Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (Ravel)
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The Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major (Concerto pour la main gauche en ré majeur) was composed by Maurice Ravel between 1929 and 1930, concurrently with his Piano Concerto in G Major. It was commissioned by the Austrian pianist, Paul Wittgenstein (brother of the philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein), who lost his right arm during World War I. Wittgenstein gave the premiere with Robert Heger and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra on January 5, 1932. Before writing the concerto, Ravel enthusiastically studied the left-hand études of Camille Saint-Saëns.
Structure
Ravel is quoted in one source as saying that piece is in only one movement (Daily Telegraph July 11, 1931 p. 364) and in another as saying the piece is divided into two movements linked together (Le Journal January 14, 1933, p. 328). According to Marie-Noelle Masson, the piece has a tripartite structure: Slow-Fast-Slow, instead of the usual Fast-Slow-Fast. Whatever the internal structure may be, the 18-19 minute piece negotiates several sections in various tempi and keys without pause. Towards the end of the piece, some of the music of the early slow sections is overlayed with the faster music, such that two tempi occur simultaneously.
The concerto begins with the double basses softly arpeggiating an ambiguous harmony (E-A-D-G). Although these notes are later given great structural weight, they are also the four open strings on the double bass, creating the illusion at the start that the orchestra is still tuning up. As is traditional in a concerto, the thematic material is presented first in the orchestra and then echoed by the piano. Not as traditional is the dramatic piano cadenza which first introduces the soloist and prefigures the piano's statement of the opening material. This material includes both an A and a B theme, though the B theme receives little exposure. An additional theme introduced at the beginning exhibits several similarities to the Dies Irae chant.
An excerpt from the faster section, sometimes referenced as the scherzo, is shown in the example. Throughout the piece, Ravel creates ambiguity between triple and duple rhythms. This example highlights one of the more glaring instances of this.
Reception and legacy
Although at first Wittgenstein did not take to its jazz-influenced rhythms and harmonies, he grew to like the piece. Ravel's other Piano Concerto in G Major is more widely known and played.
There are several other piano concertos for the left hand, including pieces by Benjamin Britten and Sergei Prokofiev, many of them also commissioned by Wittgenstein.
Pop culture
- Appears in the M*A*S*H episode "Morale Victory," where Charles Winchester helps a young soldier who had lost the complete use of his right hand to regain his hopes of being a concert pianist by giving him sheet music of this piece.
References
- Kelly, Barbara. “Ravel, Maurice,” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy,
- Masson, Marie-Noëlle. “Ravel: Le Concerto pour la main gauche ou les Enjeuz d’un Néo-Classicisme,” Musurgia 5, no. 3-4 (1998): 37-52.
Further reading
- Lau, Sandra Wing-Yee. The art of the left hand: a study of Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the left hand and a bibliography of the repertoire. Diss. Standard University, 1994.
- Mawer, Deborah, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Ravel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- Perlemuter, Vlado and Hélène Jourdan-Morhange. Ravel according to Ravel. Frances Tanner, trans. London: Kahn & Averill, 1970.
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