Charles-Valentin Alkan: Complete Recueils de Chants, Volume One
The wild originality of Charles-Valentin Alkan was little appreciated during his lifetime (1813-88), nor during the century which followed, when he was largely lost from sight. But now Alkan is increasingly recognised as one of the most individual personalities in all music. The five albums he called Recueils de chants — miniature tone-poems which marry Classical constraint to virtuoso Romantic excess — provide an attractive gateway to his freewheeling imagination.
Stephanie McCallum, piano
Listen To This Recording:
-
Premier recueil de chants, Op. 38 (1857)
- 1. Assez vivement
- 2. Sérénade: Quasi-allegretto
- 3. Choeur: Allegro
- 4. L’Offrande: Andantino
- 5. Agitatissimo (disperato)
- 6. Barcarolle: Andante
- 1. Hymne: Adagio
- 2. Allegretto (‘Fa’)
- 3. Chant de guerre: Allegro
- 4. Procession-Nocturne: Andantino
- 5. Andantino
- 6. Barcarolle en choeur: Andante
- 1. Vivante
- 2. Esprits follets: Prestissimo
- 3. Canon: Assez vivement – Assez doucement
- 4. Tempo giusto
- 5. Horace et Lydie: Vivacissimo
- 6. Barcarolle: Assez lentement
- Une fusée: Introduction et Impromptu, Op. 55 (1859)
Deuxième recueil de chants, Op. 38 (1857)
Troisième recueil de chants, Op. 65 (c. 1859)
Classical Ear :
‘…Alkan followed in the path of Mendelssohn, but developed eccentrically, eventually producing a corpus of long and titanically difficult works for piano and a large number of shorter pieces of considerable originality as well as charm…’
—Mark DeVoto, Classical Ear
Limelight :
‘…His fascinating music, which is finally becoming known and admired by a wider audience, is among the most individual and technically demanding of any in the Romantic era.…McCallum is across every aspect of this music, exploring the collection’s diversity with apparent ease…’
—Phillip Scott, Limelight
Seth Blacklock :
An excellent recording!
Stephanie McCallum has a natural affinity for the works of Alkan that really comes through in this reading.
It’s brilliant to finally have an acoustic recording of the Op. 55 too, a tricky work, but handled in a masterly fashion by one of the composer’s great modern-day champions.
Bring on disc two!
Ethan James McCollum :
This is a fantastic undertaking by a wonderful pianist! It’s about time somebody else records the complete Chants. I will make sure to acquire this CD soon. I can already tell by the audio preview samples that McCallum’s playing is splendid and that the CD is definitely worth the purchase.
I am also excited for whenever Volume 2 is released!
BBC Radio 3 :
‘This is really interesting Alkan. We associate Alkan with gigantic, over-the-top virtuoso works […] This is Alkan the lyricist and the miniaturist […] It’s really exquisitely played by Stephanie McCallum, who really ‘gets’ the style […] if you want to get into Alkan yourself, this is an excellent disc to try.
She really has wonderfully mastered Alkan’s style. […]
this CD actually has some very good programme notes’
—Kenneth Hamilton and Andrew McGregor, CD Review, BBC Radio 3
Fanfare Magazine :
‘I thought it a stunning disc upon first hearing; it has not lost its appeal all these years later. There is a grittiness to her playing which is highly appropriate for so many of this composer’s works […]
McCallum characterizes each of these little gems perfectly […] I eagerly await the second volume in this series.’
—Scott Noriega, Fanfare Magazine July/August 2013
Fanfare Magazine :
‘McCallum’s playing is exemplary, her projection of the melody just right, her realization of the piece’s aura simply beautiful. […]
McCallum exhibits fine virtuosity[…]
A remarkable disc; one that I for one will not forget in a long while. The generous annotations are just as expert as the playing.’
—Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine July/August 2013
Fanfare Magazine :
‘McCallum maintains a balanced approach, never ever rushing just to dazzle the listener with the sheer difficulty of the music […] but rather always emphasizing the lyricism inherent in the music.’
—Lynn René Bayley, Fanfare Magazine July/August 2013
Fanfare Magazine :
‘McCallum is never less than engaging, savvy in choices of tempo, aware of continuities as the pieces unfold, and deft in projecting Alkan’s bizarre quirkiness. […]
Warmest recommendation.’
—Adrian Corleonis, Fanfare Magazine July/August 2013
Classical Ear :
‘Stephanie McCallum joins the small but august cohort of performers, including Ronald Smith, Raymond Lewenthal, and Marc-Andre Hamelin, who dare to bring Alkan’s strange, mannered, but entirely gratifying music to a wider public. Her performance is brilliant.’
—Mark De Voto, Classical Ear, September 2013
MusicWeb International :
‘Alkan’s Recueils de Chants are remarkable Mendelssohnian tone poems for piano. […]
Certainly McCallum is a practised exponent of Alkan’s music and she has spent a number of years performing and recording it. She is alive to his affectionate Allegrettos and is always extremely effective – I would say at her most supremely stylish – in the third movement Chants (or Choeur or Canon). She deftly evokes the dog bark in that of Book I, and so too the delicate bell peals in the succeeding piece. The flowing agitation of the tensile fifth pieces of the sets is also finely conveyed. […]
The Third Book is again warmly and acutely performed. […]
With first class booklet notes and recording quality, this first release in the series can be warmly commended.’
&mdas;Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International
BBC Music Magazine :
‘[…]the non-stop excellence of Stephanie McCallum’s playing.’
—Malcolm Hayes, BBC Music Magazine
Classica Magazine :
‘La pianiste australienne, Stephanie McCallum est une disciple de Ronald Smith, un des grands ‘découvreurs’ d’Alkan. Elle a déjà enregistré les Études dans les tons Mineurs (ABC Classics) et possède une technique assez éprouvée pour déjouer les chausse-trappes de cette musique mais aussi toute la sensibilité pour en faire autre chose qu’un vain bavardage romantico-virtuose.’
English translation:
‘Australian pianist Stephanie McCallum is a disciple of Ronald Smith, one of Alkan’s great ‘discoverers’. She has already recorded the Studies in Minor Keys (ABC Classics) and possesses a technique well-proven enough to navigate the pitfalls of this music, but also all the sensitivity to make it something other than empty romantic-virtuoso chatter.’
—Jacques Bonnaure, Classica Magazine
Limelight :
‘McCallum is across every aspect of this music, exploring the collection’s diversity with apparent ease – from the flowing Mendelssohnian Assez vivement (Book 1) to the Chopinesque Vivante (Book 3) and all the various marches and character pieces in between. She is beautifully recorded (in the Sydney Conservatorium Hall).’
—Phillip Scott, Limelight