Alkan, Charles-Valentin 1813 - 1888
Author: Ueda, Yasushi
Last updated：January 14, 2019
Author: Ueda, Yasushi
From the late 1820s to the 1830s, young piano prodigies from all over Europe flocked to Paris, dreaming of success. Chopin, Liszt, Rosenhain, Wolff, Döhler, Dreyschock—they captivated Parisian audiences with their brilliant technique and unique musical language. Amidst this, a group of French pianist-composers, no less talented than these foreign virtuosos, began to form, centered around the National Conservatory in Paris. Alkan was an original musician who emerged after the generation of Joseph Zimmermann (1785–1853), Kalkbrenner (1785–1849), and Henri Herz (1803–1888), serving as a symbolic figure heralding the arrival of the young “French School” (École Française) born in the 1810s.
1. Birth and Study Period (1813–1820s)
Alkan’s ancestors were a Jewish family who migrated from Eastern to Central Europe and settled in a village called Morhange in northeastern France. They eventually adopted the village name “Morhange” as their own. Charles-Valentin Alkan was born on November 30, 1813, in Paris, the second child of Alkan Morhange (1779–1855), a devout Jew who ran a music school, and his mother Julie Morhange. Alkan had one elder sister and four younger brothers, and all six children born into the Morhange family pursued careers in music. The children soon adopted the surname Alkan, taking their father’s name. Charles-Valentin, who began studying piano and violin under his father’s guidance and showed remarkable musical talent, entered the Paris Conservatoire (known as the Royal School of Music under the Bourbon Restoration) in 1820 at the age of six. He performed the violin in public at age seven and completed his piano studies in 1824 at age ten, winning a first prize. In 1826, with the patronage of his father and his piano teacher at the Conservatoire, Professor Joseph Zimmermann, he performed a set of variations (likely Variations on a Theme by Steibelt, Op. 1, composed in the same year) at a concert as a pianist.
In 1827, he became Zimmermann’s assistant (a preparatory teacher known as a répétiteur). Alkan soon gained access to aristocratic salons and quickly became a darling of society, establishing connections with leading artists such as Liszt and Hiller. Chopin, upon his arrival in Paris in 1831, soon met Alkan, and together with Hiller, they formed a lifelong friendship.
The beginning of his compositional career was marked by the aforementioned Variations on a Theme by Steibelt, Op. 1 (dedicated to Zimmermann), and the exhilarating, Rossini-esque Le Chemin de fer (The Omnibus), Op. 2 (1828), which, with its glissandos, octaves, and rapid repeated notes, is a brilliant achievement of his teenage years, full of technical demands.
2. Fame and First Retirement (1830–1843)
The July Revolution of 1830 greatly inspired the imagination of Romantic artists, and Alkan was no exception. In 1833, Alkan visited England, likely interacting with local musicians. The following year, his Chamber Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Strings was published, dedicated to a pianist named Henry Field from Bath, England, and published in London. In 1836, its sister work, Chamber Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra, was published in Paris.
While engaging with a virtuosic and brilliant style, Alkan received private instruction in counterpoint—and likely operatic composition—from Zimmermann. In 1832, he received an honorable mention in the Prix de Rome composition competition, a gateway for composers (the first prize that year went to Ambroise Thomas, a fellow student in the piano class). His rigorous training in strict counterpoint would later form the foundation of Alkan’s polyphonic writing.
In the latter half of the 1830s, his quest for new piano playing techniques intensified. In the series “12 Caprices” (as listed in contemporary publishing catalogs), ranging from Trois Impromptus dans le style brillant, Op. 12 (1837), to Trois Scherzos, Op. 16 (published the same year), he combined unparalleled, extreme technique with his unique musical language. Among this series of works, Souvenirs – Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique, Op. 15, received generally favorable criticism from Liszt (though Alkan’s deliberate omission of dynamic and expression marks left Liszt with an inexplicable impression). However, Alkan had to endure harsh criticism from Schumann, who held an aesthetic position diametrically opposed to his own. Alongside his technical explorations, Alkan vividly depicted seasonal scenes in Six Morceaux caractéristiques, Op. 8 (1837), which would later be supplemented as Douze Mois (1838). In the spring of 1839, Clara Schumann met Alkan during her stay in Paris and highly praised “Passover” from Douze Mois in a letter to her fiancé, Robert. Robert, on the other hand, who regarded Alkan as the furthest right wing of French Romanticism, received these pieces more favorably than before and appreciated his qualities as a pianist, but thereafter never positively evaluated Alkan as a composer.
