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| Alkan - Etude Op. 35 7 - L'Incendie Au VIllage Voisin 1/2 |
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Pf: Bernard Ringeissen
A quote once again from Ronald Smith:
"If the first six studies in op. 35 are among
Alkan's strictest examples their contrast
with No. 7 could hardly be more startling.
'L'incendie Au Village Voisin' is an
unclassifiable extension of the genre, a kind
of free-ranging, pictorial fantasy akin to
the Lisztian symphonic poem of the succeeding
decade. The occasional excursion into a more
extravagant realism, with its inescapable
twang of silent film music, falls
uncomfortably on modern ears and has thrown
even Alkan's staunchest admirers into
disarray. "A flat style" declares the French
musicologist Georges Beck, "and effects that
are mere noise". Could this writer have ever
strayed upon a pioneering essay on the
composer in Bernard van Dieren's 'Down Among
the Dead Men (1935)' in which the piece is
described as "an exquisite tone painting like
one of the movements in Harold in Italy'?"
Three years earlier Sorabji had also praised
it as 'very remarkable; most original in
form'. All the same L'incendie, perhaps more
than any other of Alkan's important
compositions demands the most persuasive
artistry to fulfil such claims. In lesser
hands it will sound faded, shallow and naive,
its turbulences turned to bombast. The work
opens quietly, expansively. A gentle song of
the countryside, marked 'amoroso', steals
reassuringly on the ear. Romantic modulations
colour the landscape. Nothing it seems can
disturb the pastoral calm; not even the
distant menace of eight drum strokes. They
pass unheeded. The drum insists. The
landscape darkens. The drum now raps out its
unmistakable warning to the accompaniment of
scurrying feet and the whole scene rattles
into action as the flames leap, threaten and
engulf. This central phase is dominated by an
impetuous allegro moderato in 12/8. As they
draw nearer fierce trumpets herald in action.
At first the fire only rages with renewed
ferocity but as it continues to mount it is
confronted by a series of inexorable advances
'clamando' and with a final defiant burst of
energy is brought under control. A few angry
eruptions retreat into silence and all is
calm. With simple-hearted reverence the
villagers join in a six-part Cantica."
Tags : Charles Valentin Alkan Bernard Ringeissen etude l'incendie virtuoso piano |
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Affichage : 622
Durée : 400 s |
| Alkan - Etude Op. 35 7 - L'incendie Au Village Voisin 2/2 |
 |
Pf: Bernard Ringeissen
A quote once again from Ronald Smith:
"If the first six studies in op. 35 are among
Alkan's strictest examples their contrast
with No. 7 could hardly be more startling.
'L'incendie Au Village Voisin' is an
unclassifiable extension of the genre, a kind
of free-ranging, pictorial fantasy akin to
the Lisztian symphonic poem of the succeeding
decade. The occasional excursion into a more
extravagant realism, with its inescapable
twang of silent film music, falls
uncomfortably on modern ears and has thrown
even Alkan's staunchest admirers into
disarray. "A flat style" declares the French
musicologist Georges Beck, "and effects that
are mere noise". Could this writer have ever
strayed upon a pioneering essay on the
composer in Bernard van Dieren's 'Down Among
the Dead Men (1935)' in which the piece is
described as "an exquisite tone painting like
one of the movements in Harold in Italy'?"
Three years earlier Sorabji had also praised
it as 'very remarkable; most original in
form'. All the same L'incendie, perhaps more
than any other of Alkan's important
compositions demands the most persuasive
artistry to fulfil such claims. In lesser
hands it will sound faded, shallow and naive,
its turbulences turned to bombast. The work
opens quietly, expansively. A gentle song of
the countryside, marked 'amoroso', steals
reassuringly on the ear. Romantic modulations
colour the landscape. Nothing it seems can
disturb the pastoral calm; not even the
distant menace of eight drum strokes. They
pass unheeded. The drum insists. The
landscape darkens. The drum now raps out its
unmistakable warning to the accompaniment of
scurrying feet and the whole scene rattles
into action as the flames leap, threaten and
engulf. This central phase is dominated by an
impetuous allegro moderato in 12/8. As they
draw nearer fierce trumpets herald in action.
At first the fire only rages with renewed
ferocity but as it continues to mount it is
confronted by a series of inexorable advances
'clamando' and with a final defiant burst of
energy is brought under control. A few angry
eruptions retreat into silence and all is
calm. With simple-hearted reverence the
villagers join in a six-part Cantica."
Tags : Charles Valentin Alkan Bernard Ringeissen piano virtuoso etude |
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Affichage : 265
Durée : 266 s |
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