Alkan: Grande Sonate Les Quatre Âges; Symphony; Étude Op 76 No 3

Vincenzo Maltempo (piano) Piano Classics PCL 0038***

Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-88), real surname Morhange, is a 19th century virtuoso who doesn’t often feature in the repertoire at the Dublin International Piano Competition. His most celebrated pieces are simply too difficult and too dangerous.

The oddity and originality of the conception creates problems even for players who have managed to master the notes. Italian pianist Vincenzo Maltempo has the fingers to handle the velocities that Alkan demands. But in the 1848 Sonata charting the four ages of man he rather misses the bigger picture. The 1857 Symphony for solo piano (part of a set of 12 studies that also includes a Scherzo diabolico and a three-movement solo concerto) fares rather better, and the dazzling moto-perpetuo parallel movement of the third study from Op. 76 better again. url.ie/fdvh