DESCRIPTION:
While precise dating is seldom possible with Alkan, it is generally assumed that publication, with few exceptions, followed composition fairly quickly. Thus, Richault's publication of Alkan's Second and Third nocturnes together as Op. 57, in 1859, suggests that some 15 years separate this oddly contrasted pair from the ravishing Nocturne No. 1 issued in 1844.

Where the latter would not be out of place in a program of nocturnes by Field and Chopin, the Nocturne No. 2 is a surprisingly fretful affair, nominally in B minor, whose repeated falling motif -- varied, extended, passed between the hands, and restlessly modulating -- wears an obsessive air. A contrapuntally involved central cantabile seems to smile through tears as it demands that the left hand manage, in awkwardly wide stretches, accompaniment and melodic articulation, playing against the right-hand melody with the utmost deftness. Georges Beck, who included the Nocturne No. 2 in his 1969 Heugel sheet music anthology of a dozen pieces, Oeuvres choisies -- an important item in the Alkan revival -- thought that "The poetry of the melodic line defies analysis."

The remark might better have been applied to the material of the Nocturne No. 3 in F sharp major. Taken at a whirlwind très vif pace and marked Appassionatamente, whose simple rising and falling contours were floated over triplets in rapidly shifting harmonies, it blithely suggests more than it says. Here, too, the melody passes between the hands, but with an air of deepening intimacy. Alkan's central Dolce e sostenuto section, in simple chords, recalls the religioso episode of Chopin's Nocturne No. 6 in G minor (Op. 15, No. 3), though without approaching his friend's ineffable eloquence. Alkan's piece may suffer by comparison, but taken on its own it is chastely intriguing and deliciously spun out to an enigmatically smothered conclusion. After the thunderous grandeurs of the stupendous Minor Key Études, Op. 39, issued in 1857, the Second and Third nocturnes capture Alkan working on a smaller -- indeed, intimate -- scale and concentrating his effects with, respectively, less and more success. The pair is dedicated "à son élève Madame la Princesse Catherine N. Orloff."

(AllMusic)

Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.

Performer: Costantino Mastroprimiano (Brilliant Classics, 2014)
Original audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyR9u0CkWIs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP0qv_m1SYU
Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/2_Nocturnes,_Op.57_(Alkan,_Charles-Valentin) (Simon Richault, 1859)