Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, older brother of Ludwig, the philosopher, had a psychological constitution that today we would call very typical of a resilient personality. A very good pianist, he returned from the Russian front during World War I without his right arm. An unfortunate loss, of course. But against all odds, he decided to continue his career at all costs. To this end, he engaged in a sustained campaign asking composers of the time for works to be performed on the piano with only the left hand.
A difficult customer
Wittgenstein, however, was not an easy client to please. For example, he rejected music written by Richard Strauss and Sergei Prokofiev. To the latter, he returned his Fourth Piano Concerto with a note that read something like thank you very much but I do not understand a single note of your concerto and do not intend to play it. Maurice Ravel did not fare so badly. At least Wittgenstein did not reject the work although he claimed that it was necessary to modify to a significant extent the Concerto in D major, requested in the spring of 1929 and completed in nine months. Ravel would not allow it.
Giving in
He could not afford it. Ravel was 55 years old, he was a celebrity in Europe and three years ago he had made a worldwide hit with the brilliant Bolero, which, by the way, had the curious virtue of surprising the composer himself.
So Wittgenstein, somewhat reluctant (he did not like the long cadenza that opens the work), was forced to premiere the Concerto in D major for the left hand just as Ravel had written it. It was the least he could do, to give in. To fulfill the commission from the "handicapped" pianist, Ravel had suspended the creative work on his Concerto in G, a long-standing desire of the composer, although it seems that at times he worked on both simultaneously.
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| Paul Wittgenstein (1887 - 1961) |
The subsequent enthusiasm
Despite Wittgenstein's initial reluctance (perhaps he was not initially enthusiastic about the jazz-like rhythmic and harmonic nods it presents), he eventually "loved" the work. And everyone else too: today it has become the most famous of all compositions ever written for the left hand.
Premiere and musical structure
Its premiere took place in Vienna on January 5, 1932, accompanied by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, conducted not by Ravel but by the French conductor Robert Heger.
With a length of about twenty minutes, opinions about its structure are divided. Some argue that it consists of a single movement. Others say two, but linked. A third claims that as opposed to the usual fast - slow - fast, the concerto shows three sections: slow - fast - slow. The latter is undoubtedly true. It is also true that to dare to play it, one must be a first-rate virtuoso.
The performance is by the French pianist Hélene Tysman, accompanied by the Orchestra of the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar, conducted by Nicolas Pasquet.
With this performance, the pianist passed her graduation exam.
