Paul Wittgenstein (1887-1961) was an Austrian pianist from a prominent family that included his more famous philosopher brother, Ludwig. While serving in the army during World War I, his right arm was shattered by a bullet and the doctors had to amputate it. Rather than giving up a promising career as a concert pianist that he'd been planning before the war, he embarked on doing the same but with only his left arm. His first public concert appearance was during the 1916-1917 season in Vienna. In 1934 he made his North American debut in Montreal, where he performed Ravel's Piano Concerto for Left Hand. He then followed that performance of the same work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston on November 9. Here's a review of that performance from the Boston Post, published on November 10, 1934:
Mr. Wittgenstein's fame had preceded him hither. To repeat a tale many times told, this scion of Austrian nobility was making for himself a substantial reputation as a pianist when a wound received in the World War deprived him of his right arm. There already existed a considerable "literature" of piano-music for the left hand alone, but hardly enough to make a career for a pianist of Mr. Wittgenstein's powers and ambitions. Hence an imposing array of works for piano and orchestra commissioned by him or written for him, among them two by Richard Strauss and Ravel's Concerto of yesterday.
Although Mr. Wittgenstein's technique is prodigious, it is said that even he rebelled at first at the difficulty of Ravel's piece. Barring the fact that Mr. Wittgenstein cannot play 10 notes at once or play scales in contrary motion, he can seemingly do with one hand what most pianists accomplish with two.
Yet there is nothing freakish about Mr. Wittgenstein's playing of a piece composed, as was Ravel's Concerto, for a pianist suffering from his handicap. The music is as normal as that designed for the five fingers of a violinist or a cellist. Incidentally the world virtuousity as used above applies not only to Mr. Wittgenstein's skill but to that of Ravel, who with Mr. Wittgenstein to aid has caused a piano played with one hand to seem almost as rich in sonorous effects as one played with two. Happily also the concerto is not a mere stunt. Musically it ranks among Ravel's more attractive compositions. It gives Mr. Wittgenstein ample opportunity to prove his stature as an artist, to display not only his brilliance but his sensibility and his musicianship.
And with it all yesterday came thought of how completely the wounds of war are healed. Here was an Austrian whose arm was amputated in a Russian prison camp, playing while a patriotic Russian [Koussevitsky] conducted a work composed for him by a loyal Frenchman. To add that Mr. Wittgenstein was stormily applauded is but to state the obvious and the expected.
Though Wittgenstein commissioned piano concerti from several prominent composers of his day, including not only Ravel but also Richard Strauss, Sergei Prokofiev, and Paul Hindemith, he didn't perform all of them. Some works were just too modern sounding to his ears, which preferred the more lyrical sounds of 19th century music to that of the 20th. In correspondence with Wittgenstein regarding his Piano Concerto No. 4 in B-flat major for the left hand, Op. 53, Prokofiev told him, "Vous êtes un musicien du XIX siecle, moi - du XXe." [You are a musician of the 19th century, me — the 20th.]. Wittgenstein replied, "Thank you very much for your work. I do not understand a note of it and I shall not play it." Ouch. Indeed, while this was completed in 1931, it didn't receive its premiere in Berlin by Siegfried Rapp until 1956 after the composer had died.
The historical novel The Crown Prince (1984) by John Barchilon is loosely based on Wittgenstein's life, though the review of the book in Kirkus summed it up as: "In all, despite obvious signs of hard-working research: a highly artificial gumbo, persuasive neither as fiction nor docu-drama."
There have been other noteworthy one-handed pianists before and since Paul Wittgenstein. Géza Zichy (19th century pianist who lost his right arm during a hunting accident) transcribed works by Liszt, Bach, and others for piano left hand as well as writing his own compositions. Otakar Hollmann was a Czech pianist who like Wittgenstein lost his right arm during World War I, and also commissioned many works for piano left hand by such composers as Leos Janacek. Listen to Janacek's Capriccio Pro Klavír (levou Rukou) a Soubor Dechových Nástrojů (1926), (the score is available for viewing at the Central Library in Copley Square).
Leon Fleisher (1928-2020) was an American pianist who suffered from focal hand dystonia, a repetitive stress syndrome, starting in 1965 and continuing until 1981 when he had surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome. The surgery fixed his problem and allowed him to play piano with both hands once again. During the time he was able to only perform with his left hand, he made a career out of conducting and performing music for piano one hand. He gave the premier of Paul Hindemith's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in 2004 (written in 1923).
Gary Graffman (1928-) is an American pianist who, like Fleisher, suffered from focal hand dystonia. His arose after spraining his right ring finger in 1977. Like Wittgenstein, Graffman is responsible for having commissioned works for piano left hand. One of them, Gaea, by the American composer William Bolcom, was written for two pianos left hand and was premiered by Graffman and Fleisher in Baltimore in 1996.
Norman Malone (1938-) started playing piano at age five, and then at age 10 suffered a terrible head injury at his father's hands, leaving his right side paralyzed. He stuck with music, and was a music teacher in the Chicago Public Schools for 35 years, all the while keeping up the piano. At age 79, he had his orchestral debut, performing Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. He's the subject of the documentary For the Left Hand, available on Kanopy, opens a new window.
Nicholas McCarthy (1989-) was born without a right hand, and started his piano playing career when he was 14 years old. He graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2012, becoming the school's first one-handed graduate. In 2015 he released his first album, Solo, which reached number 4 in the classical music charts. Then at age 36, he just had his first performance at the BBC Proms on July 20, 2025, when he performed Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand.
Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand figured into an episode of the television show MASH when the doctor Major Charles Emerson Winchester convinces a wounded soldier that his talent for the piano doesn't just rest in two hands, but in his head, heart, and soul.
The pianist Paul Wittgenstein was an accomplished pianist whose right arm was amputated after being severely injured during World War I. Not wanting to give up his life as a pianist, he had composers write works for piano using just the left hand for performance. He may be overshadowed by his more famous philosopher brother, Ludwig Wittgenstein, but is certainly honored by musicians. What follows is a list of recordings of the works he had commissioned.
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