Charles-Valentin Alkan (Nov 30 1813 – March 29 1888) was a French-Jewish composer and virtuoso pianist. He’s not exactly a household name when it comes to composers, but nonetheless he produced a vast array of works for piano. In the 1830’s and 40’s, he was known as one of the best pianists in Paris, along with his friends Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. Alkan was a child prodigy, and entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the tender age of 6. His examiners noted his talent in his piano audition, commenting “This child has amazing abilities”.

Nearly all his compositions focus on the piano, and often require technical virtuosity. One of those is Le Chemin de fer (French for railroad, or railway), a programmatic étude for piano, in D minor.

The composition is marked vivacissimamente, with the half note equaling 112. The first theme is sixteenth notes accompanied by a repetitive ostinato bass in eighth notes, portraying a steam locomotive. The second theme is a more lightweight melody in B-flat major, still just sixteenth notes, which represents the happy journey of the passengers. The only break comes at the coda, in which the note durations lengthen and the piece comes to a close, portraying the train pulling into a station.

Recordings of this work are scarce! We found one:
Laurent Martin