Alkan's life: the eras

Charles-Valentin Alkan was born as Charles-Valentin Morhange in Paris on November 30, 1813, to a Jewish family originally from the Metz region. He and his five siblings later adopted their father's first name "Alkan" as their surname. Their father supported the family as a musician and owner of a music school in Paris's Jewish quarter. The family was notably musical - all of Alkan's siblings pursued successful careers in music, including roles as professors, composers, performers, and publishers.

Charles-Valentin Alkan was a remarkable child prodigy who entered the Paris Conservatoire at age 5, where he excelled in both piano and organ studies. Under the tutelage of Joseph Zimmerman, he won numerous prizes and began performing publicly at age seven. By his teens, he was performing in prestigious Parisian salons, including those of the Princesse de la Moskova and the Duchesse de Montebello, and was appointed as a professor of solfège at age 15. During the 1830s, he established himself in Parisian artistic circles, becoming friends with notable figures like Liszt, Chopin, and George Sand, while developing his career as both a performer and composer. His early achievements laid the foundation for what would become a significant, though often reclusive, musical career.

During the early years of the July Monarchy, Alkan established himself in Parisian artistic circles, befriending notable figures like Franz Liszt, George Sand, and Victor Hugo. At age 19, he performed his first Concerto da camera, op.10, and was elected to the prestigious Société Académique des Enfants d'Apollon. In 1834, he began an important friendship with Spanish musician Santiago Masarnau and toured England, where his second Concerto da camera was performed. After a brief sojourn to Piscop near Paris, he composed his first major original works, including the Twelve Caprices. Despite Liszt recommending him for a professorship at the Geneva Conservatoire in 1836, Alkan declined the position.

From 1837, Alkan lived in the Square d'Orléans in Paris, shared by celebrities of the time including Marie Taglioni, Alexandre Dumas, George Sand, and Chopin. At age 25, he was at the peak of his career, performing regularly with famous musicians like Liszt and participating in significant concerts. However, in 1839, coinciding with the birth of his apparent son Eraïm-Miriam Delaborde, Alkan withdrew from public life for six years. Notably, Alkan neither asserted nor denied his paternity of Delaborde.

Upon his return to performing in 1844, he was enthusiastically received by critics and audiences. During this period, he composed several important works, including Le chemin de fer, étude, op.27 (notable as the first musical representation of a steam engine), the 25 Préludes dans tous les tons majeurs et mineurs, op. 31, and the Grande sonate, op.33, so called Les quatre âges. His reputation led composer Giacomo Meyerbeer to commission him to arrange the overture of his opera Le prophète for both piano solo and piano duet, which became the only surviving record of this piece.

In 1848, Alkan faced a major disappointment when he was passed over for the position of head of the Conservatoire piano department in favor of Antoine Marmontel. In a letter to George Sand, Alkan described it as "the most incredible, the most shameful nomination". The following year Chopin died, which Alkan himself described as "another blow which I felt deeply". Before his death in 1849, Chopin entrusted Alkan with his unfinished piano method book, a sign of deep respect. Many of Chopin's students then chose Alkan as their new teacher. Despite this recognition and his renowned virtuosity, Alkan performed only twice in 1853 before retreating from public life for two decades.

During this period of seclusion, Alkan focused on composing and studying religious texts, including the Bible and the Talmud. Versed in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, he translated both the Torah and the New Testament into French from their original languages, as a personal exercise. This translation is now sadly lost. In a letter to a friend, Alkan wrote "Having translated a good deal of the Apocrypha, I'm now onto the second Gospel which I am translating from the Syriac ... In starting to translate the New Testament, I was suddenly struck by a singular idea – that you have to be Jewish to be able to do it."

Despite his retreat from society, Alkan remained musically productive, creating several major piano works including the Douze études dans tous les tons mineurs, op.39, the Sonatine, op.61, and the 48 Motifs (Esquisses), op.63. He also began exploring the pedal piano, giving acclaimed performances and publishing pieces specifically for this instrument. Though reclusive, his work continued to receive praise from critics like Hans von Bülow, who describe him as "unquestionably the most eminent representative of the modern piano school at Paris."

In 1873, Alkan emerged from his twenty-year seclusion to begin a series of 6 Petits Concerts de Musique Classique at the Salle Érard, possibly inspired by his son Delaborde's successful career and recent appointment as Professor at the Conservatoire. These annual concerts, which continued until around 1880, featured both Alkan's own compositions and works by other composers, performed on piano and pédalier, often with guest musicians, including Saint-Saëns and Franchomme. Young musician, Vincent d'Indy, praised Alkan's expressive playing during this period, particularly his moving interpretation of Beethoven. Despite his public performances, Alkan maintained his reclusive nature, as evidenced by his initial refusal to meet with Chopin's biographer Frederick Niecks, though he later welcomed him warmly at Érard's.

Alkan's Érard grand piano pédalier, now in the Musée de la Musique, Paris

Alkan died in Paris on March 29, 1888, and was buried in the Jewish section of Montmartre Cemetery. Pianist Isidor Philipp claimed he died when a bookcase fell on him while reaching for a Talmud. This was false; he had an accident in his kitchen where he collapsed under a heavy coat rack. This myth of the falling bookcase may have originated from a similar story about a rabbi from Metz, Alkan's ancestral hometown.

THE

ALKAN SOCIETY

Alkan's life: the eras