PIANO MUSIC for the LEFT HAND ALONE Necessity is the Mother of Invention
One can't help wondering why it is that so much music has been written for the left hand alone and virtually none of any significance for the right hand. The answer is that almost all of the great music written for the left hand alone is the result of a determinedly heroic concert pianist having lost his right arm during World War I.
Paul Wittgenstein (1887-1961), an Austrian pianist and, interestingly, brother of the great philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, refused to allow his career as a concert pianist to be ended almost before it had begun in earnest by the loss of his arm.
Fortunately for us all, his was by no means an insignificant family in the world of music. As a young man he had played duets with Richard Strauss, and Strauss, Brahms, Joseph Joachim, and Gustav Mahler we family friends. And as a student of Theodor Leschetizky, he had an excellent pedigree as a pianist.
Wittgenstein was in a position to ask many of the most important composers of the day to compose music for for him to play. Among these were Richard Strauss, Sergei Prokofiev, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Franz Schmidt, Paul Hindemith, Alexander Scriabin, Benjamin Britten, Josef Labor, Sergei Bortkiewicz and Maurice Ravel. The
Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
is a staple of the repertoire today.
The repertoire resulting from Wittgenstein's efforts has been veritable lifeline for other pianists as well who for one reason or another lost the use of their right arms. Brilliant concert pianists such as Leon Fleisher, João Carlos Martins, and Cor de Groot would not have been able to continue their careers successfully without it.
Prior to Wittgenstein's injury, a number of composers had composed or transcribed such piano music. Among these works are the Reinecke Sonata, the Reger Study, and Johannes Brahms' Transcription of the Bach Chaconne in D minor from the 2nd Partita for solo violin BWV 1004. The Reinecke and Reger are curiosities, not particlarly brilliant pieces.
There was an earlier pianist who lost his right arm, the Hungarian Count Geza Zichy, a student of Liszt and the first to have a very successful career as a one-armed pianist. He was a sensation But the piano music for the left hand that he composed or arranged for his own use was considered mediocre by Wittgenstein and seems to have died with him.
The Brahms work is sheer genius. It was transcribed for the left hand alone for Clara Schumann when she suffered an injury to her right hand. The Brahms transcription is much more faithful to the original than the more famous and more popular Busoni two-hand transcription which it predates by 16 years.
Two performances of the Bach/Brahms Chaconne are offered below. Of the two, I much prefer the way Ugorski plays it.
Also to be found below are excellent pieces by Blumenfeld, Moszkowski, and Scriabin
We also have a lovely Etude by Marc-André Hamelin (a transcription for left hand alone of a piece by Tchaikovsky, and a tour de force by a young Brazilian pianist playing his own transcription of the Ride of the Valkyries from Wagner's Die Walküre that will leave you out of breath if not necessarily breathless.
Leopold Godowsky's transcriptions of some of the
Chopin Etudes for the left hand
are simply beyond belief, as are his versions for two hands, and require a page of their own.
Bach/Brahms Chaconne in d-moll BWV 1004 for left hand Anatol Ugorski, piano
Part I
Part II
Bach/Brahms Chaconne in d-moll BWV 1004 for left hand Adrian Vasilache, piano
Part I
Part II
Blumenfeld Etude for the Left Hand (Felix Blumenfeld was the teacher of Vladimir Horowitz)
Simon Barere, piano
Daniel Blumenthal, piano
Moritz Moszkowski Etude Op.92 N°2 for the left hand Alain Raes, piano
Reger Study for the Left Hand Alone: Scherzo Frederick Moyer, piano
Carl Reinecke Piano Sonata for the Left Hand Alone Op.179 James Iman, piano
i. Allegro moderato
ii. Adagio lento (Variations)
iii. Menuetto: moderato
iv. Finale: Allegro molto
Scriabin Prelude Op.9 n°1 for the left hand
Andrei Gavrilov, piano
Vladimir Horowitz, piano Recorded live in the 1970s
Scriabin Nocturne Op.9 n°2 in Db Major for the left hand
Sergey Kuznetsov Recorded live 2006
Suguru Ito, piano
Michael Yannette, piano
Hamelin Etude n°7 from 12 Etudes in minor keys for the left hand a transcription of Tchaikovsky's Lullaby Op 16 n°1
Marc-André Hamelin
Wagner/Cimirro "The Valkyries" from Die Walküre for the left hand Artur Cimirro, piano
Finally, La Mano Sinistra by the monumental 20th Century German composer, Hans Werner Henze. I will address his work elsewhere in these pages. Suffice it to say for now that, in my esteem, Henze is the Beethoven of the 20th Century. His music is that good, his opus that important. And the future will support me in this view.
Hans Werner Henze La Mano Sinistra for the left hand Seda Röder, piano
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