Technique
Alkan's remarkable technique is evidenced by the technical and physical demands of his compositions; however, this technique was not at the expense of musicality, as exemplified by his more sensitive pieces (e.g. his Op. 22 Nocturne in B and several of his Esquisses). Recalling Alkan at his mid-sixties with "skinny, hooked fingers" in an empty room with an Erard pedalier playing Bach, Vincent d'Indy said, "I listened, rooted to the spot by the expressive, crystal clear playing." Alkan later played Beethoven's Op. 110 sonata, of which d'Indy said:
What happened to the great Beethovenian poem—above all, the Arioso and the Fugue, where the melody, penetrating the mystery of Death itself, climbs up to a blaze of light—I couldn't begin to describe. affected me with enthusiasm such as I have never experienced since. This was not Liszt—less perfect technically—but it had greater intimacy and was more humanly moving...Another account of his playing, this one by a pupil of Liszt and Alkan towards the end of his life, recalls how Alkan's performance retained "an extraordinarily youthful quality despite his appearance, which was frail and older than his years."
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