Pianophilia

Mereaux as well as Alkan, Berlioz, Liszt, and MANY others were at one time or another pupils of Anton Reicha. Reicha's etudes, fugues, and books about theory are really unique for their time. One of his etudes for example, an ostinato, was in fact directly stolen by Alkan, the memorable, hypnotic ostinato passage in his early Marche funebre... Mereaux's etudes, as well as most of Alkan's works, were published by the French firm Richault, so of course they knew about each other. One Barcarolle in the Mereaux set sounds really like Alkan to me, and if I remember correctly it was written before Alkan's own Barcarolles... More interesting though is Reicha's influence on so many people who studied with him. Almost everyone of them developed an unique style of their own, surely encouraged by Reicha's own original ideas, and he might well be the most underrated teacher in the history of music. Proof is in his piano music, and his books on harmony, orchestration etc. REALLY hard to find though. A towering Busoni-like figure, one century earlier...

The Mereaux etudes I've heard from Cyprien are absolutely stunning (and exceptionally difficult!)

I already posted a message in the Chopin thread, but I have found an edition of the 24 Chopin etudes on the University of Chicago site that does not appear on their Etudes page; an edition from the 1830's from Italy, bound together with the Paris first edition of the Preludes. I made pdf files of them (as well as the Preludes) and uploaded them onto my site:

http://waltercosand.com/CosandScores/Co ... ry/Etudes/

http://waltercosand.com/CosandScores/Co ... /Preludes/

WCosand wrote:I already posted a message in the Chopin thread, but I have found an edition of the 24 Chopin etudes on the University of Chicago site that does not appear on their Etudes page; an edition from the 1830's from Italy, bound together with the Paris first edition of the Preludes. I made pdf files of them (as well as the Preludes) and uploaded them onto my site:

http://waltercosand.com/CosandScores/Co ... ry/Etudes/

http://waltercosand.com/CosandScores/Co ... /Preludes/

Thanks alot Wcosand for your effort and for post it all here for us
Oren

Seconded! Thanks, Walter.

kojiattwood wrote:The Mereaux etudes I've heard from Cyprien are absolutely stunning (and exceptionally difficult!)

I understand from one source that Katsaris has said the Méreaux Études are the hardest 'things' he has ever played - so that's saying something for the standard of their technical difficulty. I will judge their musicality for myself - but it seems that most people who have looked at these pieces (people far more qualified to comment than I) are totally indifferent to their music merit...

I wonder if Katsaris has any intention of recording any of the Mereaux?

Schulz-Evler-Forever wrote:I wonder if Katsaris has any intention of recording any of the Mereaux?

Yes, he has already recorded 5 of the Études, to be issued in a couple of months on a recital disc called 'Piano Rarities, Vol 2: French composers'. I understand they are stunningly difficult.

Dear ALL
am i the only one in this thread who never had the privilege to see the scores of Mereaux etudes ???
Is it still under copyright ???
Could someone please post it ?? THANK YOU very much.
soh

Two files here:

http://waltercosand.com/CosandScores/Co ... roid%20de/