Cruel condition blighted genius
Leon Fleisher Pianist BORN JULY 23, 1928 – DIED AUGUST 2, 2020, AGED 92
LEON Fleisher was a child prodigy whose brilliance on the piano was marred by a mysterious injury to his right hand, preventing him from performing with it for almost 40 years.
Born in San Francisco to Jewish immigrants, Bertha and Isidor, he began playing aged four at the behest of his mother.
By nine, he was a student of the acclaimed Austrian classical pianist Artur Schnabel and aged 16, he performed with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
Fleisher was known for his masterful interpretations of concertos by Brahms and Beethoven. He was the preferred pianist of conductor George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.
His talent and nimble fingerwork translated to agile performances, achieved by hours of practice.
It was cruel therefore that his talent was ripped away from him, aged 36, at the height of his career in 1964 due to what he believed to be overplaying. It started with a lag in his right index finger.
As his condition deteriorated, he noticed his fourth and fifth fingers start to curl in before he could no longer control them.
Without a diagnosis, he was swept into despair but recovered enough to channel his talent into teaching and conducting.
“I tried everything from acupuncture to Zen Buddhism,” he later said. Jokingly, he claimed he also grew a beard and ponytail.
He continued to play with his left hand but no longer as a professional. In the 1990s he was given a formal diagnosis of focal dystonia, a neurological condition causing muscle contractions.
Through small Botox injections, he regained the movement in his right hand, though it was never as dexterous as it had been.
Fleisher died of cancer and is survived by five children from his three marriages.