A little over a year ago, I ran a Google-search on “underrated classical music pieces,” and I found this article, “38 Classical Hidden Gems You Should Listen to Right Now,” HERE. I’ve used the list twice on this site – when I listened to Bernard Herrmann’s Symphony No. 1, HERE, and when I listened to Muzio Clementi’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major, HERE.
I decided to revisit the article for this week, and I chose to listen to the very first piece on the list, Charles Alkan’s Symphony, Op. 39. I did encounter a bit of confusion when I searched for the work on YouTube, though. At first, all I could find were piano transcriptions of the symphony, and I could not find a version with full orchestra at all. Of course, therein lies the confusion because the work is not an orchestral piece at all. Instead, it is a compilation of four piano studies from Alkan’s Douze études dans tous les tons mineurs (Twelve Studies in all the minor keys), Op. 39, with each title prefaced by the French word "Symphonie." The four movements are titled Allegro, Marche Funèbre, Menuet, and Finale. My confusion was cleared up after a bit of research, and I found this article HERE – and the author of the article is so right with this statement: “Much like the Concerto for Solo Piano, the Symphony is written so as to evoke the broad palette of timbres and harmonic textures available to an orchestra.” When I listened to the piece I really thought it sounded like a piano transcription of a work for orchestra. Probably the only thing that gave it away that it really was a work written for solo piano was some of the bass chord work that is very typical of the way I (and I’m sure many others) play pieces from Fake Books. I loved the foreboding and sinister theme that opens the first movement – it certainly provides an atmosphere of doom one might encounter in a silent movie (or perhaps in some bit of bygone animation of Snidely Whiplash tying Nell Fenwich to a railroad track). And just when the final chord progression modulates to a brighter major chord, that E in the C chord goes flat – and the ending is as brilliant as it is dastardly! Plus it sets the stage for the funereal intonations of the second movement. The Marche Funèbre is not too maudlin and for the most part keeps a very steady beat, emphasizing the relentless march of time (calling to mind, for me, Emily Dickinson’s lines, “Because I could not stop for death / He kindly stopped for me”). The relentless march of time is even underscored dramatically in the third movement, Menuet, and that was quite unexpected as the stressed notes and accents throughout the piece provide a feel very much unlike the three-quarter time of a minuet. Oh, there are some dulce, waltz-like moments – even one short section that sounds a bit music-box-esque – but most of the piece is characterized by a pounding force though the movement does end rather sweetly. The Finale then takes off and moves so quickly that at times I had trouble following the score. Talk about virtuosic pyrotechnics – and it all races to a conclusion of pounded out chords in the final few measures. Wow. Just wow. I loved Alkans' Symphony for Piano. To be honest, I didn't even know such a form existed -- a symphony for piano -- and the article I found on Wikipedia said that "it is an early example of a piano symphony." I suppose I need to delve into this form a little more deeply to see what else like this is out there!
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A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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