Toccatina Op.75

Description

Written around 1872 during Alkan's later years, this is a short piano piece. Toccatina means a little toccata, a title that places it in the tradition of keyboard pieces built to show off quick fingerwork. It remains a favorite showcase for pianistic dexterity.

It is in C minor and 2/4 time. True to its name, light-fingered figuration glides over the keys without pause. It lasts only about a minute and a half, yet holds 1,573 notes, more than seventeen per second. The range runs from E-flat 1 to G7, nearly the whole keyboard, so it assumes an 88-key piano. Even so, it never turns heavy, and the transparent, witty sound it keeps is characteristic of Alkan.

It is rated advanced and tests finger independence and rhythmic precision. The hard part is less the speed itself than keeping every note even and the texture light. Start at a much slower playback speed to follow the shape of the figures, check how the hands pass the line between them with the hand colours, then use the A-B loop to bring short sections back up to tempo one at a time.

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