Left hand work

Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian pianist

We heard a good program at the symphony yesterday that included Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 4 for the Left Hand (only) played by French pianist Jean Efflam Bavouzet.  Of course Jean has both of his hands, but he kept the right one mostly glued to his lap for 25 minutes while the left worked overtime.  Quite a feat, and it entered my mind-- what did I accomplish with MY left hand last week?  Well, I didn't even pick up my ukulele.

Prokofiev wrote the work for Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right hand in World War I.  Wittgenstein was born into one of the most prominent families in Vienna.  While still a child, his parents invited the most famous musicians in the city, including Brahms, Strauss, and Mahler, to come play for them in their home. Determined to continue his career after the war, he commissioned works from leading composers for left hand.

Wittgenstein was conservative and didn’t like most of the pieces he had commissioned.  He annoyed many composers by telling them to write however they wished,  as long as the resulting piano concerto put him in the spotlight.  He wrote to Prokofiev:  "Thank you for the concerto, but I do not understand a single note in it,  and I will not play it."

Sergei Prokofiev was characteristically snide. “I don’t see any special talent in his left hand,” he wrote. Wittgenstein’s disability may have been a “stroke of good luck” for maybe with both hands he “would not have stood out from a crowd of mediocre pianists." Ouch.

Here's an old video of the Piano Concerto No. 4 in B Flat Major for Left Hand, Op. 53.