# Piano concertos for one hand



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

The most famous of the one-hand concerti is probably Ravel's concerto for the left hand. As far as I know, there is now a fairly large literature for the left hand. 

I wonder why specifically the left hand though? Is there any comparable literature for the right hand, or do pianists only ever lose their right hands?

And also: is the left hand literature playable with the right hand? Being a very amateurish amateur pianist, I would think some sorts of pianistic figurations would be far more playable by one hand than the other, but are some bits, written for one hand, all but impossible to play with the other? Are there any recordings of a left-hand works played by the right hand?

Etc. etc. - this thread is for any interesting information about one-handed keyboard works.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Paul Wittgenstein


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Add to the list Prokofiev's PC4 for the _left_ hand. Both Ravel and Prokofiev's concertos were commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

See the Wiki article on Paul Wittgenstein, who commissioned most of the left-hand concertos we appreciate today including Ravel's. Not surprisingly, he had only one hand! He seems to have disliked some of the works he received and refused to perform them. Since he insisted on sole performing rights, some were not heard for may years.

Benjamin Britten, Paul Hindemith, Alexandre Tansman, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Sergei Prokofiev, Franz Schmidt, Sergei Bortkiewicz, Richard Strauss, and Maurice Ravel all wrote works for him.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I got to know about this in an episode of MASH

If a performer can use both hands, do they still only use one hand when performing the Ravel Concerto for Left Hand?


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2014)

dgee said:


> Paul Wittgenstein


Whether directly commissioned or not, this lefty was kinda the whole point of the left-hand repertoire...but maybe there's a right-hand work out there somewhere.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

I recently heard several of these works as a booked soloist came down with focal dystonia so played the Prokofiev and Britten. I can't say either of them connected with me but they were impressive and a trifle bizarre to watch


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

senza sordino said:


> If a performer can use both hands, do they still only use one hand when performing the Ravel Concerto for Left Hand?


Yes, at least when I saw it performed. The soloist (Christopher O'riley) had performed other pieces that night with both hands but when performing the Ravel he used only his left hand.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

I would think that for a two-handed pianist performing a left-hand work, one problem would be to keep the right hand in practice while learning the left-hand work. 

An interesting case I read about some time ago is a pianist who was born with only a left hand. Learning to play piano was a challenge for him because the left-hand literature is all advanced stuff; there aren't really any beginner pieces just for the left hand. Had he been born with only a right hand, perhaps he would never have gone into piano at all, or would have tried to play the left hand literature with his right. But that comes back to my question about whether it is possible to play work written specifically for the left hand with the right.

And another one: did all the left-hand work written for Wittgenstein inspire any composers to write such music without any particular pianist in mind, simply as an interesting exercise? And are there any pieces for the right hand?

Trivia: if memory serves, the pianist Wittgenstein was related to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Wittgenstein also commissioned a left-hand concerto from Paul Hindemith but didn't like it. Somehow the manuscript, complete with assigned opus number, remained with the pianist rather than being reclaimed by the composer and, as far as I can tell, is still held by the Wittgenstein estate after being rediscovered after his widow's death. Since then it has been occasionally performed, but not yet recorded.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

senza sordino said:


> I got to know about this in an episode of MASH
> 
> If a performer can use both hands, do they still only use one hand when performing the Ravel Concerto for Left Hand?


Yes, as far as I know, always, especially with the Ravel.

Ravel's Concerto in D is so perfectly engineered, and the writing - both piano and orchestral - is strongly weighted to a left-hand only execution that there is really no successful way to perform it right-handed.

Wholly able pianists who have thought to split the part between two hands have said the same: the piece is _so organic_ to the left-hand delivery that there is really no other way.

Although every advanced / concert pianist's hands are supposed to have a perfectly even development of full technical use of each finger, their still is a disposition of the hand as it relates to the keyboard. Ravel was a virtuoso pianist, but seems to have figured out 'the problem' better than any of the other composers from which Wittgenstein commissioned works.

Prokofiev was another no-slouch uber pyrotechnical virtuoso pianist, yet his 4th piano concerto is a semi-orphaned or neglected work I champion at every opportunity. It is very neoclassical, the piano part is spare compared to the parts in his other concerti -- if not sounding like for one hand it is very lean compared to anything else he wrote for piano. It is possible he welcomed the commission, felt no need to write to 'cover' for the absence of one hand, and the choice was deliberate and occasioned by the commission. I think it is a truly great piece; it gets overlooked because it is not the heavy-duty vehicle for two-handed mega pyrotechnical virtuosity -- i.e. demonstrable flash 'n' panache -- which the other four piano concerti are 

P.s. Pianists and right hand debility:
While Paul Wittgenstein lost his right arm to a war injury, there is a much higher occurrence of pianists losing the use of the right hand....

