Alkan - 12 Etudes, Op 35

The Guardian 100

Mark Viner
(Piano Classics)

The piano music of Charles-Valentin Alkan is no longer regarded as the preserve of a handful of zealous specialists. Over the last two decades a whole raft of young pianists have emerged keen to take on the challenges presented by the French composer’s keyboard writing, which is some of the most demanding in 19th-century music. The Piano Classics label has already documented a number of those exceptional performances, most notably in the revelatory series of discs from Vincenzo Maltempo, and now come two further additions to that series. One of them, played by Giovanni Bellucci, is devoted to Alkan’s early works – the three Concerti da Camera Op 10, and the first ever recording of the Six Pieces Op 16. The other, from the young British pianist Mark Viner, is a complete performance of one of his most substantial and remarkable cycles, the 12 Etudes in all the major keys, Op 35.

Alkan's C major Presto​​ tests a pianist’s tremolo ability almost to destruction