Killed by a falling bookcase? Nothing about the life and works of Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-88) was predictable, not least the apocryphal cause of his death. Despite being a child prodigy, a friend of Chopin and later admired by Liszt, Alkan spent long periods of his life as a recluse, emerging every so often to remind the public that he still possessed a dazzling virtuosity.

Although an organist (César Franck was a fellow student at the Paris Conservatoire), he was best known for his astonishing technical prowess on the piano and the pedal-piano. This latter instrument was a piano to which an organ-style pedalboard was attached. Primarily used as a practice instrument for organists, Alkan elevated the pédalier to a loftier plane with some seriously demanding compositions. These were later appropriated and adapted by organists, beginning with Franck and now including Perth-based English organist Joseph Nolan. 

Obviously, the sound worlds of the pédalier and the organ are poles apart. Most of the pédalier pieces were conceived for the intimate salons of Alkan’s Russian female aristocratic admirers,...