Two major pianists, the same debilitating loss of the use of the right hand... the repetitive use of being the catalyst for the condition. The right hand is so often the one to bear a greater load of challenging configurations for a pianist, it is most frequently the one to go through over-use. (A lot of the other literature for the left-hand was written specifically to concentrate on left-hand technique, exactly because many a pianist has better command of the right hand, again because that is where so much more demand is that it often gets workouts while the left is neglected.)
Leon Fleisher:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/12/arts/12iht-pianist.1.6104272.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Gary Graffman:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10718527

Wiki's list of piano concerti for the left hand, with some oddities, and a much shorter list of concertante works for piano, right hand.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_for_piano_left-hand_and_orchestra


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

Here is a reason: I'm not just making this up, I heard it from a good source, but unfortunately I don't remember what it is. If you think about it, it makes sense, though.

The thumb is the strongest finger of the hand. If a pianist plays music with her left hand alone, she can play the melody with her thumb and use the other fingers for accompaniment. Think of some passages where Ravel does this in his concerto, and then try to imagine anyone playing the same thing with her right hand instead.

Let me put in a plug for a couple lesser-known concertante works for left-hand piano: Korngold's Concerto in C# Major (even the key signature is curious!), a concertino by Janacek, and R. Strauss's _Parergon_. Prokofiev's Concerto #4 is fairly well-known but not as much as it should be.



brianvds said:


> The most famous of the one-hand concerti is probably Ravel's concerto for the left hand. As far as I know, there is now a fairly large literature for the left hand.
> 
> I wonder why specifically the left hand though? Is there any comparable literature for the right hand, or do pianists only ever lose their right hands?
> 
> ...


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

brianvds said:


> I would think that for a two-handed pianist performing a left-hand work, one problem would be to keep the right hand in practice while learning the left-hand work.


Actually, Ravel wrote the Left Hand Concerto so that pianists, who tended to practice most hours of the day, could catch a sandwich break while still practicing something worthwhile.


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

I read somewhere that Alkan wrote some music for piano right-hand.

Someone also wrote an orchestral work with a three-handed piano part. Two players, obviously. I think the composer was English. Sorry I don't remember more.



brianvds said:


> The most famous of the one-hand concerti is probably Ravel's concerto for the left hand. As far as I know, there is now a fairly large literature for the left hand.
> 
> I wonder why specifically the left hand though? Is there any comparable literature for the right hand, or do pianists only ever lose their right hands?
> 
> ...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Of course there is also Prokofiev's fourth piano concerto; my least favorite of the five.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

spradlig said:


> *Someone also wrote an orchestral work with a three-handed piano part. Two players, obviously.* I think the composer was English. Sorry I don't remember more.


Why is it so obviously "two players" and not "three players all using their left hands" or a single player with a well-trained foot, or one freakish three armed player? In any case, take a look here: http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:For_piano_3_hands

What I'm wondering is ... has anyone written a piece for a piano with one leg alone?


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

spradlig said:


> I read somewhere that Alkan wrote some music for piano right-hand.
> 
> Someone also wrote an orchestral work with a three-handed piano part. Two players, obviously. I think the composer was English. Sorry I don't remember more.


Malcolm Arnold is his name


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Makes me wonder whether there are any concerti for piano duet...


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

brianvds said:


> Makes me wonder whether there are any concerti for piano duet...


Mozart of course, and Mendelssohn wrote two very nice ones when young...


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

I think three players would have trouble fitting on a piano bench. 

Do you mean that the piano has one leg or the player has one leg?



SONNET CLV said:


> Why is it so obviously "two players" and not "three players all using their left hands" or a single player with a well-trained foot, or one freakish three armed player? In any case, take a look here: http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:For_piano_3_hands
> 
> What I'm wondering is ... has anyone written a piece for a piano with one leg alone?


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Mozart of course, and Mendelssohn wrote two very nice ones when young...


I mean duets with two players to one piano. I think the Mozart and Mendelssohn concerti are for two pianos?

Incidentally, didn't Bartok write a concerto arrangement for his sonata for two pianos and percussion?


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

spradlig said:


> Someone also wrote an orchestral work with a three-handed piano part. Two players, obviously. I think the composer was English. Sorry I don't remember more.


Malcolm Arnold's Concerto for two pianos, three hands. A delightful 13-minute work.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Balcom wrote a concerto for Fleischer and Graffman. He composed his concerto Gaea for two pianos (left hand) and orchestra for Gary Graffman and Leon Fleisher, both of whom have suffered from debilitating problems with their right hands. It received its first performance on April 11, 1996 by the Baltimore Symphony conducted by David Zinman. The concerto is constructed so that it can be performed in one of three ways, with either piano part alone with reduced orchestra, or with both piano parts and the two reduced orchestras combined into a full orchestra.


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