Do you think a one-armed man could have a career as a piano soloist? For one determined young man, the answer was, "Yes."
The Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major, by French composer Maurice Ravel, is a testament not only to Ravel's brilliance, but also to the indomitable will of the man who commissioned it.
Paul Wittgenstein was a concert pianist who had launched his career in the year before World War I broke out. Sadly, he lost his right arm during the fighting. After the war, Wittgenstein was not willing to admit that his dream of a concert piano career was over.
So he began working on his left-handed technique. If he could arrange two-handed works in a single handed state, he would be able to pull off something no other pianist had attempted. By the late'20s, he had mastered his technique and fel it was time to approach the all-star composers of the world.
Many felt this would not be feasible, but he eventually came across Sergei Prokofiev, Richard Wagner, Benjamin Britten, and Maurice Ravel who believed it was possible.
At this time, Ravel had never written a concerto before, though he had written piano solos. He was working on his Piano Concerto in G, more traditionally intended for two hands, and was feeling blocked. Enthusiastically taking up Wittgenstein's challenge, Ravel studied the left-handed Etudes of Camille Saint-Saens. Ravel was determined that his left-handed Concerto would not be a mere stunt, but 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.
Many experts agree that this piece allowed for 3 sections that were unlike other concerti. The Piano Concerto for the Left Hand was set up with a Slow-Fast-Slow movement, as opposed to Fast-Slow-Fast.
Wittgenstein was a client who was famously difficult to please. He found something to complain about in almost every concerto offered to him by his all-star line-up of composers. With Wagner's work, Wittgenstein complained that the orchestration was too powerful to accompany a single-handed pianist, and would overpower the soloist. With Prokofiev's work, Wittgenstein declared that he simply would not play it.
Even the initial thought behind the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand was negative. Wittgenstein believed the solo cadenza after the opening was too long. In fact, he told Ravel; "If I had wanted a solo piece, I wouldn't have commissioned a concerto." However, Ravel refused to change, and over time Wittgenstein began to like it.
In the end, the Concerto for the Left Hand was a true testament to the indomitable human spirit.
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