Alkan - Le vent

"Le vent" from Trois morceaux dans le genre pathetique Op. 15 (1837)

Quoted from Ronald Smith's Alkan, The Man, The Music:

"Le vent was once a familiar piece de resistance in the recital programmes of Harold Bauer and Adela Verne. Sorabji's complaint that most people only think of Alkan as the composer of Le vent must fall strangely on modern ears that have never caught the most fleeting snatch of this superannuated war-horse. On the face of it Le vent appears to be no more than a period piece of pyrotechnics: 'a chromatic howl over an idea from Beethoven's A major symphony' was Schumann's unkind description. Despite, however, a superficial resemblance to the Allegretto from Beethoven's Seventh the true ancestry of the dirge-like chorale that inhabits its outer sections should be sought elsewhere, for example in the great slow movements from Schubert's last two sonatas.

The spine-chilling appearance on paper of a merciless stream of sextuplets is misleading. Their constant rise and fall should sound impressionistic until Alkan unleashes the elements in two pages of unthematic, chromatic storm. His subsequent combination of chromatic volleys with tremolando must have impressed Liszt for he used both devices at a similar point in the 1851 version of Chasse-neige, but more concisely. Henri Blanchard's description of the composer's own performance of Le vent suggests a style of delivery familiar from the finale of Chopin's B flat minor Sonata, completed three years later. 'All the sounds of the wind are depicted and varied in the most delightful manner' he tells us."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• alkan
• liszt

[PetrichorAllegory]

3 people can't play chromatic scales.

[Amarelaoo1]

the scary part of it is that someone actually have sat down to WRITE THIS

[thecookchef]

This is inspired by or inspired Chopin's Etude opus 25 no11 WinterWind or in french: Le Vent d'Hiver.

[monobrow638]

@123eldest Lol yes, sorry ends on the E above middle C! Sorry, don't know why I said A xD

[123eldest]

@monobrow638 I haven't played it but looking at the score do you mean the chromatic scale that ends in E for the C#m section near the end?

[monobrow638]

@123eldest If you've played the op.25 no.7 etude of Chopin, there's a really fast ascending chromatic in the return of the A section, the suggested fingering for which is 33434334 starting on the first G of the piano and going up to the A below middle C. Takes some getting used to, but it makes a really rapid and legato sound, like a roar! :)

[tjtheplay]

@123eldest hmmmm. I don't really think there's a way for not crossing. You could switch up the fingering, but I think you would still have to deal with crossing. I guess you have to get used to it because with all scales, you have to cross no matter what.

But no matter what DO NOT USE YOUR THUMB ON A BLACK KEY!!!

[123eldest]

@tjtheplay thanks for the reply, i think that technique uses the thumb too much, i try to avoid crossing the thumb under too often. How do you find it?

[tjtheplay]

@123eldest Right hand starting at C going up:

131312313131231313123 etc...

Right hand starting at C going down:

21313132131313213131321 etc...

Left hand starting at C going up:

131312313131231313123 etc...

Left hand starting at C going down:

21313132131313213131321 etc...

Hope this helps!

[newFranzFerencLiszt]

chords at 00:30 not arpeggiated! O_O

[123eldest]

@twooffour thanks for the reply

[ZeldaMarshall]

Also recommended for you lovers of "wind" etudes -- check out Alkan's other "wind" etude: Comme le vent (etude in a minor, No. 1 of Op. 39).