A little wonder, every day

pianist Paul Wittgenstein

Paul Wittgenstein playing piano in 1934 with composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold and others. Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection, UCLA Library. CC BY 4.0; credit: “Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection, UCLA Library”; link the license; no edits. Original: https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz002cqcts; Commons file page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Wittgenstein_plays_piano_for_some_people.jpg. Downloaded 960 px preview.

Wittgenstein family in Vienna in summer 1917, including Paul in uniform after his wartime injury. Anonymous photographer. Public domain in the United States and source country; cite source. Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wittgenstein_family_Vienna_1917.jpg. No edits.

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Paul Wittgenstein playing piano in 1934 with composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold and others. Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection, UCLA Library. CC BY 4.0; credit: “Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection, UCLA Library”; link the license; no edits. Original: https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz002cqcts; Commons file page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Wittgenstein_plays_piano_for_some_people.jpg. Downloaded 960 px preview.

Listen to fact0:00 / —

During World War I, Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein lost his right arm. He did not give up music: he built a concert career playing with his left hand and commissioned new works written for that approach. They included Maurice Ravel’s well-known Concerto for the Left Hand.