Reception and Legacy
The piece was commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, a concert pianist who had lost his right arm in the First World War. Although at first Wittgenstein did not take to its jazz-influenced rhythms and harmonies, he grew to like the piece. Ravel's other concerto, the Piano Concerto in G, is more widely known and played.
The piece is featured prominently in "Morale Victory," an episode from the 8th season of the long-running American television series M*A*S*H. Major Charles Winchester (David Ogden Stiers) uses it and Wittgenstein's story to convince a drafted concert pianist (James Stephens), whose right hand has been permanently injured in combat, not to give up his musical gift despite his wounds.
The concerto is well known in the Netherlands because of its use as the opening theme of the popular travel TV show "De Wereld van Boudewijn Buch" that ran between 1988 and 2001.
Read more about this topic: Piano Concerto For The Left Hand (Ravel)
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