Le Festin d'Ésope and Other Works for Solo Piano

A phenomenal piano virtuoso and noteworthy member of nineteenth-century Parisian society, Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–88) was among Liszt's contemporaries and one of Chopin's close friends. Unlike his legendary companions, Alkan gradually slipped into obscurity in his own day because of his eccentric ways and hurt over imagined slights. Twenty years later — epitomizing the near-theatrical lives of the great Romantics — the composer emerged to present his mature works to an astonished public, including some of the most extraordinary, most challenging piano compositions ever written.
This collection includes three monumental works for Alkan's Twelve studies in all the minor keys, Op. 39: the complete four-movement "Symphony for Solo Piano," the complete three-movement "Concerto for Solo Piano," and "Le Festin d'Ésope" (Aesop's Feast), 25 variations on an original theme. Three smaller works complete this important edition: Saltarelle, Op. 23; Toccatina, Op. 75; and the lovely "Barcarolle" from Op. 65, modelled on Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words.
Pianists of advanced skills — and students of music's great revolutionary masters — will welcome this new treasury of hard-to-find pieces, selected and with commentary by Marc André Hamelin, the piano virtuoso who has performed Alkan's music worldwide and recorded the composer's major works.