The Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Aziz Shokhakimov, welcomes pianist Anna Vinnitskaia , first-prize winner of the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Competition, to perform Ravel’s highly technical Concerto for the Left Hand. Composed at the same time as the Concerto in G, it is one of Maurice Ravel’s most frequently performed and beloved works.

Having lost the use of his right arm on the Russian front during World War I, pianist Paul Wittgenstein wished, despite his disability, to continue his career as a performer. He therefore commissioned several composers to write works for the left hand alone. Maurice Ravel, no doubt impressed by Wittgenstein’s determination, saw this commission as a challenge.

He then set out to compose this Concerto for the Left Hand, simultaneously with the writing of a second concertante work for piano, the Concerto in G. Wittgenstein, bewildered by Ravel’s complex and virtuosic writing, made a few “arrangements” to the score, in reality, profound revisions that were severely condemned by the composer. It was not until the end of the exclusivity granted to the dedicatee that the concerto was performed in France in its original version, on March 19, 1937, with Charles Münch conducting and Jacques Février at the piano.