[TR24][OF] Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 3, Frédéric (Frederic) Chopin - Piano Concerto No. 1 (Gary Graffman, Walter Hendl & Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch & Boston Symphony Orchestra) - 2015 (Classical)

Graffman was born in New York City to Russian-Jewish parents. Having started piano at age 3, Graffman entered the Curtis Institute of Music at age 7 in 1936 as a piano student of Isabelle Vengerova. After graduating from Curtis in 1946, he made his professional solo debut with conductor Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. By the age of 20 Gary Graffman had made a name for himself world-wide as a classical pianist. In 1948 he won the prestigious Leventritt Award. He then furthered his piano studies with Rudolph Serkin at the Marlboro Music Festival and informally with Vladimir Horowitz. In 1979 he sprained the ring finger of his right hand. Because of this injury he began re-fingering some passages for that hand in such a way as to avoid using the affected finger; unfortunately this altered technique exacerbated the injury rather than ameliorating it, ultimately forcing him to stop using his right hand altogether..
Seven left-hand works have been commissioned for Graffman. In 1993, for example, he performed the world premiere of Ned Rorem's Piano Concerto No. 4, written specically for the left hand, and in 2001 he premiered Daron Hagen's concerto Seven Last Words. The American composer William Bolcom composed his Concerto for Two Pianos, Left Hand for Graffman and his close friend Leon Fleisher, who has also suffered from debilitating problems with his right hand. It received its first performance in Baltimore in April 1996. The concerto is constructed in such a way that it can be performed in one of three ways, with either piano part alone with reduced orchestra, or with both piano parts and the two reduced orchestras
combined into a full orchestra...