Piano Concerto for the left hand

The Concerto for the left hand in D major was written in 1929 for the young Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm in the First World War; he premièred the score on 5 January1932 in the Great Hall of the Musikverein (Grosse Musikvereinssaal) in Vienna, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Heger. By the use of many original and inventive ideas and a new way of sounding the instrument that he might not otherwise have suspected, Ravel succeeded miraculously in creating with only one hand the rich, full sonorities of two-handed playing. The work calls for an extraordinarily physical performance, with the soloist doing battle not only with his instrument, but also with a menacing orchestra. The superimposition of seemingly incompatible thematic elements results in grating harmonies. Composed as a single movement but with two clear parts, the work begins in the low register, brooding and dark, before a melodic line gradually emerges. A long crescendo leads to the fierce scansions of the second part, in which, as Ravel admitted, jazz elements abound – jazz of the nervous, aggressive type that is to be heard in Blues, the second movement of his Sonata for violin and piano (1927). The pianist’s second solo is dreamy and pensive. Lighter episodes bring welcome moments of release. Finally, long progressions move towards an inescapable cataclysm: the conclusion is dramatic. Like La Valse (1920), which paid tribute to Imperial Vienna, destroyed by the First World War, this concerto too seems to recall that catastrophe.