Alkan - Grand Sonata Op. 33- IV 50 ans: "Prométhée enchaîné"

[mikedeliv]

if you want to play fast when the tempo is GRAVE ( d=30-40 ) you must use 128th notes . But he must have been sadist to use them instead of indicating a faster tempo!

[xtfcr7]

@mikedeliv But then it breaks the overall flow of the piece, because the performer (and consequently the listener) perceives the two different tempi. Slow 128th notes are different than fast 16ths.

[addeex1]

@mikedeliv No Alkan wanted the melody to be "grave", same tempo as before while the left hand makes those fast drills. Nothing sadist about that :)

[mikedeliv]

@addeex1 I think you are right. Just look at the first page of beethoven's pathetique. it's also grave and also feuatures 64ths notes . When i first saw it I said " Beethoven took ecstasy and wrote that " but then i realized that this had a point

[BagelBites48]

This tempo is brutally slow; the eighth-notes feel like half-notes. Why did he choose to write it this way? Because he wants the sheet music to look more impressive than it really is. I hate when composers do this.

[OrangeSodaKing]

@BagelBites48 Yeah, but that seems to happen often, like in the second movement of Beethoven's Op. 53 Sonata or second movement of Beethoven's Op. 111 Sonata, as well as countless other examples (not with just Beethoven, either). Chopin often spared us of having to read 32nd, 64th, and 128th notes, but most of the time Alkan actually did that too (this is one of those few exceptions).

[OrangeSodaKing]

@BagelBites48 And more impressive? If you are concerned that something is too impressive, you should argue that for the first two movement, not this one! ;) The score here doesn't intimidate me the slightest bit... If anything does, it's the depth of the piece. After all, one famous pianist (I forget who) said that he can handle the fast movements fine, but he "will be sweating after the slow movement."

[OverFjell]

@OrangeSodaKing Didn't Cziffra make that remark about playing in general?

[Pageboy72]

Alkan WOULD use 128th notes.

[f1f1s]

I can't even guess which is more tragique: Chopin's Sonata second mvt. (Marche Funebre), Liszt's Legend 2 or this piece.

Alkan must have been extremely desolated and desperate when he was composing it. As he writes to Hiller, "every day, I feel myself getting more and more misanthropic and misogynistic. And yet, there are times when having nothing good or useful to do for others, not having to devote myself to somebody or something, makes me awfully sad and unhappy".

Last-ditch man's music!

[michaeljh216]

1:38 It made me jump!

[88alan8800]

I like the other movements better

[TheJgutierrez]

1-2-8th NOTES HOLY ****

[addeex1]

at 6:30 you see on the middle, what does "jusqu" mean?

"et en augementant graduellement jusqu´ au FF"

[ultracoolhomies]

until

[JakWho92]

I'm german so it could be not that accurate but something like:

and getting louder gradually to fortissimo.

[Alexenzo]

Je confirme (Ich bin französisch)

[kastlesucks]

It is French for Gradually louder Jusqu (to) fortissimo

[addeex1]

Thanks :D It says so in Le preux etude too, and I´m on that piece right know and needed to know :P

Btw I like you accountname xD (y) 5/5

[mdeonx16]

Your username is amazing ^..^

[Haeronthegreat]

'...and whilst augmenting gradually until fortissimo' translated literally.

[ultracoolhomies]

Will you be uploading the rest of the sonata?

[jasonextreme]

I'm sorry to say this, but this one was too dramatic for my taste. It sounds like a midlife crisis and I'm only 16.

[komoru]

What did you expect, clair de lune or something?

[jasonextreme]

Not really, this piece just didn't appeal to me, the way it's so lamentful.

[Hexameron]

Well, compared to the sea of insipid and cheerful 19th-century salon pieces, Alkan's darker and intense works are refreshing.

Why do you dislike unhappy music? Life isn't puppies and sunny meadows, and Alkan had his share of bitterness. To me, his expressive powers are at their best in this anguished movement.

[jasonextreme]

Don't get me wrong, he's a briliant artist. I just felt the 1st three mvts. were so riveting.

I know I'm being biased, but this mvt. let me feel out of touched, but then again, he's depicting the life of a man throughout his youth to, well... a mid-life crisis. It's a great work actually in which it shows much truth of such a man. So yeah.

[eethove]

Am I the only one to keep hearing the slow theme from Liszt's Hungarian rhapsody several times over from about 4:08 to 4:30?

Does anyone else hear it?

[Hexameron]

If you mean the more famous No. 2 (he wrote 19), yes, there is some resemblance. From that timestamp you indicated, I'm reminded more of Liszt's symphonic poem, Heroide funebre (especially when it's performed on two pianos).

[TheWanderingNight]

@eethove

I actually hear a bit of Liebestraume (the famous one) in there, but I'm sure the resemblance is only superficial.

[ReturnOfTheStienway]

Thank you for the explanation of the music, along with the preface. I believe it is needed to understand a work of this mass.

[4candles]

This is the first time I have heard Réach's version. I really like it, though he does take some artistic liberties, which don't altogether agree with me. Ronald Smith's, though it really is EXTREMELY slow, is my favourite version. It sounds really resigned and funereal. Great stuff! This Sonate is one of Alkan's masterpieces, beyond a doubt.

[KeithWhalen11]

I couldn't agree more 4candles, I've listened to all the interpretations in sequence and Ronald Smith's version is the finest. It's slow almost to the point of breaking down and coming to a halt and it just lures me in each time. The most important and pensive piece in Alkan's repertoire IMO.

[Lukecash12]

Staggering, it's art...

[KeithWhalen11]

Awesome, great to see the sheets to the piece. I love the preface to the 50 Ans movement.