ALKAN
I do like to read some nice information about Alkan. The fact that I have written it myself doesn't put me off at all, oh no.
Alkan is...well you really should know. If not find out!
Alkan is my favourite composer. Although my favourite piece is the Beethoven Violin Concerto (not by Alkan). However, statistically Alkan wins by having more pieces I like. But let's not have Alkan and Beethoven competing, please. After all, they are different. There is no comparison!
So what to tell you about Alkan? The following shiny fishes of delight, which I have gathered from Ronald Smith's book (two books in one now, Alkan: The Man/Alkan: The Music). In English it's the main book (or only book?) for reading in some depth about this great composer. Yes, great, not odd or unusual. Busoni says, in the Foreword to his edition of Liszt's Studies:
OK good things to tell you about Alkan:
1. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six.
2. He won first prize for solfège at the age of seven and a half.
3. He won first prize for piano when he was eleven!
4. Much later, when he was teaching at the Conservatoire, he awarded a special prize to César Franck. The reason was that Franck decided his sight-reading exam was too easy so played the piece perfectly but in a different key and thereby failed the exam! Presumably Alkan thought he was worth a prize.
5. Alkan may have had (or definitely had, or something) a son known as Delaborde, who was keen on swimming. A joint natatory outing in the river Seine shortly preceded Bizet's death! Not only that but soon after Bizet died, perhaps from swimming with Delaborde, the survivor began the process of marrying Mme. Bizet!
6. Well actually these are all quite gossipy facts, aren't they. Wouldn't it be better to talk about something more useful?
Yes, I certainly will. But that's for next time...
Alkan is...well you really should know. If not find out!
Alkan is my favourite composer. Although my favourite piece is the Beethoven Violin Concerto (not by Alkan). However, statistically Alkan wins by having more pieces I like. But let's not have Alkan and Beethoven competing, please. After all, they are different. There is no comparison!
So what to tell you about Alkan? The following shiny fishes of delight, which I have gathered from Ronald Smith's book (two books in one now, Alkan: The Man/Alkan: The Music). In English it's the main book (or only book?) for reading in some depth about this great composer. Yes, great, not odd or unusual. Busoni says, in the Foreword to his edition of Liszt's Studies:
These fifty-eight pianoforte pieces alone would place Liszt in the rank of the greatest "pianoforte" composers since Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Alkan, Brahms.And that's true so just think about it please.
OK good things to tell you about Alkan:
1. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six.
2. He won first prize for solfège at the age of seven and a half.
3. He won first prize for piano when he was eleven!
4. Much later, when he was teaching at the Conservatoire, he awarded a special prize to César Franck. The reason was that Franck decided his sight-reading exam was too easy so played the piece perfectly but in a different key and thereby failed the exam! Presumably Alkan thought he was worth a prize.
5. Alkan may have had (or definitely had, or something) a son known as Delaborde, who was keen on swimming. A joint natatory outing in the river Seine shortly preceded Bizet's death! Not only that but soon after Bizet died, perhaps from swimming with Delaborde, the survivor began the process of marrying Mme. Bizet!
6. Well actually these are all quite gossipy facts, aren't they. Wouldn't it be better to talk about something more useful?
Yes, I certainly will. But that's for next time...
Labels: composers, excitements, peculiarities, people
posted by Philip Howard at 11:24 PM
4 Comments:
One of my colleagues at LCM, Dr William Alexander Eddie, has just published a book on Alkan, and I am currently reading it. One of the facts which I learnt from this book is that both Alkan and Delaborde were very keen on parrots, and when Delaborde sailed to England, he took 121 parrots and cockatoos with him!
This post has been removed by the author.
I see - I'd only heard of that book this week, actually. I haven't read it yet.
I think it's true about the parrots.
Alkan's "Funeral March for the Death of a Parrot" is often cited as an example of "the bizarreness of Alkan". It's certainly unusual, but it doesn't imply that all Alkan is like that. What I would think is that it suggests he had a few tricks up his sleeve that we might not expect ordinarily. And os course he never left the house much, so may have had tons of personality that we don't necessarily know about. So we must pay attention. And hope he leaves the house soon!
More of Alkan, please. You said "next time". Hopefully it's coming soon.
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