Charles-Valentin Alkan
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Charles-Valentin Alkan (born Paris 30 Nov 1813 ; died Paris 29 March 1888) was a French composer and pianist. His real name was Morhange. He was a virtuoso pianist who wrote a lot of piano music which is mostly extremely difficult to play. Although people like Franz Liszt and Busoni thought he was a great composer, it is only in recent years that most people have realized how good his music is. His piano music is mostly tonal, but it changes key in unusual ways. The story was told by many people that he died when a bookcase collapsed on top of him, but that story is proved not to be true.