Josef Labor was an important composer and organist of the late Romantic era in Vienna, well acquainted with key musical figures of the day. He composed a piano concerto for the left hand, the first such work in existence.

Labor was born in Horschowitz, Bohemia, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Horovice, Czech Republic), on June 29, 1842. His parents were both Viennese; his father was an ironworks administrator who had been a friend of Franz Schubert's. Labor contracted smallpox at age three and went blind. He attended Vienna's Institute for the Blind and showed musical talent, and he was admitted to the Conservatory of the Society of the Friends of Music, where he studied compositions with Simon Sechter, also Bruckner's teacher, and piano with Eduard Pickhert. After completing his studies, Labor launched a piano tour of Europe that brought him into contact with George V, the ruler of the German kingdom of Hanover, who became a fan and hired Labor as Royal Chamber Pianist. When George was deposed after the Prussian takeover of the kingdom, Labor followed him into exile in Vienna, took organ lessons, and began a career as an organist and teacher.

Labor was influential in the latter capacity, giving lessons to Arnold Schoenberg, Paul Wittgenstein (the brother of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein), and Alma Schindler, the future wife of Gustav Mahler, among others. He wrote about 80 pieces, many of them for organ or chamber music combinations. Labor was a pioneering investigator of early music, performing works of the then little-known Buxtehude and composing continuo parts for violin works by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Bieber. He was well acquainted with Brahms, Clara Schumann, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, and conductor Bruno Walter. When Paul Wittgenstein lost an arm in World War I, he commissioned a piece for a one-handed, left-handed pianist. Labor responded with a Piano Concerto for the left hand, the first such work ever written. A grateful Ludwig Wittgenstein, who played clarinet in the original performances of some of Labor's clarinet works, responded by naming Labor as one of the six greatest composers of all time, along with Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms. Labor died on April 26, 1924, in Vienna. By the early 2020s, some 25 of his works had been recorded. ~ James Manheim, Rovi