Bernard Ringeissen has the big technique and stylistic empathy to deliver outstanding performances of Alkan's weird and wonderful piano music. His well-received Alkan series on Marco Polo is now being reissued on Naxos, whose budget price makes it an even more desirable acquisition. Ringeissen plays with the energy necessary to make the music come alive. He's no Marc-Andr Hamelin, whose Alkan recordings are unchallenged, as we can hear in , which opens the program. But few pianists are in Hamelin's league, and Ringeissen shines in the hourlong Op. 35 Etudes, a dozen pieces exploring the major keys. Some are short studies; others are tone poems for keyboard, such as the 7th Etude, a description of a village fire. The 5th Etude is titled Allegro barbaro, published in 1847, well over half-a-century before Bartok's famous work of the same name, whose tremendous power it anticipates. A well-played program of enduring interest, it's marred only by subpar engineering.

Amazon > Music > Styles > Classical > Forms & Genres > Etudes

Amazon > Music > Styles > Classical > Chamber Music

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Piano Music 1 - CD

Best Buy > Compact Disc

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