With numerous successful concerts, Alkan was at the height of his glory in the late 1830s. He enjoyed the deep trust of his esteemed friends; in 1836, Franz Liszt offered Alkan a professorship at the Belgian Conservatoire (an offer Alkan declined). He fostered musical exchanges with Chopin, and in 1838, Alkan, Zimmermann, Chopin, and his pupil Adolphe Gutmann performed Alkan’s arrangement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 (for two pianos, eight hands).
However, Alkan, who had attracted significant journalistic attention, disappeared from public concerts from 1839 to 1844, and his publications almost ceased. Several factors contributed to this retirement. One was the death of his father in 1838, and another was the birth of his son, Élie-Miriam Delaborde (1839–1913), with a married woman of aristocratic background. It is believed that this event in his private life had some influence on his withdrawal from public activity. This child, who later adopted the name Delaborde, became an excellent pianist and composer, and a piano professor at the Conservatoire, contributing to the dissemination of his father’s works by performing them himself, having his students perform them, and re-publishing them.
Even during this period, however, Alkan released his Piano Trio (1841) and Grand Duo Concertant for Violin and Piano (1842), experimenting with chamber music (the former’s first movement features the use of the whole-tone scale, while the latter’s second movement, “L’Enfer” (Hell), is notable for cluster-like dissonances).
3. Brilliance in his 30s (1844–1848)
In 1844, Alkan reappeared in public and rapidly published the works he had accumulated. Le Chevalier – Étude de concert, Op. 17, Saltarelle, Op. 23, Gigue et Air de Ballet dans le style ancien, Op. 24 (dedicated to his brother Napoléon Alkan), and Le Chemin de fer – Étude, Op. 27, are all ambitious works from his spirited thirties, maximizing the piano’s range and the functionality of the English action to explore a new, unique piano music style. In the same year, he began work on a Symphony for large orchestra, but it was never performed or published (only a review based on the autograph manuscript by Léon Kreutzer remains). It is regrettable that this score is currently missing. In the late 1840s, his creative power reached its peak in the first half of his career with the Grande Sonate Op. 33, which bears programmatic titles tracing a life, Scherzo Focoso Op. 34 (1847), and 12 Études in all major keys Op. 35 (1848).
Alkan was not a musician who sought public attention through the eccentricity of his performance and compositional style. It is likely that during his study period, under the influence of his teacher Zimmermann, his German friend F. Hiller, and the music theorist F.-J. Fétis, a reverence for past music was nurtured within him. At a time when Baroque keyboard works were largely unknown to the general public, he actively engaged with the works of J. S. Bach and Scarlatti. He frequently performed works by masters of the previous century, primarily German and Austrian composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Hummel, and Schubert, alongside his own new compositions in concerts, impressing connoisseurs. His dedication to classical music culminated in Souvenirs des Concerts du Conservatoire (1847), a collection of transcriptions of orchestral works by past composers like Marcello, Gluck, and Haydn. Alkan, now well-versed in both ancient and modern repertoire, was the most promising candidate to succeed Zimmermann, who was well past sixty, as a professor at the Paris Conservatoire, and he himself felt entitled to the position.
