Alkan - Le Festin d’Ésope, op. 39 no. 12: Themes & Variations (Lewenthal)

While not as famous as his contemporary, Franz Liszt (with whom he is often compared), French composer and pianist Charles-Valentin Alkan was a fascinating and puzzling character. Well known in Parisian artistic circles that included the likes of George Sand, Alexandre Dumas, and Victor Hugo, Alkan was given to episodes of reclusion. Disappointed by various events in his life, Alkan would retreat, then reappear to publish a new piece or present a series of concerts. One can assume that he was a remarkable piano virtuoso himself. Not for the faint of heart, many of his pieces are some of the most demanding in the repertory. Le festin d’Esope is from of a group of 12 Etudes, Op. 39. The principal melody (very much like a child’s nursery song) goes through every permutation possible. Like each course in Aesop’s sumptuous, yet monotonous banquet of tongue, every “musical course“, or variation, is different: from dark and ominous to light and playful. While very much a showpiece of pia