One-handed British pianist is carrying ahead the legacy of those that got here earlier than him

[ad_1] As It Occurs One-handed British pianist is carrying ahead the legacy of those that got here earlier than him

Nicholas McCarthy is usually described because the world's solely skilled one-handed live performance pianist. However he wasn't the primary, and he has no intention of being the final.

"Every century from the nineteenth century tended to have this sort of one well-known live performance pianist who had one hand," McCarthy informed As It Occurs visitor host Megan Williams.

"Within the twenty first century, I discover myself being that one-handed pianist who appears to have extra prominence. So I really feel quite a lot of duty."

On Sunday, the British pianist made his debut at The Proms, one in all Britain's most prestigious classical music live performance sequence, held yearly at London's Royal Albert Corridor, and broadcast on BBC.

It was a dream come true for McCarthy — and one he says he could not have achieved with out the thick pores and skin that comes with having a lifelong incapacity, and a street paved by those that got here earlier than him.

"I'm nonetheless on a excessive. I am completely buzzing," he mentioned. "I might say that is actually the head of my profession to date."

A 'full-circle second' For his Proms debut, McCarthy regaled the viewers with Maurice Ravel's bravura Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, alongside the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

The deceivingly wealthy piece might be probably the most well-known left-hand-only piano composition, he says. And it solely exist as a result of it was commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, an Austrian-American live performance pianist who misplaced his proper arm within the First World Struggle.

It was one in all a number of items Wittgenstein commissioned from outstanding composers as he sought to construct his post-war profession, whereas growing novel methods for one-handed play.

"It is actually due to him that I will have the profession that I've in the present day, as a result of I will play these great massive well-known works," McCarthy mentioned.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A pianist in a suit plays with an orchestra and raises one hand into the air " srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7590439.1753131771!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nicholas-mccarthy.jpg?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7590439.1753131771!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nicholas-mccarthy.jpg?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7590439.1753131771!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nicholas-mccarthy.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7590439.1753131771!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nicholas-mccarthy.jpg?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7590439.1753131771!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nicholas-mccarthy.jpg?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7590439.1753131771!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nicholas-mccarthy.jpg?im=" style="aspect-ratio:1.5012722646310432" data-cy="image-img"/> McCarthy says he feels quite a lot of duty to proceed rising the repertoire of one-handed piano compositions. (Submitted by Nicholas McCarthy) Piano Concerto for the Left Hand has been carried out many occasions within the competition's 130-year-history, normally by two-handed pianists displaying off their abilities with their non-dominant hand.

However McCarthy is barely the second one-handed pianist to carry out the piece at The Proms. The final, he says, was Wittgenstein himself in 1951.

"It is actually a full-circle second," McCarthy mentioned.

Humble roots and a late begin McCarthy was born with no proper hand, however his incapacity wasn't the one impediment on his journey to changing into knowledgeable live performance pianist.

Whereas most of his trade friends spent their childhoods learning classical music and working towards for hours on finish, McCarthy says he spent his youth taking part in outside along with his associates and doing common child stuff.

"We come from a really non-musical household. Simply regular pop stuff on the radio, you recognize, regular, working-class dad and mom," he mentioned.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A grainy old photograph of a baby boy in a onesie playing with a plastic toy " srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7590427.1753131513!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nicholas-mccarthy.jpg?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7590427.1753131513!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nicholas-mccarthy.jpg?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7590427.1753131513!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nicholas-mccarthy.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7590427.1753131513!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nicholas-mccarthy.jpg?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7590427.1753131513!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nicholas-mccarthy.jpg?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7590427.1753131513!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/nicholas-mccarthy.jpg?im=" style="aspect-ratio:1.1357074109720886" data-cy="image-img"/> McCarthy, seen right here as a toddler, says he did not develop up in a musical household and did not uncover his ardour for piano till he was a young person. (Submitted by Nicholas McCarthy ) However on the age of 14, McCarthy heard his buddy taking part in a Beethoven composition at college, and his complete life modified.

"I simply had a kind of — it sounds corny — of these sort of Oprah Winfrey moments, you recognize, these sort of life-changing, lightbulb moments the place I used to be like, wow, that is what I wish to do for my profession. I wish to be a pianist," he mentioned.

It did not even happen to him in that second that he could not do it, he says.

"You bear in mind what it was like once you're 14," he mentioned. "Every thing's so doable, you recognize, filled with teenage invincibility."

However not everybody believed in his dream the way in which he did.

"The early a part of my profession, for certain, I used to be being informed left, proper and centre by very revered individuals within the trade that I ought to hand over, you recognize, this wasn't the profession for me," he mentioned.

"It was gasoline to my fireplace, nearly, that is what stored me going and stored me centered on what I believed and what I knew I may do, which was clearly confirmed final evening."

An unlimited repertoire of left-hand solely music Most piano compositions weren't made with somebody like McCarthy in thoughts, however he did not have to start out from scratch.

He says there's a surprisingly huge repertoire of piano music written for the left hand alone — roughly 3,000 solo items, and a number of other dozen concertos.

"It is all left-handed, and never right-hand alone, which I at all times discover fairly an attention-grabbing reality," he mentioned.

Many had been commissioned by Wittgenstein, whereas others had been commissioned or composed by Depend Géza Zichy, a Hungarian composer who misplaced his proper arm in a searching accident within the 1860s.

However many extra, McCarthy mentioned, had been written within the nineteenth century for two-handed pianists to wow audiences.

"Live performance pianists would carry out an exquisite bravura encore on the finish of their superb recitals," he mentioned. "As a play on irony, they used to sort of say, 'You thought I used to be good with two arms. Wait until you see what I can do with my weaker hand!'"

Now that McCarthy is within the highlight like Wittgenstein and Zichy earlier than him, he makes a degree of repeatedly commissioning new left-hand items to construct on the wealthy repertoire he is benefited so significantly from.

"Hopefully, you recognize, in 100 years' time, somebody is saying, 'Oh thank God Nicholas McCarthy commissioned this glorious concerto,' that they are taking part in in The Proms."