This is a list of works associated with the left-handed Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein .
These works were either:
Composer | Work | Legend | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Johann Sebastian Bach |
| A | Wittgenstein arranged only the piano part of the Violin Sonata movement |
Bach-Gounod | A | ||
Ludwig van Beethoven |
| A | |
Sergei Bortkiewicz |
| DP | Premiered 11 January 1929. [1] It draws on material from Bortkiewicz's first attempt at a piano concerto. [2] |
Johannes Brahms |
| A | Wittgenstein arranged only the piano part of the song |
Rudolf Braun |
| DP | Premiered 31 October 1927. [1] |
| D | Composed 1922, pub 1928. [3] | |
Benjamin Britten | DP | Originally called Concert Variations; premiered 17 January 1942. [1] | |
Frédéric Chopin |
| A | |
Norman Demuth |
| D | |
Hans Gál |
| DP | Premiered 1928. [2] |
Leopold Godowsky |
| D | Written for Wittgenstein, but he never played it so Godowsky rededicated it to Simon Barere. [2] |
Edvard Grieg |
| A | |
Ernst Haberbier |
| A | |
Joseph Haydn |
| A | |
Adolf von Henselt |
| A | |
Josef Herz |
| D | |
Paul Hindemith |
| CD | Wittgenstein did not understand the work and refused to play it. He kept the score, but never spoke of it, and it was believed lost. It was discovered in his papers after his widow's death in 2002. [2] It had its world premiere in Berlin in 2004, with Leon Fleisher and the Berlin Philharmonic; the U.S. premiere was on 2 October 2005, with Fleisher and the San Francisco Symphony, under Herbert Blomstedt. [4] |
Alexis Holländer (1840–1924) |
| D | |
Leonard Kastle |
| D | |
Erich Wolfgang Korngold |
| CDP | Wittgenstein was given lifelong exclusive rights to play the concerto; first performed 22 September 1924, [2] the composer conducting. [1] The UK premiere was in 1985, with Gary Graffman. [2] |
| CDP | First performance in Vienna on 21 October 1930 by Wittgenstein with members of the Rosé Quartet. | |
Josef Labor |
| DP | Written when Wittgenstein was a prisoner of war in Omsk, Siberia, Russia. This was the work with which he made his return to the concert platform in Vienna, as a one-armed pianist. [2] |
| D | ||
| DP | Premiered 9 January 1917. [2] | |
| DP | Premiered 26 October 1936. [2] | |
| D | ||
| D | ||
| DP | Premiered 25 January 1932. [2] | |
| D | ||
| D | ||
| D | Unfinished. [2] | |
| DP | Premiered 18 March 1932. [2] | |
Felix Mendelssohn |
| A | |
Giacomo Meyerbeer |
| A | |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | A | ||
Sergei Prokofiev |
| CD | He did not understand the work, and would not play it until such time as he did - but that never eventuated. The premiere was on 5 September 1956, played by Siegfried Rapp, a German pianist who had lost his right arm during World War II. [2] |
Giacomo Puccini |
| A | |
Maurice Ravel |
| CDP | He gave the premiere on 5 January 1932, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Robert Heger. The dedication was reassigned after Wittgenstein's sole performing rights expired in 1943. [1] |
Felix Rosenthal (1867–1936) |
| D | Found in his papers after his death. |
Moriz Rosenthal |
| D | |
D | The score is signed and inscribed: Paul Wittgenstein in Bewunderung zugeeignet von Moritz Rosenthal (Dedicated to Paul Wittgenstein in admiration by Moritz Rosenthal). | ||
| D | Autograph manuscript of an untitled work. Extensively annotated by Wittgenstein. | |
Anton Rubinstein |
| A | |
Franz Schmidt |
| DP | Premiered Vienna 2 February 1924. [1] |
| DP | Premiered 1927. | |
| DP | Premiered 1933. | |
| DP | Premiered Vienna 10 February 1935. [1] | |
| D | Premiered 1939 by Friedrich Wührer. The finale is a set of variations on a theme by Josef Labor, and Wittgenstein often performed this lengthy movement as an independent piece. [2] | |
| D | ||
Franz Schubert trans. Franz Liszt |
| A | |
Robert Schumann |
| A | |
Eduard Schütt |
| P | Premiered February 1925, Musikvereinsaal, Vienna [5] |
| DP | Premiered 27 June 1929. [1] [2] | |
Johann Strauss II |
| A | |
Richard Strauss |
| D | |
| DP | It was written with him in mind and he gave the first performance, but it was not formally dedicated to him. [1] | |
| D | ||
Alexandre Tansman | D | ||
Richard Wagner |
| A | |
Wagner trans. Liszt |
| A | |
Ernest Walker |
| D | |
| D | ||
| D | ||
Karl Weigl |
| D | |
Franz Schmidt, also Ferenc Schmidt was an Austro-Hungarian composer, cellist and pianist.
