In the second volume of his biography Alkan, The Music (Kahn & Averill, London–the successor volume to Alkan: the Enigma,) the late British pianist Ronald Smith wrote:

"Did Alkan plan or even compose a further concerto on similar lines [after the Concertos da camera nos. 1 & 2]? The premiere of a third Concerto da camera was announced as the novelty in a programme he was to give on March 3, 1838, the sixth item being an Etude in C sharp major. Tantalizingly, in an otherwise generous review, no concerto is mentioned, and this brings us to a strange puzzle. Toward the end of 1833, some eighteen months after the premier of the first Concerto da camera and about six months before [British pianist] Henry Field introduced the second, the periodical Le pianist reviewed an Alkan concerto “remarkable for its form and style, which are new.” There follows a description of the scherzo, (which was encored.) It tallies with no surviving concerto by Alkan. “A simple, gracious, muted song for strings is accompanied by a series of chords, which passing from octave to octave, sustains the melody and produces an effect as original as it is ravishing.” This is sufficient to identify the piano part as the second of Alkan’s Trois andantes romantiques, Op. 13 (1837,) which as later republished indepen-dently [for piano 2-hands] as Caprice ou Etude in C sharp major, the piece played in March 1838."

"Sure enough, although no concerto is mentioned in the 1838 review, it is noted that Alkan’s performance of the Etude was accompanied by muted strings. In this form it seems to have remained a favourite alternative on the pianist’s programmes to his second Concerto da Camera, and was still being encored as late as 1877. There can be little doubt that this was a piece incorporated into a concerto in 1833. The strange habit of interpolating an alternative solo piece with added orchestral background within the framework of an established concerto was a common practice among such artists as John Field…"

"The mystery of this missing or incomplete work [the three-movement Concerto da camera no. 3,] may never be solved."

The confusion in the review in Le pianiste caused by calling this movement a scherzo may be attributable to Alkan's rather fast tempo marking, Andante con moto, and the meter, 6/8 (i.e. audibly similar to two bars of 3/8, a meter often employed in scherzi–especially since the reviewer presumably did not have a score to consult.)  The piano solo part is very busy and virtuoso, and the character of the music is delightful; so the nameless reviewer can be forgiven for misidentifying the movement as a scherzo (the word in Italian means "joke.") Recently, the Alkan Society (London) Bulletin No. 36 published an 1843 one-page, 32-bar, holographic manuscript entitled by the composer: “Introduction au No. 5 des Caprices, inedit.”  This page, for piano alone, presents the “simple, gracious song” that is varied so ingeniously in the Andante romantique, Op. 13, no. 2.  It seems to me that these 32 bars were intended by the composer to serve as the introduction to both his Andante romantique, Op. 13, no. 2, and the central movement of his now lost Concerto da camera No. 3.  By adding this Introduction to the Andante romantique, Op. 13, no. 2, it transforms the Andante romantique, Op. 13, no. 2 into a Theme and Variations movement. As the reviewer noted, the form is "new." This is a theme and variations that modulates to a new key in the central variation. In 1838, that likely sounded fresh and new. And the melody jumping octaves was undoubtedly new. Judging from the 1833 review in Le pianiste of Alkan’s concerto performance, this larger form appears to have been Alkan’s original intention. Mark Starr's hypothetical reconstruction of the second movement of Alkan's now lost Concerto da camera No. 3 pour piano solo et orchestra de chamb–entitled Introduction et Andante romantique, for piano solo and chamber–makes use of the followings instruments: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons 2 horns, 2 trumpets piano solo strings The duration is approximately 5 minutes.