Sonate de Concert in E Major, Op. 47 for cello and piano; Charles-Valentin Alkan (Gems Music Publications)

Urtext. Edited by Kenneth Martinson. Instrumentation: Cello and Piano

Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888) was a French pianist and composer who was highly regarded to be among the leading piano virtuosos in Paris, along with Chopin. The vast majority of Alkan's works are for the piano, and this Sonate de Concert (1856) is one of two works for solo strings and piano.

The first movement is very reminiscent of the tumultuous yet strict adherence to the "Beethoven-esque" sonata structure like his violin and cello sonatas, with a whirlwind final movement "Alla Salterella" (an energetic Italian or Spanish Dance for one couple with leaps and skips). Scholars have noted it as one of the most "ambitious in the romantic repertoire... anticipating Mahler in its juxtaposition of the sublime and the trivial". For advanced players.