“Le Preux, Etude de Concert“

It’s finally here! - representative piece of early Alkan (1820s ~ 1844) and also considered one of the most hardest piece by him, someone even say hardest in WHOLE ROMANTIC ERA and impossible to play fast. “Le Preux“ means “Knight“ in English and it’s composed in 1844. Those rapid leaps in the first page which is emerged many times in the whole piece maybe symbolize the sword brandishing knight. Next listen at 1:39 alternating chords section which in 3:23 emerges again and it’s subtlely varied. This sounds like brave knight overcome the adversity and somewhat emotional melody. Piece is being continued, the mood also being toned up. Look at 4:28 ’fff’ section. Chords are upgraded as much more thick and it has to be played alternating very fast with additional leaps is evil bonus by Alkan. Knight fights seems peaked here ( Like final stage? 😉) Lastly, after 5:07 is the notorious coda EVERY pianist have struggled to play flawlessly and neatly, but failed to. Both hands should deal with large and fast octave leaps which continued for 2 pages and such octave bombing is not found in other pieces. Nanasakov’s virtual playing set tempo ’Quarter = 152’ where most people are skeptical. The famous Youtube amateur pianist ’Mr. Barbaro’ once tried to play coda ’Quarter = 144’, slightly slower tempo than Nanasakov but he said himself it’s still too fast and ridiculously difficult. Coda is thought to represent triumph of fight and rechecking the braveness. Appreciating to it, we realize the way Alkan telling the story is really talented :) He was a genius. Performer : Michael Nanasakov