Why Ravel Wrote a Concerto... For Only One Hand??

[George K]

One of my favorite concertos.

Link to video

Ravel: "Performers are slaves to the composer. Play it as I wrote it or not at all."

[George K]

By the way, you need some Yuja, right?

Link to video

[Jon]

Paul Wittgenstein was Ludwig’s brother.

[George K]

@Jon said in Why Ravel Wrote a Concerto... For Only One Hand??:

Paul Wittgenstein was Ludwig’s brother.

Yup. The first video mentions that, as well as how he lost his right arm.

[Jon]

I didn’t watch the video because I’m already familiar with Ravel, the Wittgenstein family, and the backstory of the concerto. The Prok 4 was commissioned by him also.

[Axtremus]

Like some parts of pop culture turn against white actors playing the parts of non-white characters, will the classical music world revolt against two-handed pianists playing the part of music written for one-handed pianists?

[Horace]

@Axtremus said in Why Ravel Wrote a Concerto... For Only One Hand??:

Like some parts of pop culture turn against white actors playing the parts of non-white characters, will the classical music world revolt against two-handed pianists playing the part of music written for one-handed pianists?

A simple surgical intervention can solve that issue for a two handed pianist who wishes to play a one handed concerto in a socially acceptable way.