Maurice Ravel
Concertos
About Maurice Ravel's Concertos
Ravel composed both his piano concertos more or less simultaneously, from 1929–1931. The Concerto in D major for the Left Hand and Orchestra was commissioned by the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, an Austrian student of Leschetitzky who lived in the U.S.A. since 1930. He had lost his right arm in World War I but was still able to pursue a very successful career. Composers such as Korngold, Strauss, Britten and Prokofiev were commissioned to write works for him.
Ravel's Left Hand Concerto combines all of the characteristics of Ravel's daring style with a quite jazzy orchestration. That is also true of the G major concerto - both played a large part in classical music's rhythmical emancipation. The G major work was commissioned by Marguerite Long, who played it for the first only a few months after the premiere of the D minor Concerto. While the Left Hand Concerto is still considered something of a specialist work, the G major Concerto has gained a place in the repertoire of almost all major pianists, with its shimmering brilliance, clever rhythms and harmonies, and not least thanks to the touching lyrical waltz of the second movement.
Preview | Title | Key | Year | Level |
---|---|---|---|---|
Piano Concerto - for the Left Hand | D Major | 1930 | 8+ | |
Piano Concerto | G Major | 1931 | 8+ |