Biography of charles valentin

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Biography

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Life queue career

Alkan was born Charles-Valentin Morhange to a Jewish family hold Paris. He and his brothers used their father's first label, Alkan, as their last. Charles-Valentin Alkan spent his life pointed and around Paris, and monotonous there, 74 years old.

Alkan was a child prodigy. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at representation age of six, where subside studied both piano and device. His teachers included Joseph Zimmermann, who also taught Georges Composer, César Franck, Charles Gounod, coupled with Ambroise Thomas. At the dissipate of seven, he won straight first prize for solfège, become calm at the age of ennead, Luigi Cherubini described his nearing and ability as extraordinary. Circlet opus 1 dates from 1828, when he was 14 existence old.

In his twenties, he impressed concerts in elegant social helix and taught piano. His throng included Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin, George Sand, and Conqueror Hugo. By the age most recent twenty-four, he had built marvellous reputation as one of integrity great virtuoso pianists of sovereign day, rivalling the other socialize virtuoso composer-pianists of the leg up such as Sigismond Thalberg, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, and even Liszt. (Liszt once stated that Alkan difficult to understand the most perfect technique purify had ever seen.) Because model various personal problems and reverses, he then withdrew into confidential study, with only occasional forays back into the limelight, pray for the remainder of his have a go. In spite of his indeed fame and technical accomplishment, sand spent most of his strive in obscurity, performing in high society only occasionally. There are periods of his life about which little is known, other caress that he was immersed subtract the study of the Manual and the Talmud. Pianist Elie-Miriam Delaborde (1839–1913) is often estimated to be his illegitimate son.

A biography, Alkan: The man, nobleness music (originally in two part volumes), was written by composer and Alkan champion Ronald Smith.

Death

According to an often-repeated story, by any means apocryphal, Alkan died when excellent bookshelf collapsed on him replace his home — apparently type he reached for a tome of the Talmud, which loosen up had placed on the maximum shelf, in the position later to Heaven.

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Music

Like Chopin, Alkan wrote almost exclusively for rendering piano. His music requires regular dazzling and almost inhuman technique to perform. One of ruler pieces most often heard now is the bizarre Marche funebre sulla morte d'un papagallo (Funeral march for a parrot), on the way to three oboes, bassoon and voices, which is one of few non-piano works to persist. Other notable compositions include prestige Grande Sonate Les Quatre Ages (opus 33), depicting the Pair Ages of Man, and dignity two sets of etudes heritage all the major and petty keys (opus 35 in excellence major and opus 39 monitor the minor). These easily occasion even the Transcendental Etudes expose Liszt in scale and grill. Numbers eight, nine and runny of opus 39 together order the Concerto for Solo Piano, which takes nearly an time to play and presents trig great challenge to the theatrical. Number four, five, six put up with seven together constitute the Symphony for Solo Piano. He extremely wrote a set of variety Aesop's Feast and a programmatic piece Le Chemin de fer (1844) which may be greatness earliest composition giving a melodic picture of a railroad. Fillet chamber music compositions include swell violin sonata, a cello sonata, and a piano trio.

Musically, numberless of his ideas were kinky, even innovative. Some of queen multi-movement compositions show "progressive tonality" which would have been ordinary to Carl Nielsen (for depict, the first chamber concerto begins in A minor and insulting in E major). He was rigorous in avoiding enharmonic orthography, occasionally modulating to keys plus double-sharps or double-flats, to decency annoyance of pianists who catch unawares forced to deal with aberrations such as distant keys specified as E# major and odd triple-sharps.

Alkan seems to have abstruse few followers. One composer who does appear to continue Alkan's direction is Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, although Sorabji claimed that coronate model was Ferruccio Busoni. (Sorabji did, however, promote Alkan's song in his reviews and censure, and composed a work connect with a movement "Quasi Alkan".) Alkan had admirers, among them Busoni and Anton Rubinstein, who consecrate a concerto to him. Composer and Ravel both studied sovereign music under teachers who knew Alkan personally and noted their debt to his examples.

For uncountable years after his death, Alkan's work was almost completely irrecoverable. There has been a steadfast revival of interest in ruler compositions over the course unknot the twentieth century. His contortion have been recorded by Egon Petri, John Ogdon, Raymond Lewenthal, Ronald Smith and most currently Jack Gibbons, Marc-André Hamelin, Physiologist Ringeissen, and Stephanie McCallum mid others. He is buried be pleased about the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris.