There’s a trepidatious growl from the contra-bassoon. Soon, it is joined by French horns, strings and timpani; the sound rumbles, snowballs – and then: abrupt silence. The piano sings into the stillness: a bold, reflective melody that swells with virtuosic pride. Ravel’s simmering, shimmering Piano Concerto for the Left Hand is beloved for its keyboard athleticism, filigree passages and dark evocations. It has been widely recorded and is a BBC Proms fixture: recent performances include those by Joanna MacGregor (1990), Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (2010), Marc-André Hamelin (2015) and Tamara Stefanovic (2018). But it wasn’t until Nicholas McCarthy’s performance with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and conductor Mark Wigglesworth in 2025 that the concerto was once more played as it has always been intended – by a one-handed pianist.
Wearing a dark jacket flecked with gold embroidery – designed to highlight, not hide – the soloist’s limb difference, McCarthy dances across the keys. Watching on iPlayer provides a bird’s-eye view of the concert grand nestled in the orchestral horseshoe, and depicts the ambitious scale of this work alongside its quieter intimacy. Ravel composed the piece throughout 1929 and ’30, working concurrently on the Piano Concerto in G. That work feels lighter in texture and style than its left-hand counterpart, with Ravel clearly revelling in the unusual brief.
Paul Wittgenstein and the development of left-handed piano repertoire
The commission came from Paul Wittgenstein, a pianist who had lost his right arm during the First World War. Wittgenstein, the older brother of Ludwig, the philosopher, and a member of one of Europe’s wealthiest families, gave the British premiere at the Proms in 1932.
‘I owe so much to Paul Wittgenstein,’ says McCarthy. ‘After he’d had his right arm amputated, he was determined to get back to the piano. He was wealthy and commissioned the biggest names of the day to write for him.’ So, we find ourselves with a rich repertoire for the left hand, including concertos by Britten, Prokofiev, Korngold and Hindemith.
But the left-hand repertoire goes back much further. As Lisztomania gripped 19th-century salons, pianists pushed the newly developing instrument to its limits, with increasingly virtuosic displays of pyrotechnics. One popular party trick was to dazzle audiences with a left-hand encore. ‘Most pianists are weaker in the left hand, so it was considered a demonstration of strength,’ explains McCarthy. ‘That’s why the earliest pieces are very showy.’ The repertoire was also enlarged by Count Géza Zichy (1849-1924), a Hungarian composer who lost his right arm in a hunting accident as a teenager. As well as transcribing works by Bach and Chopin, Zichy – tutored by Liszt – composed operas and a left-hand concerto.
Should two-handed pianists play repertoire for the left hand?
The repertoire presents something of an ethical quandary: is it for two-handed pianists to demonstrate virtuosic ability, as it has, to some extent, always been; or should it be the preserve of the left-handed pianists, to whom much of it was dedicated? Perhaps it can be both. ‘I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t frustrating sometimes to watch a two-handed pianist playing a left-hand concerto,’ says McCarthy, with typical honesty. ‘Yet I love hearing other people’s interpretations. But ultimately, I think programmers should remember that these pieces were written for a specific reason, through disability.’
Nicholas McCarthy - a triumphant Proms debut
McCarthy’s Proms debut has been a long time coming. He’s been featured in the Proms broadcasts before, including a discussion of Alexandre Tharaud’s performance of the Ravel concerto in 2016. It seemed a little insensitive – or tone deaf, to use the modern parlance – to ask a left-handed pianist to watch and commentate while a two-handed pianist played a work intended for someone with one limb.
Happily, nearly a decade later, McCarthy was the one on stage… and the reception was rapturous. ‘It was a long time coming,’ he says. ‘I’ve often stood on the sidelines cheering other people on and I’ve been very happy to do it – hoping that one day it would be my turn. To be the first left-handed pianist to have played at the Proms since Wittgenstein [whose last appearance was in 1951] was so special for me. I’d spent many hours looking out at the Royal Albert Hall from the Royal College of Music (RCM) practice rooms longing to perform there. It was a big moment.’
When did Nicholas McCarthy start playing the piano?
Life chapters rarely end so neatly, and in celebrating McCarthy’s significant achievement we should not overlook the pages that took him to this point. ‘I was comparatively quite old when I started playing the piano at 14,’ he says. ‘I saw a friend of mine performing Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata in a school assembly. I’d seen her play before but there was something about this experience. Nothing like it has happened since. At that moment, I knew I was meant to play the piano.’
There was just one snag: McCarthy had one arm. ‘I was born without a right hand,’ he says. ‘The first thing a doctor says to a new parent as a sign of a successful baby is, “Congratulations, they have ten fingers and ten toes” – that wasn’t the case with me.’ McCarthy’s parents had made no preparations – scans had not shown the limb difference – and were surprised but, as McCarthy says, ‘They quickly got over it and were just delighted I was healthy.’
Nicholas McCarthy... early discrimination and setbacks
When the teenage McCarthy announced his intended career as a pianist, his parents were surprised once more. Classical music had not been part of family life until then. ‘We didn’t have much money and there was no room for a piano in the house. They bought me a little keyboard from Argos – I loved it. I started to play with my “little” arm and my left hand – I did grades two and four [through ABRSM] that way.’ He was awarded distinction for both examinations.
