Erich Wolfgang Korngold Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897November 29, 1957) was an Austrian-born American composer and conductor. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential composers in Hollywood history. He was a noted pianist and compo ...

's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in

C-sharp major C-sharp major (or the key of C-sharp) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. It is enharmonically equivalent to D-flat major. Its key signature has seven sharps. The C-sharp major scale is: : I ...

, Op. 17, was written on commission from

Paul Wittgenstein Paul Wittgenstein (November 5, 1887March 3, 1961) 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 nove ...

in 1923, and published in 1926. It was only the second such concerto ever written, after the Concerto in E-flat by

Géza Zichy Géza Zichy (23 July 184914 January 1924) was a Hungarian composer and was also renowned as the world's first professional one-armed pianist.Harold C. Schonberg, ''The Great Pianists'', p. 252 Zichy also published an autobiography ("Aus meinem L ...

, published in 1895.Hyperion
/ref> Wittgenstein, who lost an arm in World War I, was to commission works from composers such as

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...

and

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ''Ne ...

, but Korngold was one of the first composers he approached. At that time, Korngold was the most performed composer in Germany and Austria after Strauss, and, despite being only in his mid-twenties, had already written a number of operas, including his greatest triumph, ''

Die tote Stadt ' (German for ''The Dead City''), Op. 12, is an opera in three acts by Erich Wolfgang Korngold set to a libretto by Paul Schott, a collective pseudonym for the composer and his father, Julius Korngold. It is based on the 1892 novel '' Bruges-la-Mo ...

''. The Concerto for the Left Hand is cast in one continuous movement, which progresses through various moods and three main sections: # ''Mässiges Zeitmass'' (moderate tempo) # ''Heldisch'' (hero-like) # ''Mit Feuer und Kraft'' (with fire and power). It was premiered in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

on 22 September 1924 with Wittgenstein as soloist and the composer conducting. In many other cases, Wittgenstein required certain revisions to the works he commissioned, but not in the Korngold case. He was so happy with what Korngold wrote that he commissioned another work, the Suite for 2 violins, cello and piano left-hand, Op. 23.Mimir Festival
Wittgenstein owned the exclusive performing rights to the Concerto until his death in 1961, and it gradually slipped from the repertoire. It was revived by

Gary Graffman Gary Graffman (born October 14, 1928) is an American classical pianist, teacher and administrator. Early life Graffman was born in New York City to Russian-Jewish parents. Having started piano at age 3, Graffman entered the Curtis Institute of M ...

, who gave it its United Kingdom premiere in 1985Piano Music for the Left Hand Alone
/ref> and it has since had a number of performances. It has been recorded by

Marc-André Hamelin Marc-André Hamelin, OC, CQ (born September 5, 1961), is a Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer. Hamelin is recognized worldwide for the originality and technical proficiency of his performances of the classic repertoire. He has received 11 Gr ...

Howard Shelley Howard Gordon Shelley (born 9 March 1950) is a British pianist and conductor. He was educated at Highgate School and the Royal College of Music. He was married to fellow pianist Hilary Macnamara (her death), with whom he has performed and recor ...

, and

Steven de Groote Steven De Groote (12 January 1953 – 22 May 1989) was a South African classical pianist. Steven De Groote was born in Johannesburg, South Africa into a Belgian family in which, for three generations, almost every member had been a professio ...

. Most recently, Nicolas Stavy performs Korngold's Left Hand Concerto with the Orchestre national de Lille under the direction of Paul Polivnick.

References

{{Authority control Compositions by Erich Wolfgang Korngold Korngold, Erich 1923 compositions Compositions in C-sharp major Concertos for piano left-hand and orchestra

See also

References