Alkan: The Complete Vianna da Motta Transcriptions

Featuring

Vincenzo Maltempo
Emanuele Delucchi
Charles Valentin Alkan

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Compositional Technique

Alkan's music is known for its fearsome rhythmic challenges, often requiring headlong pace in unyielding tempo, and striking harmonic individuality.

Composer Biography

Alkan was a close friend and neighbor of Chopin and was considered by some to surpass Liszt in interpretative powers.

Instruments

The recording features two grand pianos: a Tallone No. 9 from 1975 and a Steinway D from 1965, supplied by Marco Barletta Pianoforti.

Recording & Production

This recording was made possible by a grant from the Centre de musique française romantique at the Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice.

Composer Biography

Charles-Valentin Alkan, the composer, was a child prodigy who entered the Paris Conservatoire at age six and gave his first public piano recital at twelve.

Historical Context

Alkan extensively composed for the pédalier, an almost forgotten instrument that is a piano with an additional keyboard of foot-pedals, which he used to study Bach's organ music.