This 6th instalment of the recording of the complete piano music by Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888) by Mark Viner presents a collection of works under the title “Character Pieces and Grotesqueries”. The piano music of Charles-Valentin Alkan is fortunately gaining more and more recognition by today's general public. This eccentric pianist-composer lived the most part of his life in total reclusion, embittered by his lack of public success. He was a phenomenal pianist, the only pianist in whose presence the celebrated Franz Liszt was nervous to play! Alkan’s piano works are of colossal substance and difficulty, earning him the nickname of “The Berlioz of the Piano”. Even today only a handful of pianists can do justice to the fierce demands of his music. But it wouldn’t be fair to let the technical difficulties distract the listener from his truly original, personal style, full of wit, energy and deep feelings. This volume contains some of the most eccentric, iconic and bizarre works written by Alkan: the two “military” pieces Capriccio alla Soldatesca and Le Tambour bat aux champs, the devilish Toccatina, the obsessive Le Chemin de Fer (a crazy train journey), Quasi Caccia, two fugues and the Trois Petites Fantaisies (actually far from “petite”...) and several more rarities. “For the second disc in his gargantuan 17-CD project of recording all Alkan’s music Mark Viner gives us the 25 Préludes with an exemplary musicianship and assurance...makes you eager for further issues from this outstanding and most enterprising pianist” (Bryce Morrison in International Piano). Viner’s previous recording of the Alkan Etudes Op. 35 (PCL10127) received 5 stars and CD of the Month in BBC Music Magazine as well as 5 stars in The Guardian (“Viner rises to Alkan’s extraordinary challenges”). Grande Sonata Op.33 (PCL10209): ‘[Viner] can claim a place at the top table as one of the pre-eminent Alkan players de nos jours… a disc of piano playing out of the top drawer.’ Gramophone.