Politically maybe, but it’s not all the time that left is right. Maxime Zecchini is among the handful of musicians to practise the ‘left-hand repertoire’—a pianist using a single hand instead of all 10 fingers.
The French classical pianist recently had a virtual concert on Alliance Française de Delhi’s Facebook and YouTube pages. The original repertoire, which is rich in 600 works, has Zecchini playing the melodies with his first two fingers, and the accompaniment with his last three.
“It’s like playing with two hands inside one,” explains the artist, adding, “Thanks to the arrangement of the left-hand fingers and their natural flexibility, it plays the bass of the keyboard powerfully, making the piano sound like an orchestra.”
Zecchini chanced on the idea of playing with only his left hand about two decades ago while studying the Concerto pour la main gauche by Maurice Ravel.
He credits Austrian-American concert pianist Paul Wittgenstein with several beautiful pieces that exist for the left-hand today.
“The idea of playing the piano with only five fingers appeared as an extraordinary wonder.
"At the same time, it was also very challenging because the entire composition has to sound like it is being played with both hands,” the 37-year-old pianist says.
After doing some research, Zecchini found that there were very few recordings with the left hand. This led him to propose a discographic label to record the world’s first and unique 10-volume anthology of left hand works.
The collection comprises a mix of musical styles—classical music, contemporary music, chamber’s music, concertos with orchestra and film music.
Through the inventory, he hopes to prove that it is possible to play the works of all the styles with just one hand. While he has recorded eight discs of the compilation so far, the remaining two will be available by the end of 2021.
After spending a lot of time at home sans concerts and travels, Zecchini now has a busy itinerary of online recitals.
Post his stint in Delhi, he will engage audiences in Barcelona, Spain, where he will be performing French compositions of Debussy, Ravel and Michel Legrand. Not new to India, Zecchini had visited in 2016 on a 15-day multi-city tour covering Delhi, Ahmedabad, Goa, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai.
In fact, the tour had seen a rendition of his favourite Bollywood tune, the title track of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Kal Ho Naa Ho. He admits that Delhi enamours him, what with its bustling streets of Nizamuddin and the Old Delhi markets, besides the many historical monuments that dot the city.
The pianist, who is inspired by classic opera composers such as Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi, has a keen ear for film music and has come up with an album dedicated to it.
The compilation, which will be available next year, contains music by John Williams (Star Wars and Jurassic Park), John Barry (Out of Africa), Michel Legrand (Yentl) and Justin Hurwitz (La La Land). In April 2021, Zecchini will also be fulfilling a long-cherished dream—making his debut at the mythical Carnegie Hall in New York, his first concert in the US. The celebrated pianist is the perfect example of the saying: “Everyone is born right-handed. It is only the greatest who overcome it.” Right.