4. Setback and Second Retirement
In 1848, the year the French February Revolution erupted, Alkan’s chance for advancement arose. His teacher Zimmermann resigned from his Conservatoire professorship due to disagreements with colleagues, and a new appointment process began. Alkan’s name was on the list of candidates along with three younger Conservatoire alumni (A.-F. Marmontel, É. Prudent, L. Lacombe). The power of nomination rested with the director, D.-F.-E. Auber, and the power of appointment with the Minister of Interior. Therefore, Zimmermann could not interfere with the succession, and Alkan’s relationship with Auber was critically important. Alkan, anxious about rumors that Antoine-François Marmontel (1816–1898), who had a less extensive career as a composer and pianist, was the leading candidate, attempted to directly appeal to the minister with the help of George Sand, a method that was, realistically, very risky. Moreover, Alkan in his letter to the minister, fiercely attacked Marmontel, who had been nominated as the top candidate. The appointment backfired on Alkan. With the backing of Director Auber, Marmontel was appointed professor of the male piano class in 1848. Alkan’s pride, as a leading pianist and composer who disliked any compromise, and as Zimmermann’s foremost pupil who had upheld the reputation of the Conservatoire’s piano department, was deeply wounded, and the wound did not heal for many years.
In 1849, his close friend Chopin died. Chopin, who had spent about seven years with Alkan in the Square d’Orléans apartment complex in the Chaussée-d’Antin district, reportedly asked his friends on his deathbed to burn his unfinished works, while entrusting the manuscript of his unfinished method to Alkan and Henri Reber, professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire (these manuscripts were, in fact, taken by Chopin’s sister). In 1853, seemingly having recovered, Alkan reappeared in public, giving classical chamber music concerts with his old friend, violinist Delphin Alard (1815–1888), and cellist Auguste Franchomme (1808–1884). In 1850, Alkan became one of the first patrons of the German Bach-Gesellschaft upon its establishment. At that time, only three French individuals, including Alkan, applied for patronage to this society. In 1855, during the Paris World’s Fair, he appeared in public to play a pedal piano, an instrument he had long been interested in, but apart from that, he secluded himself in his apartment for many years, composing with almost no publications.
5. Resurgence as a Composer (1857–1870)
In 1857, Alkan suddenly resumed publishing his works. Following Chants, Op. 38 (two sets), a collection of character pieces for piano embodying original ideas, he released several large-scale works: 12 Études in all minor keys, Op. 39, dedicated to the respected Belgian music historian, theorist, and composer François-Joseph Fétis; Trois Grandes Marches, Op. 40, for piano four-hands, dedicated to his close friend Ferdinand Hiller, director of the Cologne Conservatoire; and Menuet à l’antique, Op. 46, dedicated to his old friend Henri Lavina from the Paris Conservatoire. In these works, he resolutely reconciled the seemingly incompatible elements of transcendental virtuosity and concise classical style, which he had explored until then, thereby establishing a unique personal style. At the same time, in shorter pieces such as Le Grillon – Nocturne No. 4, Op. 60bis (1859), and 48 Motifs (Esquisses), Op. 63 (1861), he also attempted bold and experimental depictions on the piano.
Alkan, who was dedicated to composition and teaching, did not appear in public concerts after 1858. When people visited his home, he refused to meet them, citing ill health, and devoted his solitary time to translating the Old Testament—Alkan remained a devout Jew throughout his life—as well as composing and reading. In the 1860s, his creative output gradually declined, but he achieved particularly rich results in works for pedal piano. Impromptu on Luther’s Chorale “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott”, Op. 69 (dedicated to his organ teacher François Benoist, 1866), and Études for the Feet Only (dedicated to Lefébure-Wély, a renowned organist and fellow student), which explored transcendental foot technique, are masterpieces demonstrating his deep knowledge of German organ music and his unique imaginative power. During this period, Alkan had not entirely abandoned his ambition for social success. In 1867, he composed and submitted a hymn for peace to a competition held during the Paris World’s Fair.
In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War broke out, followed by the Paris Commune. Many musicians fled Paris for safety, but Alkan remained in the city amidst the sound of gunfire.
