Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888)
11 Grand Preludes and Transcription of Handel’s Messiah, Op. 66
Messiah: Recitative. Thy rebuke hath broken His heart – Arioso. Behold, and see
Petits préludes sur les huit gammes du plainchant
Impromptu on Luther’s ‘Un Fort Rempart Est Notre Dieu’ Op. 69
Joseph Nolan (organ)
rec. 20-24 January 2025, Eglise Saint-Martin de Dudelange, Luxembourg
Signum Records SIGCD982 [76]
I greatly admired Joseph Nolan’s recordings of Widor’s organ symphonies on the Signum Classics label (review). and I don’t suppose there are any fans of that series who will not be interested in this new edition of Alkan’s organ music. This excellent release was recorded on a magnificent instrument built in 1912 by Georg Stahlhuth and his son Eduard and, after unsympathetic 1960s alterations and further neglect, renovated back to superb playability by Thomas Jann in 2001-2002. Full specifications for this instrument are printed in the booklet, and it is considered ideal for the kind of romantic symphonic style of which Alkan is such a key representative.
Charles-Valentin Alkan was a virtuoso pianist who was admired by the likes of Chopin and Liszt. He never became a famous organist in Paris however, and after a spectacular early career his personal struggles took him away from a high-level public profile. Ateş Orga’s fine booklet notes end with the poignant line, “Four mourners attended his funeral”, and his music remained in obscurity for many decades thereafter. Joseph Nolan has also written an Artists Foreword in the booklet for this release in which he describes his initial hearing of Alkan’s music as “like Widor on steroids in the opera house.” These and other insights are preceded by an introduction from Seth Blacklock, which reveals that Nolan considers these recordings to be “the most formidable challenge of his career”, and “the culmination of a four-year journey – requiring ‘thousands of hours’ of practise and familiarisation.”
Dedicated to César Franck, the 11 Grand Preludes and Transcription of Handel’s Messiah, Op. 66 is a monument of a keyboard work but great fun to hear. The booklet notes are a superb read for the detail in this work, but aside from tonal relationships and structural comparisons with other sets of preludes there is a clarity of thought and excellence of compositional technique that proves endlessly fascinating. Ronald Smith’s biography Alkan: The Man/The Music is referred to, with the words “frivolous façade” and “intense passion” emerging as a sort of essence for this piece, with its wide-ranging expression, positive rhythmic energy and often uplifting sense of fun.
The relatively brief Messiah: Recitative. Thy rebuke hath broken His heart – Arioso. Behold, and see slides into this programme like a bookmark into a thick volume, its title pretty much declaring what you can expect to hear. This precedes and sets us up for the set of eight miniature Petits préludes sur les huit gammes du plainchant. These run through the modes of Gregorian plainchant and are summed up in the booklet as “spare, aphoristic, white-note invenzioni for manuals alone.” While quiet and seemingly unassuming, these are also fascinating works with a “super saturation of symmetry and patterning”. The programme concludes with the Impromptu on Luther’s ‘Un Fort Rempart Est Notre Dieu’ Op. 69, which kicks us out of our antique meditations with its theme firmly stated in the pedal register. As with many other of Alkan’s keyboard works, this was originally written for pedal-piano or multi-hands piano, and becomes even more of an improvisatory tour de force when facing up to its fifteen minutes of jaw-dropping virtuosity at a full organ console. Joseph Nolan considers this “probably one of the greatest pieces written, ever, for any instrument”, which is of course arguable, but he makes an excellent case for it here.
This new recording inevitably invites comparison with Kevin Bowyer’s pioneering volumes on Toccata Classics (review) and, sampling Op. 66 online there is better recording clarity and more musical ‘elbow room’ with Joseph Nolan, who takes more time over many of the preludes while never seeming to drag or wallow. Both recordings have value, but with Signum Classics’ state of the art capturing of the remarkable St Martin’s Church organ this is a veritable feast of excellent romantic organ music, with the final excess of Op. 69 when played back at a respectable volume hopefully leaving little piles of dust on the floor, shaken from your woofers.
Dominy Clements
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