Sunday, April 5, 2009

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/s_618965.html

CD reviews: Fleisher's Mozart disc shows singular insights

MOZART: PIANO CONCERTI 23, 12, 7
Leon Fleisher, piano and conductor, Katherine Jacobson Fleisher, piano, Stuttgart Chamber
Orchestra (Sony Classical)

Rejoice music lovers, for Sony Classical has released a new recording of Leon Fleisher performing
three piano concerti by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The CD was made just before Fleisher's 80th
birthday in July 2008 and shows his ability to project his singular insights is undimmed. His career was
interrupted in 1965 when focal distonia cost him the use of his right hand, but Botox injections permit
him to play two-hand repertoire once again. All three Mozart pieces are new to Fleisher's discography,
most importantly, the sublime Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major. As conductor, Fleisher leads the
orchestra with uncommonly thorough insight, creating a seamless continuity with his own playing. This
pianist became legendary at a very early age for his combination of sensitivity, warmth, intellectual
power and virtuosity. Fleisher also brings the less familiar Piano Concerto No. 12, also in A major, to life
with enlivening nuances that make its neglect seem an injustice. So too, the Piano Concerto No. 7
performed with his wife, Katherine Jacobson Fleisher, has remarkable dimension. After hearing this
disc, you'll be looking for excuses to make it a gift for friends.

— Mark Kanny
 April 16, 2009

RECORDINGS: Classical and traditional music are featured on CDs

By FRANK BEHRENS
Contributing Writer

Those who follow the careers of great keyboard players will be most interested in a Sony Classical
CD of Leon Fleisher performing Mozart’s Piano Concerti 12 and 23 along with No. 7 in the
composer’s own arrangement for two pianos.

This disc has special interest because it is Fleisher’s first two-hand recording in over 40 years! (He
suffered from focal dystonia in his right hand.) It remains for the listener to judge his recovery on
the basis of this recording, and I would appreciate hearing the opinions of some of my readers.

His wife joins him in the No. 7 performance and they are accompanied by the Stuttgarter
Kammerorchester, conducted by Leon himself.

Sony Classical has issued a lovely CD featuring guitarist Sharon Isbin, “Journey to the New World.”
The title comes from the concept of her family’s journey from Ireland to the early American colonies
and then to the West Coast in the early 1900s.

As she explains in the program notes, “(T)he individual folk tunes are in a chronological form that
mirrors both the evolution of American folk music and the course of my family’s migration.”

Among the 29 tracks on this disc, two of them have Joan Baez supplying the vocal, while violinist
Mark O’Connor accompanies Isbin in his “Strings & Threads Suite.” All in all, this is a most
impressive concert of folk music arrangements.

For youngsters only. After the immense popularity of the two “Ghostbuster” films, an animated
series was made for television (unseen by me) titled “The Real Ghostbusters.” A press release tells
me that the sale of the complete series on Time-Life DVDs (147 episodes, mind you) met with
good critical acclaim.

So Time-Life is following up with “a more cost effective option.” It is called “The Real Ghostbusters,
Volume 1” and holds the first 30 episodes on 5 DVDs—plus a “making of” bonus and a ROM
element with scripts and story boards.

Strictly, again, for the younger viewers, most of whom should love this set.

Note: This is my 200th report for Keene Sentinel. I hope I have been serving my readers well.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-0402-classical-jvrapr02,0,1150048.story
April 2, 2009

Leon Fleisher's passion for piano not diminished by

neurological condition
John von Rhein Heard and Scene

Since regaining the use of his right hand after a neurological condition truncated his brilliant career for 30 years,
pianist Leon Fleisher has been living one of the great comebacks in classical music.

With a busy performing and teaching schedule that belies his 80 years, he plays a select number of concerts,
picking and choosing the repertory that feels comfortable at this stage of his life.

"Sometimes I can't tell whether it's because of the [focal] dystonia or the normal aging process that I can't play the
Rachmaninov Third or Tchaikovsky concertos," he recently said. "Actually I'm quite grateful I can no longer play
them!"

One composer whose music continues to flow gracefully from his 10 fully functioning fingers is Mozart. Sony has
just released a Fleisher album containing three Mozart concertos, including No. 12 in A Major (K.414) that marked
his return to two-handed piano playing in 1995; the musicmaking is a marvel.

Fortunately Fleisher still can play J.S. Bach beautifully, too, as an all-Bach recital he gave Tuesday at the University
of Chicago proved. His technique may be less reliable than before, but there were enough flashes of the old
Fleisher to suggest his magisterial musical vision remains unimpaired.

The Botox injections he takes every four months alleviate some of the symptoms of his dystonia but have not
eliminated the condition, Fleisher says.

So one of the great American pianists soldiers on, taking special pleasure in passing along his musical wisdom to
students at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory, where he has taught since 1959.

