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All the things you are
Format:
Audio disc
Title:
All the things you are
Publication:
New Rochelle, NY : Bridge, [2014]
Physical Description:
1 audio disc (57 min., 27 sec.) : digital, CD audio ; 4 3/4 in.
General Note:
Principally original works or arrangements for piano, left hand; the 6th work for piano.

Title from disc label.

Program notes by Ray Sprenkle and biographical notes on the pianist (20 unnumbered pages : facsimiles) inserted in container.
Contents:
Chaconne / J.S. Bach ; arranged for left hand by Johannes Brahms as Etude no. 5 (1879) (17:56) -- L.H. : 1995, for left hand / Leon Kirchner (7:13) -- The man I love / George Gershwin ; arranged for left hand by Earl Wild as Etude no. 3 (1954, rev. 1976) (2:58) -- Musical offerings : in celebration of Leon Fleisher at 70 : 1997/98, for left hand / George Perle (11:17) -- Prelude no. 6 for left hand / Federico Mompou (6:10) -- Thoughts of Evelyn : 2000, for piano / Dina Koston (6:50) -- All the things you are / Jerome Kern ; arranged for left hand by Stephen Prutsman (4:50).
Summary:
Eighty-five years old when this recording was released in 2014, American pianist Leon Fleisher has lived an unusual story. Acclaimed as one of the most well-rounded pianists in the world in the 1950s, he was forced to stop playing in 1964 when his right hand was afflicted by focal dystonia. He reinvented himself as a musician: as a conductor, and eventually as a specialist in piano music for the left hand. After nearly four decades, treatments with botox made it possible for him to play once again with both hands, but he has continued to play left-hand works. This little album exemplifies his recitals of the 21st century: it is made up mostly of works for the left hand, with one piece, Dina Koston's "Thoughts of Evelyn," for both hands. The sheer variety of the left-hand music is the attraction: Fleisher's gifts as a pianist shine through as he explores Brahms' somehow monastic arrangement of the Chaconne from Bach's "Partita for solo violin in D minor, BWV 1005," as well as contemporary pieces written to make listeners forget that only the left hand is involved, a couple of classic popular songs (the album title is evocative, but be aware that most of the music is not by Jerome Kern or popular in origin), and an entrancing prelude of Mompou, originally composed for the left hand alone. The program covers the range of territory that makes for a satisfying recital, and the album is a fine capstone to a remarkable career.
Holds: