Alkan - Concerto for Solo Piano

From a recital in June 2015:

youtube.com/watch?v=wSUSUBZxKF0

Not entirely perfect, but I suspect that may be inevitable when playing a work like this in public for the first time. But the interpretation is largely there. A lot of fun!

1 Like

hahahahaah i haff no wordz; really unbelievabl zkill :kan: :whale: :doc:

are ther any zpotz wher u iz thinking ‘daim i may not haff tha energy to finizh thiz’ ? or even juz certain pazzagez that when u prax u can pull off but live, aftah 40 minutez of difficult zheeyat, are at rizk

neway 10/10 aint high enough fo thiz 8)

rezpec :gav:

You’re such a freak dude; I don’t know how you manage.

:kan: :kan: :kan:

So long as one has the right piano to perform this (i.e. one without an overly heavy action, and which can produce a big sound without too much resistance), I don’t generally find physical stamina to be an issue in this work. While the first movement contains some passages of fairly extreme physicality, they don’t last for too long, and the movement also contains a (large) number of passages that allow you to rest. The second movement is also a good (physical) breather (even the LH tremolo section is not taxing, with the proper technique). So it is only really the third movement that raises issues of endurance. And while the third movement is pianistically relentless (save perhaps for the passage leading up to the recapitulation), it only lasts for around 10 minutes.

As for “performance risk” (i.e. passages that can be nailed in practice, but become risky in performance), I actually find the pianism in this to be fairly “safe”, once the basic techniques are secured. With one exception, there are no outlandish leaps (the exception is of course the LH passage at 9:46 in the video, which happened to go well enough on that occasion). All of the pianistic techniques are conventional and (typically for Alkan) the entire work fits very well under the fingers. I suppose the extended repeated notes in the first movement could theoretically be a source of risk, but (again) this risk can be managed by securing the right technique and the right piano in advance.

That is why the relative messiness of parts of this performance was fairly disappointing! I put that down to the level of apprehension I felt going in to this; playing this in public felt like quite a risk for a part-time pianist, but now that I’ve gotten through it once, I’m confident that the next time(s) will be easier (and better).

There are few things as motivating as fear of public humiliation!

‘fear of public humiliation’ so let’s perform alkan solo conc in public tru :sunglasses:

massiv rezpek. srsly.

DAIMMM

9999/10

WOW!

:kan: :kan: :kan: :kan: :kan: :kan: :kan: :kan: :kan: :kan: :kan: :kan: Very nice, you deserve so much more views… Just like Alkan deserves so much more fuckin respec :comme:

great job man.

you’re wasted on this rep, my friend! :slight_smile: fantastic playing.

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk