Alkan: Grande sonate 'Les quatre âges', Sonatine, Le festin d'Esope [IMPORT]

Charles-Valentin Alkan (Artist), Marc-André Hamelin (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 22, 1995)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Hyperion UK
• ASIN: B000002ZW4
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #117,041 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

1. Grande Sonate 'Les Quatre Ages', for piano in D major, Op. 33: 20 ans. Très vite

2. Grande Sonate 'Les Quatre Ages', for piano in D major, Op. 33: 30 ans, Quasi-Faust. Assez vite

3. Grande Sonate 'Les Quatre Ages', for piano in D major, Op. 33: 40 ans, un ménage heureu. Lentement

4. Grande Sonate 'Les Quatre Ages', for piano in D major, Op. 33: 50 ans, Prométhée enchaîné. Extrêmement lent

5. Sonatine, for piano in A minor, Op. 61: Allegro vivace

6. Sonatine, for piano in A minor, Op. 61: Allegramente

7. Sonatine, for piano in A minor, Op. 61: Scherzo-Minuet

8. Sonatine, for piano in A minor, Op. 61: Tempo giusto - Coda

9. Barcarolle: Assez lentemente, for piano in G minor (Recueil de Chants 3/6), Op. 65/6

10. Le festin d'Esope, variations for piano in E minor (Études dans tous les tons mineurs No. 12), Op. 39/12

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best solo piano recordings ever made., May 22, 2005

By	Pete "Pete" (North America) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This disc is totally astonishing. One you start listening to it you will not be able to stop. The Grande Sonate is one of the most beautiful, moving, complex pieces of music for solo piano ever written. Hamelin brings it to life like no one else can. If you have never listened to Alkan, this is a fine introduction to some of the greatest (and most forgotten) piano music ever composed. And if you have never listened to Hamelin - this is probably his greatest work ever. The more you listen to the Grande Sonate the more you discover in it. You wait for those dramatic, breathtaking moments. You marvel at how two human hands can produce these sounds through the piano, and you continually find more subtlies and nuances in this materpiece. Words fail in describing how great this recording is. If you love piano music - get it. It you love Alkan it is truly a must.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Inimitable Masterpiece, June 30, 2004

By A Customer

There are special moments in life when you remember exactly what you were doing when it happened. I remember exactly what I was doing when I first heard Bruckner's Eight (Guilini), Mahler's Second (Bernstein), Liszt Sonata (Horowitz), Gaspard de la Nuit (Michelangeli), and I can still hear to this day Richter's Schuman Symphonic Etudes, just to name a few. They were all life-changing events. My friend and I were having dinner when Hamelin's Grande Sonata appeared from the radio. Wow! I remember asking, "What crazy person had the nerve to compose this?", and more importantly, "Who on earth had the gall to record it?" Up to this faithful day in 1995, I had never heard of Hamelin or Alkan.
On this disc, Hamelin plays with so much elan, control, and technical ease that it leaves you breathless. Although the legendary Raymond Lewenthal and the late Ronald Smith have to be commended for their efforts in popularizing Alkan's much-neglected music, I believe Hamelin and this disc has been even more influential. I don't know if Alkan playing on this disc will ever be matched. This is certainly one of the greatest albums in history and should be part of the collection of all true classical music fans.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing technique, May 22, 2004

By	"jpecarski" (Yuma, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

Marc-Andre Hamelin is an astounding virtuoso. He gives life to Alkan's works, which I hear for the very first time! It is really mind-boggling how he succeeds in tackling the Augean stables of the eight-part fugue at the end of Quasi-Faust!!!
It is no wonder, then that even Liszt was afraid to compete with Alkan, whom he deemed a superior virtuoso to himself. Alkan's music in itself has a tremendous intrinsic value, which, if one can feel, describes to such depth the essence of the human soul!