Paul Wittgenstein, the Austrian pianist who lost his right arm in World War I, determined to create a repertoire that he could play, and commissioned leading composers such as Prokofiev, Strauss, Janacek, and, of course, Ravel, to write concertos for him. He also chose the promising young Benjamin Britten. Aside from his injury, the other tragedy about Wittgenstein was his lack of understanding of much of the music that was written at his behest. He seemed consistently to reject the best of these pieces, including both the Ravel concerto and the Britten Diversions.

The work is, in essence, Britten's Second Piano Concerto. It possesses greater dimensions, for instance, than the Ravel "Left Hand" concerto. It is not, however, in the form of a full-fledged concerto (an observation that can justly be made about Ravel's work, as well). Rather, it is in one of Britten's favorite forms, a theme and variations, many of which are characteristic pieces, such as "March, " "Badinerie, " "Arabesque, " "Romance, " and "Taranella." Indeed, in structure and mood the work is reminiscent of the great Frank Bridge Variations. It is mostly light in tone, though there is often an edginess to these ostensibly light moments.

The work is intriguingly different from the Ravel concerto in respect to the compositional problem the two composer's faced. Ravel determined to write the piano part with his customary skill in an effort to disguise the fact that only one hand is available. It should sound as rich and full as a normal piano concerto. Britten took the opposite approach: The piano is a different-sounding animal when played with only one hand, so Britten scored for piano so as to emphasize that this work is different in sound from a two-handed concerto. The work, then, is a lean-sounding piece. It is also top-flight Britten.

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