While his classmates were generally supportive – ‘There was a lot to pick on: I was overweight, camp and I had one arm, but I was never bullied systematically. I always used humour to deflect comments’ – the adults had a lot to learn. Upon seeing his empty sleeve, one piano examiner asked McCarthy whether he had come to the wrong room. Another teacher refused to let the young McCarthy audition for a now-defunct music school, on the basis that he had one arm. ‘I was upset by that because previously everyone had been excited about what I was achieving,’ says McCarthy. ‘This was the first firm block put in place because of my disability. If I had auditioned and I wasn’t good enough, I would accept that – this was different.’
Nicholas McCarthy... studies and early success
He then auditioned for Junior Guildhall – without ‘ticking the disability box’. ‘I waited until I was in the audition room,’ he says, ‘and then I had a slightly awkward conversation about my lack of right hand!’ Unperturbed, McCarthy played Mozart’s Fantasia in D minor, K397 and Einaudi’s Le Onde, using his left and ‘little’ arm. He passed this and subsequent auditions, going on to the RCM, where he switched his focus to left-hand repertoire.
By 2012, as he played as a founding member of the Paraorchestra alongside Coldplay at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, McCarthy was recognised as the world’s only professional one-handed concert pianist.
How does Nicholas McCarthy play the piano with one hand?
As well as needing solid, secure finger technique – arguably even more so than a two-handed pianist – there are other considerations in one-handed repertoire. McCarthy shifts the piano stool up an octave, so rather than facing middle C, he sits opposite the C above that. Judicious pedal use is crucial to sustain notes that act as a framework to interior melodies, and maintaining posture is also important to prevent injury caused by physical exertion on one side of the body.
‘My left leg is often thrown out to the side if I’m playing up in the top register,’ explains McCarthy. ‘It acts as a counterbalance and is completely instinctive. You often see two-handed pianists holding on to the side of the piano with their right hand during fast upper-octave passages for the left. Obviously Count Zichy and Paul Wittgenstein couldn’t do that – and neither can I.’
How is left-handed piano music written?
Left-handed piano music isn’t just written in the bass clef; it’s everywhere, crossing staves and jumping ledger lines. At his home in Colchester, McCarthy – closely supervised by Binnie, his adorable Pomeranian dog – shows me a selection of scores, including the Korngold, Prokofiev and Ravel concertos. The latter features a nine-page cadenza that hops across the keyboard with dizzying demands. As the composer observed: ‘It contains many jazz effects, and the writing is not so light. In a work of this kind, it is essential to give the impression of a texture no thinner than of a part written for both hands.’
Nicholas McCarthy and Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Pianists often become associated with specific concertos – Martha Argerich for Beethoven Nos 1 and 2; Leif Ove Andsnes for the Grieg, for example – and McCarthy is happy to represent the Ravel. The 36 year-old has just returned from playing the Ravel in Melbourne and is due to reprise the work again in February with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at Cardiff’s Hoddinott Hall (26 February). Then, in the spring he’ll join Aurora Orchestra for its weekend residency at Snape Maltings, where the Ravel concerto features alongside Adams’s Short Ride in a Fast Machine and Ravel’s Boléro (10 April).
Commissioning left-handed repertoire and working with ABRSM
But much as he adores the Ravel, McCarthy feels compelled to enhance the left-hand repertoire. ‘Unlike Wittgenstein I’m not wealthy, so the Royal Philharmonic Society are supporting me in this endeavour,’ he says. ‘We’re currently looking for orchestral partners. I feel passionately that the commission must go to a female composer, because all the left-hand concertos we have are by men.’ Step forward, Dani Howard, a fellow RCM alumna who has already composed several distinctive concertos, including one for saxophone (premiered in 2025 by Jess Gillam and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra) and clarinet quartet (for the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz).
As well as bringing new concertos to life, McCarthy is drawing attention to the thousands of solo works in the left-hand library. Part of that process has been to work with ABRSM to create a syllabus for one-handed pianists. ‘This wasn’t an option when I took my exams, and I had to stop at Grade Four,’ he explains. It was a similar story with competitions, which generally require recitals using set pieces. Free-choice programming is reserved for the concerto round – the finals.
For the first time in its history, the ABRSM piano syllabus for Grades 1 to 5 is now accessible for musicians playing with one hand. Grades 6 to 8 have just been completed and will launch soon. ‘Anyone with a limb difference or mobility issues can now follow an exam pathway in the same way as other students,’ says McCarthy. Even if pianists don’t want to take the exams, knowing about this music through the supporting publications (with new arrangements by McCarthy) may be helpful to a variety of players, including those recovering from stroke, managing arthritis or similar.
Nicholas McCarthy: 'Disability doesn't just happen to other people'
And if you are still tempted to view one-handed piano repertoire as niche, please reconsider. According to Scope, a leading campaigner on equality, one in four people in the UK are disabled – that’s 16 million. ‘Disability is not always born, it is often acquired,’ says McCarthy. ‘It doesn’t just happen to other people – any one of us can become disabled at any time.’