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considered by some to be the greatest philosopher of the 20th century.
Paul Wittgenstein was an Austrian-American concert pianist notable for commissioning new piano concerti for the left hand alone, following the amputation of his right arm during the First World War. He devised novel techniques, including pedal and hand-movement combinations, that allowed him to play chords previously regarded as impossible for a five-fingered pianist.
A piano concerto is a type of concerto, a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for a piano player, which is typically accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuoso showpieces which require an advanced level of technique on the instrument. These concertos are typically written out in music notation, including sheet music for the pianist, orchestra parts for the orchestra members, and a full score for the conductor, who leads the orchestra in the accompaniment of the soloist.
Josef Paul Labor was an Austrian pianist, organist, and composer of the late Romantic era. Labor was an influential music teacher. As a friend of some key figures in Vienna, his importance was enhanced.
Theodor Leschetizky (sometimes spelled Leschetitzky, Polish: Teodor Leszetycki; 22 June 1830 – 14 November 1915 was an Austrian-Polish pianist, professor, and composer born in Landshut in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, then a crown land of Austria-Hungary.
Leon Fleisher was an American classical pianist, conductor and pedagogue. He was one of the most renowned pianists and pedagogues in the world. Music correspondent Elijah Ho called him "one of the most refined and transcendent musicians the United States has ever produced".
Gary Graffman is an American classical pianist, teacher and administrator.
The Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major 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, who lost his right arm during World War I. The Concerto had its premiere on 5 January 1932, with Wittgenstein as soloist performing with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
Jacques Février was a French pianist and teacher.
Diversions for Piano Left Hand and Orchestra, Op. 21, is a concertante music composition by Benjamin Britten.
Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 4 in B-flat major for the left hand, Op. 53, was commissioned by the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein and completed in 1931.
Friedrich Wührer was an Austrian-German pianist and piano pedagogue. He was a close associate and advocate of composer Franz Schmidt, whose music he edited and, in the case of the works for left hand alone, revised for performance with two hands; he was also a champion of the Second Viennese School and other composers of the early 20th century. His recorded legacy, however, centers on German romantic literature, particularly the music of Franz Schubert.
Ernest Walker was an Indian-born English composer and writer on music, as well as a pianist, organist and teacher.
Otakar Hollmann was a Czech pianist who was notable in the repertoire for left-handed pianists. Although little known now, he was considered second only to Paul Wittgenstein in the promotion of the left-hand repertoire. He commissioned works for the left hand from a number of composers, most notably Janáček, Martinů, Schulhoff and Foerster. He was also a composer in his own right.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in C-sharp major, Op. 17, was written on commission from Paul Wittgenstein in 1923, and published in 1926. It was only the second such concerto ever written, after the Concerto in E-flat by Géza Zichy, published in 1895.
Siegfried Rapp was a German pianist who lost his right arm during World War II and then focused on the left-hand repertoire. He is now mainly remembered for being the first to perform Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 4 for the Left Hand, Op.53.
Rudolf Braun was an Austrian pianist and composer who was born congenitally blind. He was born and died in Vienna.
Klaviermusik mit Orchester, Op. 29, is a 1923 piano concerto by Paul Hindemith. Subtitled Klavier nur linke Hand, it is a piano concerto for the left hand alone. It was commissioned by the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in the World War. He never played the piece, and when he died, his widow refused access to the score. The premiere, after her death, was played in Berlin in 2004, with Leon Fleisher as the soloist and the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Simon Rattle. It was published by Schott.