Charles-Valentin Alkan - Complete Piano Duos and Duets (2011)

01 Benedictus, Op. 54 8:18

Impromptu sur le Choral de Luther ‘Un fort rempart est Notre Dieu’, Op. 69
02 minim = 63 4:14
03 L’istesso tempo (minim = 63) 1:23			play
04 L’istesso tempo (minim = 63) 1:54
05 L’istesso tempo (minim = 63) 5:41
06 Saltarelle, Op. 47 for piano duet 6:54

Fantaisie à quatre mains sur Don Juan, Op. 26
07 Introduzione 1:49
08 Tema (‘Venite pur avanti’) 0:50
09 Variation 1 0:54
10 Variation 2 0:57
11 Variation 3 1:39
12 Variation 4 1:31
13 Variation 5 2:51
14 Finale (‘Finch’ han dal vino’) 2:21			play

Trois Marches, Op. 40
15 No. 1 in A flat major (Allegro) 8:35
16 No. 2 in C minor/E flat major (Allegro moderato) 6:13
17 No. 3 in B flat major (Modérément) 5:45

18 Bombardo-Carillon, for piano duet 5:45
19 Finale, Op. 17, for piano duet 3:01

Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow - piano duet, piano duo

There is just enough music for two pianos and four hands at one keyboard by Charles-Valentin Alkan – with the inclusion of arrangements of three works that he wrote for the briefly fashionable pedal piano – to fill one CD. Fans will snap it up and all the performances by Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow have panache, but while there are flashes of the strangeness that gives Alkan's music its piquancy, it's hard to regard much of this repertoire as comparable with his finest solo piano works, such as the Quatre Ages Sonata and the Concerto and Symphony in his Op 39 Etudes. Though the Fantasy on Don Giovanni for four hands rivals Liszt's Don Giovanni Reminiscences in its virtuoso scope and intensity, it's the arrangements that seem closest to the better-known Alkan – the Op 54 Benedictus, with its throbbing minor-key pulsations framing the consoling main theme, the obtusely repetitive Bombardo-Carillon, originally composed for four feet at one pedal board, and especially the Impromptu on the Lutheran chorale Ein feste Burg, which is much more substantial than the title suggests. ---Andrew Clements, guardian.co.uk

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