

$1.00

$1.30

Alkan: Variation 1

Work length0:53

$1.00

$1.30

Goldstone and Clemmow

Alkan: Variation 2

Work length0:56

$1.00

$1.30

Goldstone and Clemmow

Alkan: Variation 3

Work length1:39

$1.00

$1.30

Goldstone and Clemmow

Alkan: Variation 4

Work length1:30

$1.00

$1.30

Goldstone and Clemmow

Alkan: Variation 5

Work length2:50

$1.00

$1.30

Goldstone and Clemmow

Alkan: Variations-fantaisie on themes from Mozart, Don Giovanni, Op. 26

Work length2:21

$1.00

$1.30

Goldstone and Clemmow

Finale. Finch' han dal vino

Track length2:21

$1.00

$1.30

Alkan: 3 Marches, Op. 40

Work length20:32

$4.00

$5.20

Goldstone and Clemmow

No. 1 in A-Flat Major: Allegro

Track length8:34

$2.00

$2.60

No. 2 in C Minor - E-Flat Major: Allegro moderato

Track length6:13

$1.00

$1.30

No. 3 in B-Flat Major: Modérément

Track length5:45

$1.00

$1.30

Alkan: Bombardo-Carillon

Work length5:45

$1.00

$1.30

Goldstone and Clemmow

Alkan: Finale, Op. 17

Work length3:00

$1.00

$1.30

Goldstone and Clemmow

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About

Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–88) was one of the greatest virtuosos that ever lived – he became a student at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six, made his public debut (on violin) the following year, and gained the first prize of the Conservatoire for piano at the age of ten, giving his first public piano recital just two years later.

He was a close friend (and next-door neighbour) of Chopin and George Sand, and often shared the platform with Chopin as well as Sigismund Thalberg and Franz Liszt.

It was around the time of Chopin’s death that he began to devote himself to composition and effectively withdrew from public life, acquiring a reputation as a misanthropic recluse.

The circumstances of his death are obscure, although the traditional account that he was crushed by a falling bookcase while reaching for a volume of the Talmud was probably invented by his son.

As a composer, Busoni considered him to stand on a par with Liszt, Chopin, Schumann and Brahms as one of the five greatest composers for the piano since Beethoven.

His works for piano are among the most demanding ever written – but they can also gleam with a fierce joy and twinkle with mischievous humour, so it’s hardly surprising to find his works for piano duet bubbling with freewheeling energy. The two works for pedal piano, transcribed here for two pianos by Roger Smalley, show a more solemn side to this devoutly religious composer, though they, too, have their own charge of Alkan’s trademark eccentric originality.

Reviews

June 2011

Goldstone and Clemmow's complete survey is a welcome addition to the catalogue, for these pieces show a different side to Alkan's music personality, making thoughtfully genial music with friends rather than being the lone hero in epic creations...this disc is lighter in spirit than much Alkan.

April 2011

Goldstone and Clemmow not only negotiate the fistfuls of notes with aplomb but convey their palpable delight in these fluent, high-spirited performances, vividly recorded, and enthusiastically recommended to Alkanophiles and lovers of bravura piano repertoire alike.

March 2011

Alkan (1813-88) always seems to have something up his creative sleeve to delight the curious listener, and so it is here...Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow are technically on top of things and are unanimous to a fault.

14th April 2011

all the performances by Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow have panache...it's the arrangements that seem closest to the better-known Alkan – the Op 54 Benedictus, with its throbbing minor-key pulsations framing the consoling main theme, the obtusely repetitive Bombardo-Carillon, originally composed for four feet at one pedal board, and especially the Impromptu on the Lutheran chorale Ein feste Burg

Alkan: Complete Piano Duos & Duets

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