Charles-Valentin Alkan was a French composer and pianist of the Romantic era who spent virtually his entire life in Paris, living from 1837 at the Square d’Orléans. A keyboard virtuoso ranked alongside Chopin and Liszt in his prime, he wrote almost exclusively for the piano, producing highly virtuosic études, sonatas, and works for pedal piano, along with some chamber music and abortive orchestral efforts. Notoriously reclusive in his later decades, he died in Paris in March 1888 at age 74; the popular legend that he was crushed by a falling bookcase is unfounded, though he did collapse in his kitchen and died later that day.

Alkan was among the most formidable pianist-composers of his generation and, notably, one of the first to draw on Jewish melodic material in art music, yet his reputation fell into deep neglect after his death. Champions such as Busoni, Egon Petri, and Kaikhosru Sorabji kept his works alive in the 20th century, and a substantial revival from the 1960s onward, led by pianists including Raymond Lewenthal and Ronald Smith, restored major works like his Symphony and Concerto for solo piano to the concert repertoire.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-Valentin_Alkan