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Mozart's Attic - Thursday, June 18th at 10:00 pm

Paul Wittgenstein

Disease, death, and other tragedies have never been a stranger to musicians: Beethoven and Mozart; Gershwin and Jacqueline Du Pre; Buddy Holly and Otis Redding -- for just a half-dozen examples.

When concert pianist Paul Wittgenstein lost his right arm in World War I, it looked like the end of his career.

But Wittgenstein wouldn't accept that. Instead he commissioned piano works for one hand from several of Europe's leading composers. The most successful of these, Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand is the featured work on Mozart's Attic this week.

The series of the Schubert symphonies continues with No. 4. We'll hear a couple of sets of Medieval and Renaissance music, and we'll wrap up our foray into the Attic with the 1961 premiere recording of Poulenc's Gloria.

89.5 FM and streaming live at WFIT.org.

Originally from central Massachusetts, Jay has called the Space Coast home for more than 30 years. He began his association with WFIT in the late '90s as a dumpster diver for office furniture in response to a broadcast plea for a new chair from a frustrated disc jockey. (WFIT has come a long way since.)