Maurice Ravel – Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Do you think a one-armed man could have a career as a piano soloist? For one determined young man, the answer was, “Yes.”
All you have to do is see the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major, by French composer Maurice Ravel. It is a true testament to his brilliance, and w
Back before World War I, a concert pianist by the name of Paul Wittgenstein was trying to make his mark in the world. After being drafted, he sadly lost his right arm throughout the fighting. However, Wittgenstein didn’t believe his concert piano career was over as a result.
Due to his inabilities, he began practicing his left-handed technique. The goal was to arrange two-handed works in such a way, that they would accommodate his one-handed state. By the late’20s, Wittgenstein decided it was time to approach others about his innovation.
While many refrained from the idea, Sergei Prokofiev, Richard Wagner, Benjamin Britten, and Maurice Ravel gave him the help he needed.
One of the biggest issues Ravel had in the beginning was that he never wrote a concerto, even though he had written several piano solos. When Wittgenstein approached him, he had already started working on Concerto in G, but it was intended for a two-handed player. During this time he was at a stalemate, and so he decided to take Wittgenstein up on his challenge. During Ravel’s research of left-handed Etudes of Camille Saint-Saens, he began to believe his left-handed Concerto would be a noteworthy addition to piano repertoire.
Once complete, his masterpiece portrayed a dark piece of work about the struggles of a one-armed pianist. It was also about the long road to reinventing himself after a tragic injury. Turns out the craftsmanship was brilliant, and listeners couldn’t even tell it was being played by someone with one hand.
Though the piece has sometime been described as being in two movements, most experts agree that it is a piece written in one movement, but with three sections. Unlike most concerti, The Piano Concerto for the Left Hand is structured as Slow-Fast-Slow, rather than Fast-Slow-Fast.
Truth be told, Wittgenstein was famously known for being hard to please. Richard Wagner offered work as well, but Wittgenstein complained about the orchestration being too powerful for a single-handed pianist. Then of course when Prokofiev offered his work, Wittgenstein wouldn’t even play it.
For Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, Wittgenstein’s complaint had to do with the long solo cadenza just after the opening. “If I had wanted a solo piece,” he is said to have declared, “I wouldn’t have commissioned a concerto.” However, as Ravel refused to change it, Wittgenstein performed the work as written, and later came to like it.
In the end, the Concerto for the Left Hand was a true testament to the human spirit of, and more than just the overcoming nature of one man.
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