handsoff Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I received an email from Europadisc about Bank Holiday special offers including this... http://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/6065...Works_vol.1.htm I confess my total ignorance having never heard of the composer and wonder if anyone knows the pieces bearing in mind they haven't been previously recorded. Is it worth buying? Worth a punt at the bargain price I guess... Thanks P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwhodges Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I have taken some interest in Alkan, as my piano teacher was the man who did most to rediscover him some 40 years ago. He played and wrote for a piano with pedals (but the organ as well), and a lot of his "organ" music is frankly pianistic. Some doesn't work on the organ to my ears, but much is well worth trying. You won't find a better advocate of these pieces than Bowyer (there is a companion disk 2 as well; and presumably a forthcoming disk 3 - the pieces on that will be pretty much those on Bowyer's earlier recording at Salisbury for Nimbus). Paul NB - you can download the album from the publishers for £7.99 which is cheaper again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vox Humana Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 You will find one or two scores on the three pages of this website. Page 3 has the score of his 12 organ or pedal piano studies for feet only, from which I can only conclude that he either did not treat the organ very seriously or did not understand it. Look at page 12 of the score, for example. How would you (how could you) play that ascending and descending chromatic scale near the end on the organ? Alkan's music has always looked to me to require the persuasive powers of someone especially dedicated to understanding it. I've never thought I could make anything of it (and, frankly, I wouldn't be able to get anywhere near the pedal studies technically), but I daresay in the right hands... I shall try to listen out for Bowyer's recordings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonadkins Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 This sounds not dissimilar (in terms of difficulty, if not musical language) to the music of Sorabji, whom Bowyer also holds in high esteem... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handsoff Posted May 24, 2008 Author Share Posted May 24, 2008 Thank you for those interesting replies. I've looked at the scores and don't think it's really my sort of thing. I certainly could never have played the pedal part Vox Humana pointed out - nor would I have wanted to, I don't think! I may ask if my local library can get a copy of one or more of the CDs rather than buy it (them) myself - space on the shelves has become scarce since I joined this forum. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acc Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vox Humana Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 I can only conclude that he either did not treat the organ very seriously or did not understand it. Ahem! I see that Alkan won the first prize for organ at the Paris conservatoire in 1634, so that rather puts paid to that theory! I suppose, then, that he must never have expected the studies that go below bottom C to be played on the organ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJJ Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 Ahem! I see that Alkan won the first prize for organ at the Paris conservatoire in 1634, I didn't realise that the Conservatoire was there that far back! AJJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vox Humana Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 He seems to have been an uncommonly long-lived composer too! Read 1834! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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