Concerto for the Left Hand

In 1929 Paul Wittgenstein, a pianist and war veteran who lost his right arm in the Great War, commissioned Maurice Ravel to write a concerto for him to perform. The result was one of Ravel's most thrilling compositions and, for Wittgenstein, the most important of the many works he commissioned over the course of his career. This scholarly-critical edition of Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand is based on previously inaccessible and unknown sources.

The editor, Douglas Woodfull-Harris, was able to consult manuscripts in the private library of the Paul Wittgenstein Estate which allowed him to retrace the work's evolution from Ravel's autograph working copy to the first printededition. The piano reduction in our edition contains both Ravel's and Wittgenstein's fingerings. Also included is a solo part without fingering, thereby giving pianists the opportunity to enter their own fingering after having studied those of Ravel and Wittgenstein.