when I play it with the left hand alone! The same degree of difficulty, the

nature of [the] technique...everything conspires to make me feel like a

violinist.”

Max Reger, who was a great admirer of Mendelssohn and

Schumann, was most strongly influenced by Wagner. He inherited the

latter’s harmonic style, which involved extending the possibilities of

tonality without discarding its framework. His Four Special Studies for

the left hand are quite typical in their harmonic, polyphonic, and

technical complexity. Like many of Reger’s compositions, the set ends

with an intricately devised fugue.

Like Carl Reinecke, Emil von Sauer was a contemporary and

admirer of Count Geza Zichy and dedicated his Waldandacht (KonzertEtude Nr. 28) to him. A pupil of Franz Liszt, Nikolay Rubinstein, and

Ludwig Deppe, von Sauer enjoyed a long concert career that stretched

between 1882 and 1936.

Felix Blumenfeld dedicated his Etude in A-flat Major, Op. 36, to

his remarkable colleague, Leopold Godowsky, who felt that even twohanded pianists should cultivate left-hand virtuosity. Ironically, 

Blumenfeld’s right hand was paralyzed by illness not long after he wrote

the etude, and it ultimately became one of the few pieces he could play.

The two Chopin/Godowsky Etudes are from Godowsky’s

elaborate series of fifty-three paraphrases on the complete set of

Chopin’s Etudes. Godowsky, whose virtuosity was regarded as without

equal in his time, pushed the envelope of technical demands to almost

unimaginable limits. Included in the series are several tour-de-force 

etudes for the left hand alone, from which the two on tonight’s program

were selected.

Program notes by Gary Graffman,

edited and adapted by Elmer Booze

The use of cameras or recording equipment

during the performance is not allowed.

For the convenience of concertgoers

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:30 p.m.

The Sixty-first Season of

THE WILLIAM NELSON CROMWELL and

F. LAMMOT BELIN CONCERTS

National Gallery of Art

2442d Concert

GARY GRAFFMAN, pianist

Sunday Evening, 12 January 2003

Seven O’clock

West Building, East Garden Court

Admission free
Program

Alexander Scriabin

(1845-1924)

Prelude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 9, No. 1

Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2

(1894)

Carl Reinecke Sonata, Op. 179

(1824-1920)

Allegro moderato

Andante lento (nemenj rozdm a tarlora)

Menuetto: Moderato

Finale: Allegro molto

Johann Sebastian Bach Chaconne from the Suite in D Minor

(1685-1750) for Solo Violin, S. 1004(1720)

Arranged for piano left hand by Johannes Brahms

Intermission

Max Reger

(1873-1916)

Four Special Studies

(c. 1901)

Scherzo

Humoreske

Romanze

Priiludium und Fuge

Emil von Sauer

(1852-1942)

Waldandacht (Konzert-Etude Nr. 28)

Felix Blumenfeld

(1863-1931)

Etude in A-flat Major, Op. 36

(1905)

Frederic Chopin

(1810-1849)

Etude in E-flat Minor, Op. 10, No. 6

Etude in B Minor, Op. 25

Arranged for piano left hand by Leopold Godowski

The Artist

“Gary Graffman played like the commanding musical personality that

he is, covering the keyboard from one end to the other with just his left

hand, and drawing from it the strong, clean, clear piano tone that has

always characterized his playing"’ (the Palm Beach [Florida] Daily

News). As one of the most celebrated pianists of his generation,

Graffman has been a major figure in the music world since winning the

prestigious Leventritt award in 1949. For the next three decades he

toured almost continuously, playing the most demanding works in the

piano literature, both in recital and with the world’s great orchestras.

In 1979, however, Gary Graffman’s performing career was

curtailed by an injury to his right hand. His performances are now limited

to the small but brilliant repertoire of concertos written for the left hand

alone. In 1985 Graffman played the North American premiere of the

Korngold Concerto for Piano Left Hand and Orchestra, which was

written in 1924, with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic. He

recently recorded Richard Strauss’ Paragon for Deutsche Grammophon

with the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Andre Previn. In April 1996

Graffman performed the world premiere of William Bolcom's "Gaea"

Concerto for Piano and Two Left Hands with his friend and colleague

Leon Fleisher in a Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concert led by David

Zinman. The work was commissioned jointly by the Baltimore, St. Louis,

and Pacific Symphonies. Gary Graffman gave world premieres of two

commissioned works again in 2001-2002: Richard Danielpour’s

Concerto for Left Hand with Leonard Slatkin and the National 

Symphony Orchestra, and Daron Hagen’s Seven Last Words with the

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under JoAnn Falletta. He also premiered

a new concerto by Luis Prado with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
The reduction in Graffman’s concert activity has provided him with

a remarkable opportunity to expand his horizons beyond the concert stage.

