Alkan : 12 Etudes Opus 35

Description

Opus 35 marked Alkan's intention to summarize all the variety that piano technique offered to his art. He began with the twelve major tones, and a second volume (op. 39) will complete them with twelve more studies on the minor tones. What Alkan demands above all is endurance, so that the hand never tires in these hyperactive staves that aim to leave the pianist dead at the keyboard. Until now, only Bernard Ringeissen and then Stephanie Mc Callum had dared to tackle this quietly murderous opus; Mark Viner brings a whole different flair, a bit of that diabolical sulfur that Petri, and even Busoni, infused into it. I expected nothing less from a pianist who had amazed me by effortlessly handling Thalberg's opera transcriptions, but he also knows how to convey with penetrating charm and a certain dramatic sense the two masterpieces of the set, where Alkan, as if filled with remorse, remembers that Liszt had put poems in his Etudes: "The Fire in the Neighboring Village," "Love Song - Death Song" are played with an art of characterization that does justice to the whimsical aspect of Alkan's genius. Now it remains for the young English virtuoso to offer us opus 39… a considerably greater challenge where the competition will be tougher… (Discophilia - Artalinna.com). (Jean-Charles Hoffelé)