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:
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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)
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4 reviews for Charles-Valentin Alkan: Complete Recueils de Chants, Volume One
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Mark DeVoto :
“…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
Phillip Scott :
“…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!