Alkan: Grande Sonate 'Les Quatre Âges' is a monumental work exploring the four ages of man through programmatic musical ideas. It is known for its immense scale, virtuosic demands, and intense emotional range.
Requires immense stamina and the ability to navigate vast dynamic and textural shifts.
Alkan: Grande Sonate 'Les Quatre Âges' is rated Henle level 9 of 9 — virtuoso repertoire, roughly concert / virtuoso level.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 9 — meaning you can already play level 8–9 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of Alkan: Grande Sonate 'Les Quatre Âges' lasts about 15 minutes.
Alkan: Grande Sonate 'Les Quatre Âges' is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.