Alkan: Twelve Studies in All the Major Keys, Op. 35

Rarely do I find a record so irresistible that I listen to it over and over, well beyond what's required for a review. This is such a record… Part of the attraction is simply the joy of discovery. …These etudes represent Alkan at his best and most accessible. For the newly-initiated this would be a good place to begin… Stephanie McCallum is a thoroughly convincing champion of this music. Not only are her fingers up to the quite formidable technical task, but she has the right kind of temperament. Her playing has real character and elan.

This release is extremely welcome, the more so as Stephanie McCallum, a pupil of Ronald Smith well versed in Alkan's alchemy, proves to be a formidable and insightful pianist, who gives us a very good idea of what the music is all about, ie transcendental technique at the service of ecstatic yet utterly disciplined vision. …Music like this, as well served as this, should be self-recommending.

As far as I know, the Australian Stephanie McCallum is the first woman pianist to record Alkan. There is, frankly, little to choose between her and Bernard Ringeissen who, at the moment, offers the sole alternative in Op. 35…. McCallum has a formidable pianistic armoury and… it's a most impressive recital. In particular, I urge you to hear her beautiful account of Etude no 10 "Chant d'amour".

Here is a recital of fascinating (if not always terribly good) music, by an eccentric French composer of the 19th century, played with such bravura technique that it makes me wonder why McCallum is not sitting in front of our symphony orchestras playing concertos on a regular basis.… Anyone who can play Alkan and Xenakis with equal mastery deserves all the accolades we can throw her way. Brava!

If you enjoy piano music of the nineteenth century and virtuoso performance, this album is for you. Don't be put off by the title. These are not finger exercises for the faint-hearted, but instead substantial works more in the style of those written by Charles Alkan's friends, Liszt and Chopin. Sydney pianist Stephanie McCallum is in excellent form.

Stephanie McCallum studied with Ronald Smith (the grandfather of the Alkan movement) and has come out with her own Alkan cycle. Her playing of the op.35 (the "first volume" of the Alkan etudes) is absolutely astonishing! She handles the barrage of notes with outstanding technique. These etudes are not often heard, save the 5th. Even among all those that have record this particular etude (Smith, Gibbons, etc) McCallum's is by far my favorite. She plays it with stunning control and clarity (a MUST for Alkan playing). Despite their lack of popularity and the fact that there are less bombastic and dramatic as the op.39, the op.35 still are very charming and inventive pieces. No less original than the op.39, or any of his other opera for that matter. This is a fine companion the Smith's op.39 and it comes with my praise and admiration!