Paul Wittgenstein lost an arm in WWI but was determined to pursue his career and achieved a virtuosity that many two-handed players would have envied, commissioning special works from Britten, Hindemith, Richard Strauss, Prokoviev and, most notably, Ravel.
The earliest letter probably dates from 1903, when Ludwig was just a very young and sickly boy, being educated at home and writing to a slightly older brother who had just gone off to school. The correspondence ceases in 1938, when Paul fled Austria for America and, for what Brian McGuiness in his 1988 biography of Young Ludwig terms “complicated reasons”, their contact ceased.
Wittgenstein to Wittgenstein...
LETTERS from the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein to members of his family are rarely seen on the market, but one lot in a Sotheby’s sale of December 9 presented no fewer that 40 letters and postcards addressed to his pianist brother Paul, among them some of the earlier known letters in his hand and, naturally enough, containing much on the subject of music. This lot found a buyer at £42,000.
