The First World War showed no mercy to artists and many died or returned injured. The Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein lost his right arm on the battlefield and Maurice Ravel composed the “Piano Concerto for the Left Hand” for him. The piece was performed by Yuja Wang in a recent concert in Versailles, 100 years after the “Treaty of Versailles”, in which the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra commemorated the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War.
The world famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra commemorated the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War with a symbolic “Concert for Peace” during a memorable performance at the Royal Opera House at the Palace of Versailles.
“The way he has written it, it’s like he’s had three hands or four hands in his head I mean there’s a top melody and then, this in the middle, and it’s like the most beautiful harmonies there and so much intricacies and the instrumentation, he’s using, the colours he’s creating. And you know it has a groovy, wild side.
I think I just enjoy this kind of mysterious power inside, coming from you know like three motives and he is just constantly transforming them… and this power is probably coming from all the catastrophe from the end of the war. And I like that dark power,” Wang said.
Hear an excerpt from the piano concerto played by Yuja Wang in a DG recording session back in 2015:
from Piano Street’s Classical Piano News https://www.pianostreet.com/blog/piano-news/yuja-wang-plays-ravel-to-commemorate-peace-9471/
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