Description: Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888) composed his Douze Études dans tous les tons majeurs (Twelve Études in All the Major Keys), Op. 35 around 1847. Dedicated to the influential Belgian musicologist, critic, and composer François-Joseph Fétis, the set belongs to the extraordinary group of large-scale piano works Alkan produced during the 1840s, when his reputation as a virtuoso placed him in the same Parisian musical world as Chopin and Liszt. Conceived as twelve studies traversing the major keys (later complemented by the Douze Études dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39 of 1857), the collection greatly expands the nineteenth-century étude beyond purely technical exercise, combining formidable pianistic demands with contrapuntal writing, unusual rhythmic and harmonic ideas, and increasingly individual character pieces. Particularly distinctive are No. 7, L’incendie au village voisin (“The Fire in the Neighboring Village”); No. 9, Contrapunctus; No. 10, Chant d’amour–Chant de mort (“Song of Love–Song of Death”); and the concluding study, whose writing concentrates on octave technique. After Alkan’s death, his music fell into prolonged neglect, but the twentieth and twenty-first-century revival of interest in his output has produced complete recordings and renewed concert performances of selections from Op. 35, including performances on major contemporary concert platforms. Today, Douze Études, Op. 35 remains far less frequently encountered than the principal études of Chopin or Liszt (and even somewhat overshadowed within Alkan’s own output by the more monumental Op. 39), but it is increasingly recognized as an important achievement of Romantic piano literature, admired for transforming extreme technical challenges into music of striking imagination, expressive range, and structural originality while anticipating the still more audacious experiments of Alkan’s later works. Book (Suite) II includes Nos. 7-12: 7. L’incendie au village voisin. Adagio (E♭ major); 8. Lento-Appassionato (A♭ major); 9. Contrapunctus. Amplement (C♯ major); 10. Chant d’amour-Chant de mort. Adagio (G♭ major); 11. Posément (B major); 12. Andando (E major). Reprint edition. Book I, containing Nos. 1-6 is also available from the publisher (M252791).

• M255391 / 36-M255391 DOUZE ETUDES, OP. 35 BK. 2 SOLO $17.50Buy Now