Charles-Valentin Alkan: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Charles Henri Valentin Alkan (30 November 1813 - 29 March 1888) was a French composer and pianist.

Alkan was born Charles Henri Valentin Morhange to a Jewish family in Paris. He and his brothers used their father's first name, Alkan, as their last. Charles-Valentin Alkan spent his life in and around Paris and died there in 1888.

Alkan was child a prodigy. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six, where he studied both piano and organ. His teachers included Joseph Zimmermann, who also taught Georges Bizet, César Franck, Charles Gounod, and Ambroise Thomas.

In his twenties, he played concerts in elegant social circles and taught piano. His friends included Liszt and Chopin, George Sand, and Victor Hugo. By the age of twenty-four, he had built a reputation as one of the great virtuoso pianists of his day, rivalling Liszt and Sigismond Thalberg. He then withdrew into private study, with only occasional forays into the limelight, for the remainder of his life. In spite of his early fame and technical accomplishment, he spent most of his life in obscurity, performing in public only occasionally. There are periods of his life about which little is known, other than that he was immersed in the study of Bible and Talmud.

Alkan seems to have had few followers. One composer who does appear to continue Alkan's direction is Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, although Sorabji claimed that his model was Busoni. Alkan had admirers, among them Busoni and Anton Rubinstein, who dedicated a concerto to him.

Like Chopin, Alkan wrote almost exclusively for the piano. His most important works are the Grande Sonate Les Quatre Ages (opus 33) and the two sets of Etudes in all the major and minor keys (opus 35 in the major and opus 39 in the minor). These last match even the Transcendental Etudes of Liszt in scale and difficulty. Numbers eight nine and ten of opus 39 together form the Concerto for Solo Piano, which takes nearly an hour to play and presents a great challenge to the performer. Number four, five, six and seven together constitute the Symphony for Solo Piano.

For many years after his death, Alkan's work was almost completely forgotten. There has been a steady revival of interest in his compositions over the course of the twentieth century. His works have been recorded by John Odgon, Raymond Lewenthal, and most recently Marc-André Hamelin, among others.