6. Return to the Stage and Later Years
In 1873, the 59-year-old Alkan finally returned to the stage. He organized a series of six annual concerts titled “Six Petits Concerts de Musique Classique,” performing regularly at the Érard instrument manufacturing company’s salon. The programs were ambitious, featuring works from a wide range of periods: Baroque keyboard works by Couperin, Rameau, Handel, J. S. Bach, D. Scarlatti, etc., to Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Weber, and even contemporaries such as Mendelssohn, Schumann, S. Heller, F. Chopin, and his own piano pieces. For chamber music and songs, he invited old friends Alard and Franchomme, the renowned singer Madame Pauline Viardot (1821–1910), Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921), and Delaborde to perform with him. These concerts continued until around 1881. In his will, drafted in 1886, he requested the creation of a pedal piano competition within the music section of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, but this never materialized. He spent his final years quietly and passed away at his home on March 29, 1888. Regarding the cause of death, Isidore Philipp (1863–1958), a piano professor at the Paris Conservatoire who later collaborated with Delaborde on editing Alkan’s works, famously recounted that Alkan died when a bookshelf fell on him, and this has been passed down as a legend. However, according to Marie-Antoinette Colas, Alkan’s late-life pupil, who told her son, he died after a heavy umbrella stand fell on him. His remains were buried in Montmartre Cemetery, and his sister Céleste was later interred in the same grave.
Alkan’s works continued to be published after his death, with copyrights passing from the French firm Costallat to Billaudot in the 20th century. While many of these scores are based on the first editions, they contain a considerable number of dynamic and expression marks added by editors I. Philipp and Delaborde, and thus do not necessarily retain the state of the first editions, making the publication of critical editions desirable.
Regarding performance, in the first half of the 20th century, his works were performed by Delaborde and his pupils, as well as pianists and composers such as F. Busoni (1866–1924), J. Vianna da Motta (1868–1948), K. Sorabji (1892–1988), and Jeanne-Marie Darré (1905–1999), and have continued to be passed down to this day without being forgotten. However, this reception by performers was not a systematic one that widely engaged audiences, nor did it achieve commercial widespread success (biographies were also not published for a long time). Serious research on Alkan and the widespread dissemination of recordings only advanced after World War II, particularly after the establishment of societies dedicated to promoting Alkan’s works in the UK in 1977 and in France in 1984.
Author : Ueda, Yasushi
Last Updated: January 14, 2019
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Author : Ueda, Yasushi
A Jewish French pianist and composer, born in Paris to music educator Alkan Morhange and his mother Julie Morhange. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six, winning first prizes in four categories between 1821 and 1834. At 13, he became an assistant to Zimmermann, professor of piano, and frequently appeared in Parisian salons, where he met Franz Liszt and formed a friendly relationship. From the age of 15, he began chamber music activities and formed a trio. Through the introduction of cellist Auguste Franchomme, he developed a close relationship with Chopin. In his twenties, Alkan established a solid reputation, being compared to Liszt, but from 1839 to 1844, he disappeared from public view, associating only with a limited circle of friends, including Chopin and Franchomme. Following a dispute over the piano professorship at the Paris Conservatoire in 1848, and the death of his friend Chopin the following year, he virtually ceased giving his own recitals. On the other hand, he showed extraordinary enthusiasm for composition, and in 1857, several important works were published by Richault. Although he ceased composing in the 1970s, he continued to give approximately six classical music concerts almost every year until around 1881. He passed away on March 29, 1888, at the age of 74. Regarding the cause of his death, it is said that he died when a bookshelf fell on him as he reached for a Talmud, but this is merely an uncertain tradition.
Works(101)
Concerto
concerto (2)
Piano Solo
rondo (4)
etude (8)
prelude (1)
inpromptu (5)
2e Recueil d'impromptu, Trois airs à cinq temps et un air à sept temps Op.32-2
Playing time: 13 min 30 sec
fantasy (2)
variation (6)
Variations sur Donizetti: Ah segnata e la mia morte from Anna Bolena Op.16-4
Playing time: 7 min 20 sec
menuetto (2)
other dances (4)
nocturne (3)
march (3)
character pieces (14)
Reduction/Arrangement (4)
transcription (8)
Key: c-moll Playing time: 18 min 00 sec
Various works (7)
Piano Ensemble
sonata (1)
Saltarelle, Finale de la Sonate de concert pour piano et violloncelle Op.47bis
Composed in: 1865 Playing time: 33 min 00 sec
fantasy (1)
Chamber Music
Various works (2)
etc
pieces (2)
11 Pièce, dans le style religieux, et 1 transcription, du Messie de Haendel Op.72
Playing time: 50 min 00 sec
etude (2)
prelude (3)
inpromptu (1)
Various works (2)