Alkan’s original 1853 Erard pédalier

Olivier Latry plays No 10 (scherzando) of Charles-Valentin Alkan’s 11 Grands Préludes et un transcription du Messie de Hændel , , composed for the pédalier in the mid 1860s. On this recording Latry is playing Alkan’s original Erard pédalier (a piano fitted with an organ like pedal keyboard, of which Alkan was a supreme master). Alkan used this instrument in all his Petits Concerts programmes at the Salle Erard in Paris between 1873 and 1880, and the instrument then remained in the composer’s possession