Piano Music for the Left Hand - a Reminder of Its Import and Magical Level of Attainment in the Realm of Compositional Technology...

Allow yourself  to consider, for just a moment or two, a beguiling question connected to the issue of piano performance: how much is out there,  knowing that violin music is so redolent with the answer to the issue of what comes out of the world of music created by just four fingers?
For the pianist, what with  the availability of sound production by way of TEN, not four fingers - can come  the question "what if one hand is omitted - how much, and what, is available to the composer, if one hand becomes the medium; not two?"
And the great composer  Johannes Brahms (remember that we're  talking 19th century!) answers that question with his sublime  contribution; namely, the piano transcription for the left hand alone, the Bach  Chaconne.
Enter  Fate, which becomes the great facilitator, in the form of personal tragedy or travail:
Alexander Scriabin, the iconic Romantic-turned -Mystic, who seriously injured his right hand while working on the Liszt Don Juan, and was unable to play with that hand for many months - during that vexing period of depression and frustration, wrote some music for left hand alone, one of which stands today as a brilliant  example  of  early creative sojourns dealing with the issues of simultaneity and production with only five fingers available; that is, his Nocturne for Left Hand.
Then comes World War I, and the tragedy of a young pianist of great promise in the German army whose right arm was  amputated in the ghastly trench war that came out of that period. His name was Paul Wittgenstein, and it appeared that all was over for him and the attendant promise of a brilliant career.
Around 1929, Wittgenstein made what becomes a fateful decision in music history, by commissioning the eminent composer Maurice Ravel to write a Concerto for him.  A whole new industry then began, as composers emerged to delve into and investigate the seductive world of  The Possible by developing a whole new technology with original creations,  not transcriptions, of piano music for five fingers. Serge Prokofiev, the eminent Russian composer,also wrote a Concerto for Wittgenstein. Interestingly, this work was never performed by Wittgenstein, as he decided that he simply could not truly understand the music that Prokofiev had written.
At any rate, other composers flocked to Wittgenstein, and he went on to experience a lengthy and successful career in music for one hand . I recall seeing him once on early TV during my student days.
What is remarkable is the writing of  secondary composers such as  Felix Blumenfeld and Leopold Godowsky, both of whom straddled the 19th and 20th centuries. Neither is generally known today, but the brilliance of their technology in writings for music for left hand is available. Listen to  one of   the great pianists of  our time, the Canadian Marc-Andre Hamelin play Prelude and Fugue on
B-A-C-H by Godowsky. Or listen to  the  Japanese pianist Tchinai , who cannot use his right hand, perform music by Max Reger , called Special Studies.
Or the fabulous pianist Simon Barere,  who died onstage at Carnegie Hall at the beginning of a concert, perform a Blumenfeld Etude for left hand.
And there are other performances one can see/hear on YouTube.
And do ask the question - is the game "can I create music that sounds as if both hands are involved?"
And the composer has indeed answered...