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GG:Left Handed Gould



Dear F-minors,

     The recent thread regarding the Bach Chacconne (BTW, thanks Bradley for 
your illuminating post regarding this- it really is wonderful having a chance to
interact with people on this list that really know their stuff!), and the 
current thread about Saint-Saens have got me wondering about pieces for the 
ledt-hand only that Gould might have recorded.  The idea of him being able to 
conduct an entire piece with his right hand is irresistable!  I know that 
Saint-Saens wrote 6 etudes for left hand only that are nice enough, and Scriabin
(owing to his chronic RH tendonitis) certainly wrote pieces for the left hand 
only that Gould may have found attractive.  What then, if any, left hand pieces 
did Gould record?  BTW, back to the the Chacconne, Bradley pointed out that 
Brahms had made a left-hand only transcription of this (that was apparently  
enthusiastically received by Clara Schummann after she had problems with RH 
tendonitis later in life).  I'm happy to report that I've found a recording of 
this. I picked up a curious CD by Leon Fleischer (on Sony) called "Leon 
Fleischer recital", which consists entirely of pieces for left hand, including 
the Brahms arrangement.  I certainly prefer the Brahms to the Busoni, although 
the ornaments are all wrong.  I confess to never having heard of Fleischer, and 
the liner notes have NO biographical information...does anybody know if 
Fleischer even has the use of his RH?


Cheers,

Paulito

Paul Fawcett                            .***.   .***.           .***.        
Department of Genetics                * | | | * | | | *       * | | | * 
University of Georgia               * | | | *   * | | | *   * | | | *   
Athens, Ga                        * | | | *       * | | | * | | | *       
fawcett@bscr.uga.edu                '***'           '***'   '***'