Piano Concerto No. 4 (Prokofiev)

Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 4 in B-flat major for the left hand, Op. 53, was commissioned by the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein and completed in 1931.
Wittgenstein did not understand the work, but it is not the case (as has sometimes been claimed) that he refused to play it. He was simply not prepared to play it until such time as he had appreciated its inner logic. That time never came, but Wittgenstein and Prokofiev always remained on friendly terms.
It was the only one of Prokofiev's complete piano concertos that never saw a performance during his lifetime. It was premiered in Berlin on 5 September 1956 by Siegfried Rapp and the West Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Martin Rich. The United States premiere was in 1958, by Rudolf Serkin and the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. The British premiere was in 1961, by Malcolm Binns.
Prokofiev expressed some interest in making an arrangement for piano two-hands and orchestra, but never went through with this idea.
Structure.
The four movements last around 25 minutes:
The outer movements serve in a way as prelude and postlude, with the middle two comprising the bulk of the concerto. The "Andante" is reflective and makes rhetorical use of the strings, expanding with Romantic grandness. The remarkable third movement in modified sonata form, punctured and playful — some have said “sarcastic” — offers arresting, emphatic dialogs between the piano and the percussion section; it is marked "Moderato" and to be effective must be played strictly as such: not the least bit hurried. The "Vivace" ends abruptly, with the piano running up "pianissimo" to a high B-flat7.
Instrumentation.
The work is scored for solo piano (left hand), 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 1 trumpet, 1 trombone, bass drum and strings.