Dave Gaebler Recital 20071114--12. Scriabin Nocturne for LH

Nocturne for Left Hand, Opus 9#2

Scriabin injured his right hand by over-practicing in an attempt to keep up with Joseph Lhevinne during their Moscow Conservatory years. For several months he was unable to use it, and the result was several pieces for left hand alone. Later on such major composers as Ravel, Prokofiev, Strauss, Hindemith, and Britten would also write for left hand (most left-hand pieces were written for pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in World War I, and who incidentally was the brother of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein), but Scriabin seems to have started the trend.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Scriabin
• Piano
• Gaebler

[mathguy83]

I didn't know Brahms and Alkan wrote for LH too. Thanks for the correction!

[KantutJuice]

Didn't ravel on the other hand arrange for the left hand for a more, practical reason? For a casualty of the first world war?

[brcmano]

Saint-Saens also wrote a group of pieces for the left hand, I've heard them being played by João Carlos Martins.

[CinemaniacsAnonymous]

Brahms had a stylistic reason to - he arranged Bach's Chacconne (from the Partida 1004 in d minor for violin) for piano, and he wanted to replicate the difficulty of playing the piece on a solo instrument (or-one handed instrument, looking at fingering), by making the piano play it with one hand (the left, given the piece's lower range). The result sounds much closer to Bach on the violin than the Busoni or Lutz arrangements, as one has to arpegiate the chords much like the violin does. FYI

[pentium1000]

Godowsky is famous, or infamous if your view is parochial, for arranging many of Chopin's etudes for the left hand.

[4444matthew4444]

well brahms started writing for left hand only and then alkan the scriabin then ravel and before you know it everybody has