Most notable has been his leadership of the renowned Curtis Institute of

Music in Philadelphia. He first joined the piano faculty of that allscholarship conservatory in 1980 and became its director in 1986,

following such illustrious predecessors as Josef Hofmann, Efrem

Zimbalist, and Rudolf Serkin. He was appointed president of the Curtis

Institute in 1995 and remains active as a teacher and coach of the piano

and chamber music students. Graffman is the author of a highly praised

memoir, I Really Should Be Practicing, as well as popular articles on

nonmusical subjects. He finds time to pursue a scholarly interest in Asian

art, which he collects, and photography.

Born in New York of Russian parents, Gary Graffman began to

play the piano at age three. His father, a violinist, had given him a small

fiddle, but when the instrument proved too cumbersome, piano lessons

were substituted, with a planned return to the violin. The young 

Graffman’s affinity for the piano soon became evident, however, and at

age seven he was accepted by the Curtis Institute for study with the

renowned pianist Isabelle Vengerova. After graduation from Curtis, he

worked intensively for several years with Vladimir Horowitz and at the

Marlboro Music Festival with Rudolf Serkin.

A Steinway artist, Gary Graffman records for the Arabesque,

Deutsche Grammophon, New World, and SONY Classical labels and

appears at the National Gallery by arrangement with ICM Artists, Ltd., of

New York City.

Program Notes

Composers who write piano music for the left hand alone face unique

problems, as do performers of this repertoire. The composer faces a

daunting challenge of writing music for five fingers that must sound as if

it is being played by ten, and the pianist's left hand must play the

dominant role, rather than fulfilling its normal subsidiary position as

accompanist. Another challenge is the manipulation of the melodic line.

Usually played by the fourth and fifth fingers of the right hand, the

melodic line has to be played by the left-hand thumb. It is no wonder that

very little music has been written in this genre and that the existing

works have almost always been composed for a specific purpose or artist.

Much of this repertoire owes its existence to the Viennese pianist Paul

Wittgenstein (1887-1961), who lost his right arm to shrapnel in World

War I. In addition to the Ravel Concerto for Left Hand, he commissioned

works for piano and orchestra by Richard Strauss, Sergey Prokofiev, and

Benjamin Britten. Significant concertos for the left hand were also

written by Franz Schmidt and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Scriabin wrote his Prelude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 9, No. 1, and

Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2, in 1894, after he had injured his

right hand through excessive practicing. An excellent and popular 

pianist, Scriabin recovered from his ailment and resumed his two-handed

performing career. Nevertheless, he included these works in his 1906—

1907 United States tour, and their presence on the program enhanced the

box office appeal of his concerts.

Carl Reinecke lived before the era of Wittgenstein commissions,

and it is presumed that he wrote his Sonata, Op. 179, for the reigning

one-handed pianist of his time, Count Geza Zichy (1849-1924). Zichy,

who lost his right arm in a hunting accident, often played his own

compositions on his lengthy charity tours. Although the Reinecke sonata

bears no dedication, it is likely that Zichy played this charming work,

which was composed late in Reinecke’s long life and exemplifies his gift

for inventive melodies and gracefully flowing keyboard writing.

Every piece on tonight’s program is an original composition for the

left hand alone except for Brahms’ transcription of the Bach

Chaconne from the Suite for Solo Violin, S. 1004. This is an early

example of a work transcribed for the left hand alone from the repertoire

for another instrument. Brahms completed his transcription in 1877,

when his great friend Clara Schumann had been forced to cancel a

concert tour because of an injury to her right hand. He sent it to her

immediately with the following statement: “I consider Bach’s Chaconne

one of the most wonderful and unfathomable pieces of music, and the

only one way in which I can secure undiluted pleasure from the piece is