“Main gauche” = SAINT-SAENS: Bourree; Elegie; Gigue; SCRIABIN: Prelude and Nocturne, Op. 9, Nos. 1-2; BORTKIEWICZ: Epithalame; SANCAN: Caprice Romantique; DUBE: A Smile like a Sunshine; BONIMICI: Etude; GABRILOWITSCH: Etude; PONCE: A pesar de todo; MAASALO: Au crepuscule; SIBELIUS: Romance; ZICHY: Viennese Pranks; SCHUBERT: Le Roi des Aulnes; MOSZKOWSKI: Etude; DEBUSSY: The Little Shepherd; FOOTE: Romanze; BLUMENFELD: Etude – Jean Dubé, piano – BNL 112969, 79:15 [Distr. by Allegro] ****:
French piano virtuoso Jean Dube is a pupil of Jacques Rouvier and John O’Connor, and he favors a bright Steinway for this left-hand program (rec. October 2011) by a fascinating array of composer-pianists. [He won his in a piano competition when he was only nine years old…Ed.] Except for his own contribution to the left-hand genre, Dube chooses works not associated with the ubiquitous Paul Wittgenstein (1887-1961), noted for his having commissioned numerous works between 1920 to 1935 to accommodate his loss of his right arm in WW I. Needless, to say, almost every piece idiomatically gratifies the bravura requirements for the single hand, sacrificing neither lyric nor dramatic power while still usually retaining the illusion that two hands render the musical effect. In several of the selections, Dube performs his own transcriptions.
Three pieces in “olden” style by Camille Saint-Saens open the program, all taken from his Op. 135 Studies. The Bourree in G Minor quite captivates with its musette imitations; the Elegy in D-flat Major plays as a romantic nocturne; and the concluding Gigue in G has the composer’s usual virile pep. Scriabin’s Prelude in C-sharp Minor and Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 9 (1894), take their respective cues from Chopin, especially the latter’s Etude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 25, No. 7. The Nocturne by Dube becomes jeweled perfume. The so-called Wedding Song, Op. 65, No. 3 (1947) by Sergei Bortkiewicz presents a rather heavy, solemn, chromatic (in C-sharp Major) processional (reminiscent of both Liszt’s Un Sospiro and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Hindu Melody) with lyrical episodes that steadily rises in tone and dynamics, ending triple forte.
Composer Pierre Sancan (1916-2008) succeeded Yves Nat as a teacher and pedagogue in Paris. His somewhat exotic Caprice Romantique in E Minor (1949) certainly can claim the Ravel Concerto in D for a precursor in style. Dube’s own A Smile like a Sunshine (2008) actually professes to be a Romance in A-flat Major for the left hand, a combination of Liszt’s famous Liebestraum and his own embellishments in running eighth-notes. A series of strummed effects ppp ends the suave nocturne. Ferdinando Bonimici (1827-1905) composed his Op. 273 Melodic Studies for the left hand, specifically, No. 3, to exploit bravura elements, a la Paganini or Albeniz in the matter of flippant scales Allegro con brio in C Major. The passionate Etude in A Minor, Op. 12, No. 2 from Ossip Gabrilowitsch (1917) reminds us of compatriot Scriabin, working a daunting series of figures in 9/8 while maintaining a steady pulse.
Mexican composer Manuel Ponce studied with Paul Dukas, and his song for left hand A pesar de todo (In spite of everything) (1900) offers a sultry Tango in F-sharp Minor that passes into D Major, a moment we can envision sung by Rita Hayworth in Blood and Sand. Finnish composer Armas Sasol (1885-1960) wrote his piano piece At Twilight as his Opus One. Dube arranges the Semplice in D-flat Major as a tender study of melody and rippling accompaniment that flows without evident seams. The more famous Finn, Jean Sibelius, has his Romance in D Minor, Op. 24, No. 4 (1896) transcribed for left hand by Dube, the work plaintive and nostalgic in character. Geza Zichy (1849-1924) was Hungarian, an aristocrat who lost his right arm to a hunting accident. He became so deft at left-hand performance that Eduard Hanslick deemed him “the greatest wonder of modern times.” Viennese Pranks in A-flat Major from Concert Studies exploits staggered phrases, octaves, trills, and modal scales in staccati as part of a day’s work. Zichy’s own transcription of Schubert’s D Minor Erlkoenig might well be the “wonder” of this entire disc, providing the illusion of voices and accompaniment, registering the dark night of terror that seduces a sick child to his death. The rapid alternation of legato phrasing and staggered accompaniment for the Erl-King on one hand staggers both imagination and ear.
German pianist Moritz Moszkowski composed Twelve Studies for the Left Hand, Op. 92 in 1915. The No. 11 Moderato e cantabile in D-flat Major proves songful, while at the same time balancing a lyrical melody in ¾ against triplets in the bass and occasional fits of bravura. Dube transcribed Debussy’s The Little Shepherd in A Major from the Children’s Corner Suite. In a mere two-and-one-half minutes, the Tres modere piece suggests the Faun’s Prelude and quotes directly from L’isle Joyeuse. The singular melodic line traces a delicate series of steps answered by a faraway voice, then dissipates into space. One American, Arthur Foote (1853-1937), appears in Romanze from Three Pieces for Left Hand, Op. 37 (1896), an expressive salon piece that nods to Chopin and Faure. Felix Blumenfeld (1863-1931), who taught Horowitz in Moscow, composed his Study for the Left Hand, Op. 36 in 1905. A glittery Allegro non tanto in A-flat Major, the piece likes to vary suddenly its dynamic range, moving into a Stretto quasi Cadenza (ff) and later Vivo, ending (suddenly) pianissimo. Do all these maneuvers then qualify Maitre Dube as the next Vladimir Horowitz, or just his left hand?
—Gary Lemco
1933 Les chefs proscrits – Ernst Viebig, Conductor – Forgotten Records
A fine conductor, unfortunately suppressed by the vicious political climate of the ’30s
