ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) (03/19/85)
From cmoore@BRL-VLD: >On Ripley's Believe-it-or-not, I have heard of "Piano Concerto >for Left Hand" by Maurice Ravel; 1st public performance in 1931. >It was written for a pianist who lost right arm while serving >in Austrian forces in World War I. If you like the popular romantic piano concerti, such as those by Tchaikovksi and Rachmaninov, you will probably love this piece. It is full of spectacular orchestral color and big melodies. Ravel does everything possible to make five fingers sound like twenty. I believe the pianist was Wittgenstein. Other composers wrote one-handed music for him as well. Prokofiev's 4th piano concerto, for example. Unfortunately, this somewhat prickly piece (which resembles #5) was labeled `too modern' by the pianist for whom it was written; nor has it attracted much attention from the listening public. I've worn out two copies of Serkin's old Columbia recording of this one. -michael