Alkan - Le festin d’Ésope (Igor Roma)

Alkan - Le festin d’Ésope, op. 39 n. 12 I’ve listened many recordings of this piece and I must say this is one of the most technically impressive along with Hamelin’s, of course. From wikipedia: Le festin d’Ésope (Aesop’s Feast) is an étude by Charles-Valentin Alkan. It is the final in the Douze études dans tous les tons mineurs (Twelve studies in all minor keys) cycle. It is a work of twenty five variations based on an original theme. The technical skills required in the variations is a summation of the preceding Etudes. The work requires exceptional virtuoistic skills, with extremely fast overlapping octaves, fast scales with left accompaniments, enormous leaps, rapid octave chords,tremolos, double octaves and trills. A typical performance of this piece lasts 10 minutes. This piece has been performed by Raymond Lewenthal, Dorel Golan, Bernard Ringeissen, Edward Cohen, Jack Gibbons, Marc-André Hamelin, Igor Roma and Mauricio Vallina.