This is a fantastic piece of music expertly written for the piano. It is the 10th in a set of 12 etudes written in the minor keys...

...and is accompanied by another volume of 12 etudes Alkan wrote in the major keys, a compositional formula followed by many composer-musicians.

(To complicate matters, Alkan isolated the 8th-10th minor key etudes to create a monumental “Concerto for Solo Piano.”)

This “Allegro alla barbaresca” is the third movement of the concerto and has another unique place in music history as the obvious predecessor of Liszt’s “Spanish Rhapsody,” which was written almost three years later.

The Liszt work is infinitely more famous - and more often played - but, when putting the two side by side, the resemblance is remarkable and, in this writer’s opinion, the Alkan work is far superior.

The harmonic writing offers greater interest, the demands on the pianist are more extreme and, as effective as the Liszt work is...it does lack, in favour of pianistic bravura, an emotional depth and cultural relevance offered by the “Allegro alla barbaresca.”

In the “Allegro...” we hear this is a Moorish landscape and, while extreme virtuosity abounds, it is in service of musicianship.

Hamelin’s playing understands this music well and he opens us up to the excitement found in these measures, as he does in everything his hands touch.

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