Maurice Ravel - Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

- Composer: Joseph-Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 -- 28 December 1937) - Orchestra: Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire - Conductor: André Cluytens - Soloist: Samson François - Year of recording: 1959 Piano Concerto in D major (for the left hand), written in 1929-1931. Between 1929 and 1931, Ravel, despite his failing health, worked feverishly, his imagination as powerful as ever. Among the works completed during this period are the two piano concertos: this extraordinary work and the scintillating Piano Concerto in G major [uploaded on this channel]. This concerto was commissioned by the prominent Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, brother of the celebrated philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm due to a wound sustained in World War I. It is indeed a tragic irony that Ravel, who also served his country in World War I, and Wittgenstein were enemies in this terrible conflict. Nevertheless, Ravel, fascinated by the techni