Albert Frantz - Alkan: Grande Sonate - 3 Grandes Études (2012)

Tracklist

01. Grande sonate, Op. 33, "Les quatre ages" (The four ages): I. 20 ans: Tres vite
02. Grande sonate, Op. 33, "Les quatre ages" (The four ages): II. 30 ans: Quasi-Faust: Assez vite
03. Grande sonate, Op. 33, "Les quatre ages" (The four ages): III. 40 ans: Un heureux menage (A happy household): Lentement
04. Grande sonate, Op. 33, "Les quatre ages" (The four ages): IV. 50 ans: Promethee enchaine (Prometheus enchained): Extremement lent
05. 3 Grandes etudes, Op. 76: No. 1. Fantaisie
06. 3 Grandes etudes, Op. 76: No. 2. Introduction, variations and finale
07. 3 Grandes etudes, Op. 76: No. 3. Etude a mouvement semblable et perpetuel



On this CD, the award-winning pianist and teacher Albert Frantz addresses himself to the French composer and piano virtuoso Charles Valentin Alkan, who throughout his lifetime and up to today has always been overshadowed by his more famous contemporaries Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin and Robert Schumann. Not the least determining factor in this development is the enormous technical demands Alkan's works make, sometimes leaving the level of Franz Liszt far behind. The Grandes Etudes op. 76, for instance, consists of one movement for the left hand alone and one for the right hand, whereas the third Etude reunites both hands. The Grande Sonate 'Les quatre âges' op. 33 portrays four different ages in a man's life, already anticipating the thematic realization of characters by means of an idée fixe nine years before Liszt's Sonata in B minor (1853).

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