Alkan - Grande Sonate 'Les Quatre Ages' - 30 Ans 1/2

"Alkan must have felt in a savagely sadistic mood when he followed this taxing first movement by what must surely be one of the twelve most hazardous and tiring minutes in the entire nineteenth-century piano repertoire. But Quasi-Faust is far more than a demonstration of transcendental piano writing. An iron discipline controls and contains the black satanic forces that sweep through this gigantic movement."

"The action now becomes increasingly violen and tortured. As the lyrical subject makes continued but abortive attempts to assert itself it is marked "with supplication", "despairingly" and "torn apart", before the recapitulation is reached in a passage of unbridled fury. Here the constant crossing of the pianist's arms seems to add a symbolic significance as the Faust motif becomes locked in mortal conflict with salvos of leaping octaves."

"Faust survives, and for the first time Alkan applies the brakes in an imposing build up of orchestral sonority crowned by four huge arpeggios that sweep from the bottom to the top of the keyboard. ..with the Devil's assistance they should land on the notes E sharp, F sharp, D sharp and C sharp and, lest we have forgotten that these are the first four notes of the "Redemption theme" played backwards, Alkan immediately reminds us by spelling them out in their correct order. All is now hushed for the strangest and most complex passage in all nineteenth-century piano music. In a riot of sharps, double sharps and one triple sharp this fugal exposition modulates unerringly to the remote key of E sharp major. The final extraordinary combination of six parts in invertible counterpoint, plus two extra voices and three doublings - eleven parts in all - initiates the entry of 'Le Seigneur' (The Lord) symbolised by an open fourth, the outlying notes of the chant."

"The final pages complete the sonata scheme with a magnificent peroration in which all the warring elements - even the devil himself - are held captive by the omnipresent motif as it mounts inexorably, as a six-note ostinato, to its majestic climax. For the two massive chords which end this complex drama this great subject, the main-spring of the entire work, is once more reduced to its essential interval of a fourth signifying 'Le Seigneur'."

*All quotes taken from Ronald Smith's book entitled Alkan - The man, The Music.*

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Marc-Andre
• Hamelin
• Charles
• Valentin
• Alkan
• Piano
• Virtuoso

[pearsewl]

1:12 I think I heard Frosty the Snowman

[KeithWhalen11]

@pearsewl Hahahahaha, I hear it too now that you've pointed it out.

[imawsome13]

I'd like to first thank you for all of your wonderful Alkan videos! I was wondering if it would be possible for you to upload the rest of this monumental recording.

[KeithWhalen11]

Hey, no problem man. I'll try to upload the rest later tonight, gonna go watch my friend's hockey game after dinner. I'll have 20 and 40 Ans up by tomorrow no questions asked. :)

[KeithWhalen11]

20 Ans is up, I have to fix 40 Ans and split it into 2 parts, damn you youtube!

[John11inch]

No, I like Hamelin. His comments just make me puke.

[John11inch]

Just shut up, seriously. If you're going to fellate Hamelin, please do it in privacy so others don't have to be so disgusted :x

[gerardbedecarter]

@OrangeSodaKing .... Liszt knew Alkan's piano works and this must have include this piece. He used Alkan's themes and transformations in his own B minor Sonata.

[lebannerfan65]

I have found my catharsis! One of the most vivid, flourishing and mesmerizing pieces of music I've ever heard. Truly inspiring.

[OrangeSodaKing]

@Laudan08 Oh yeah! I'm sure he could play it very well! In fact, I think he did know it, because his sonata has obvious similarities to this movement. Check out my video I just uploaded about the similarities between the two works.

[Laudan08]

@OrangeSodaKing could liszt play this?

[kastlesucksTDOTS]

Surely one of the most cruel compositions EVER!

5:00 is AMAZING!!

[OrangeSodaKing]

Listen to 3:23. Doesn't that remind you of that huge D Major section about three or four minutes into Liszt's Sonata in B Minor?

But wait! This sonata was composed and published a few years BEFORE Liszt's. Hmm...

;)

[aranithil]

This is...awesome.

[aatall]

Aww, it ends at the best part!