Pastel portrait of Alkan by Edouard Dubufe (1820 - 1883) · Public domain

A virtuoso pianist ranked alongside his friends Chopin and Liszt at the height of Parisian musical life, Alkan largely withdrew from public performance after 1848 to compose, producing technically formidable works for solo piano including a Symphony and Concerto built entirely from études. He was the first composer to bring Jewish melodies into art music, and, fluent in Hebrew and Greek, spent years working on a new translation of the Bible.