Inspirational pianist and teacher dies
V THE PIANIST and pedagogue Leon Fleisher, who died on August 2 at the age of 92, exerted a broad, deep and exceptionally benign influence over the international music world.
As professor at the Peabody Conservatory, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, he trained hundreds of fine pianists and influenced countless more in international masterclasses.
Yet at the height of his powers he lost the use of his right hand. More than three decades elapsed before new medical developments brought him a fresh lease of musical life.
Fleisher was born on July 23 1928 into a family of Jewish immigrants, his mother from Poland, his father from Odessa. They managed two hat shops in San Francisco.
Fleisher’s mother pushed her son to study the piano as “a gateway to a new and better world”.
He made his performing debut at the age of eight and a year later became a pupil of Artur Schnabel, the Austrian pianist who had left his homeland after Hitler’s accession to power in 1933.
Schnabel had studied with Theodor Leschetizky, himself a one-time pupil of Carl Czerny, who had been Beethoven’s protégé.
At 16, Fleisher performed at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Monteux, who deemed him “the pianistic find of the century”. He won the gold medal at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 1952. A brilliant future seemed assured.
In 1964, however, Fleisher noticed that the fingers of his right hand had developed a tendency to curl under. Interviewed by the present writer in 2010, he recalled the devastating onset of what turned out to be focal dystonia.
“Over about 10 months,” he said, “that tendency became so pronounced that two fingers virtually dug into the palm of my hand and it took enormous effort to straighten them out, followed by endless visits to countless doctors and a search that lasted 35 years with no answers.”
After a period of profound depression, Fleisher realised that his connection to music went beyond his identity as a conventional pianist. Subsequently he explored, performed and recorded a substantial amount of piano literature for left hand alone, inspiring numerous composers to write for him, including William Bolcom, Lukas Foss, Leon Kirchner and Gunther Schuller.
In 2004 he gave the world premiere of Hindemith’s 1929 Klaviermusik, a concerto written in 1929 but never before performed. He also took up conducting, “from which I learned enormously and which brought me tremendous satisfaction,” he said.
As for teaching, he became assuredly one of the most sought-after piano pedagogues in the world. He suggested that his condition ultimately deepened and improved his communicative ability, since he had to express his ideas in words rather than demonstrating at the piano.
Former pupils speak of the vivid imagery he would use, his ability to relate every suggestion to musical questions rather than purely technical, and the spirituality, humanity and generosity of his approach.
In 1995-96, newly developed ‘Botox’ (botulinum toxin) injections, which have an anti-spasmodic effect, along with a course of Rolfing therapy, finally restored the use of Fleisher’s right arm.
Focal dystonia being an incurable condition, he continued to receive treatment every four months; he was nevertheless able to resume his twohanded career, to immense critical acclaim.
It is a measure of that broad, spiritual span that his students so admired that he appreciated the depth and breadth of experience he had gained through his situation.
“Were I to live my life over again,” he said, “I’m not sure I would change anything.”
Were I to live my life again, I’m not sure I would change anything’