Daphne Leong and David Korevaar, The Performer's Voice: Performance and Analysis in Ravel's Concerto pour la main gauche

Appendix 1. Historical recordings of Ravel's Concerto pour la main gauche
* recordings to which we had access

Blancard, Jacqueline. 1938. Charles Münch. Orchestre Philharmonique de Paris.

———. 1950. *1953. Ernest Ansermet. L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

Casadesus, Robert. *1947. Eugene Ormandy. Philadelphia Orchestra.

———. *[1960.] Eugene Ormandy. Philadelphia Orchestra.

Cortot, Alfred. *1939. Charles Münch. Société des Concerts du Conservatoire.

Février, Jacques. 1943. Charles Münch. Société des Concerts du Conservatoire.

———. *1957. Georges Tzipine. Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française.

Perlemuter, Vlado. *1956. Jascha Horenstein. Concerts Colonne Orchestra, Paris.

Wittgenstein, Paul. 1933. Maurice Ravel. L'Orchestre Symphonique de Paris. Film clips.

———. *1937. Bruno Walter. Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra.

———. 1958. Max Rudolph. Metropolitan Opera Orchestra of New York.


Blancard performed the four-hand work Ma Mère l'Oye with Ravel; her score contains the dedication "in remembrance of our fine performance. M.R., Geneva, February 28, 1929." Ravel coached, played with, and attended performances of Robert Casadesus; Casadesus also ghost-recorded difficult pieces for Ravel on some putative Ravel piano rolls (Woodley 2000, 222). Cortot and Ravel were teenage classmates at the Conservatoire. Février studied the concerto with Ravel, and was chosen by him as the first French performer of the concerto in France and the United States. Perlemuter studied Ravel's complete piano works with the composer, meeting with him several times a week for a period of six months, and performed the complete works in Paris in 1929. In Ravel d'après Ravel, he discusses Ravel's piano works, focusing on personal communications from the composer. Austrian one-handed pianist Wittgenstein commissioned the work (with exclusive performance rights for six years), and the Concerto is dedicated to him. He performed the work with several conductors, including Ravel. However, Wittgenstein took many liberties with the score, and Ravel objected to these (Touzelet 1990, 550, 551, 554, 559, 581-582, 593-595).