A Ravinia mainstay, Fleisher will return to the festival to lead a master class on June 30 and perform chamber
music with violinist Miriam Fried and cellist Frans Helmerson July 2.

"Surprisingly enough, despite all the sadness and depression that came with my dystonia," Fleisher reflects, "I'm
not sure that if I had the chance again that I would change a thing."

CSO noteThe Chicago Symphony Orchestra has hired Lora Schaefer, principal oboe of the Kansas City
Symphony, for the position of second oboe. She will be sitting in with the CSO wind section in late April and early
May before officially joining the orchestra July 6 at Ravinia.

CD of the weekJohn Corigliano: "A Dylan Thomas Trilogy." Nashville Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Leonard
Slatkin conducting (Naxos).

Corigliano's "memory play in the form of an oratorio" incorporates Dylan Thomas settings for baritone, tenor, boy
soprano, chorus and orchestra he composed between 1960 and 1975. In its revised version, completed in 1999,
the cycle represents the three ages of man, framed by a prologue and intermezzo in which the poet, portrayed here
with operatic gusto by baritone Thomas Allen, rails against his mortality in a fit of midlife madness.

Out of disparate materials Corigliano has fashioned a coherent and deeply moving autobiographical mosaic that
celebrates the wild exultation of Thomas' poetry through music at once rueful, honeyed and evocative. Both the
performance and recording are first rate.
One of the three concertos on the new disc, called "Mozart Piano Concertos" and available
in the United States on the Sony Classical label on March 31, is the same one Fleisher
performed in 1995 which marked his return to two-handed playing.

"IRRECONCILABLE PEDDLING"

The pianist plays with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and performs Mozart's piano
concertos No. 23, No. 12 and No. 7. The latter is for two pianos and he is joined by his
wife Katherine Jacobson-Fleisher.

Asked if playing and recording with his wife led to tensions in the relationship, Fleisher
replied:

"My wife and I are quite proud of saying we have invented a new tort law for divorce. The
big challenge for four-hand piano is only one person can peddle. We have invented new
tort law which is divorce due to irreconcilable peddling."

Despite the deep depression he suffered when forced to "retire" at 37, Fleisher said the
experience brought rewards.

"There are moments in my life when I think back on this whole soap opera (and) I am not
so sure, if I had the chance, that I would change anything," he said.

"It forced me to expand my horizons. I discovered I had a pretty bad two years of
depression after it struck back in the mid-60s.

"Suddenly one morning I woke up and decided my connection to music was more than just
as a two-handed piano player. There were other ways I could remain connected and active
in music."

Fleisher believes his story, well known in classical music circles and the subject of an
Oscar-nominated documentary, will give "hope and courage to those who are confronted
with events in their lives that seemed to be insuperable."

Asked about his future plans, he answered: "I have all kinds of performance plans,
playing, conducting and recording. My main concern is that I wake up tomorrow morning."
 March 22, 2009

http://blog.al.com/mhuebner/2009/03/leon_fleisher_cds_offer_glimps.html

Leon Fleisher CDs offer glimpse of early glory

Posted by Michael Huebner -- Birmingham News

Leon Fleisher's career can be parsed roughly into three periods. Before the pianist, then 36, was stricken with focal
dystonia in his right hand during the 1964-65 season, he was on top of the classical music world. Definitive readings
of Brahms piano concertos with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra were among the string of recordings --
including Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Schumann and Grieg -- yielded from that stellar combination.

Leon Fleisher
The ensuing decades of left-hand-only piano music, conducting, teaching and painful therapy led to an important
milestone. In 1995, he returned to two-hand performance, performing again with the Cleveland Orchestra. Solo CDs
followed -- "Two Hands" in 2004 and "The Journey" in 2006. Two more follow this year.

A six-CD set of recordings from 1958 to 1963, available from www.arkivmusic.com, has been remastered and
released on Sony. When Fleisher comes to Birmingham this week, he will give listeners the chance to compare the
young upstart pianist with a musician who, at age 80, seems to have unlimited destinations. Next Sunday, after
soloing in Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand Friday and Saturday with the Alabama Symphony, he will play a solo
recital in which three works from those early recordings are programmed.

LEON FLEISHER
Six-CD set
Sony
4 stars out of 5

Schubert. From 1954 comes a 36-year-old Fleisher playing Schubert's B flat major Sonata, D. 960, with unforced
beauty and almost religious devotion, from the undulating, ambient bass notes of the opening movement, through
the intricate dramas unfolding in the Scherzo and finale. Eight short pieces from Schubert's "Landler," Op. 171,
could almost be danceable if not interrupted by Fleisher's rhythmic playfulness and arresting virtuosity. Fleisher will
perform both of these works next Sunday.
Debussy, Ravel. Also on next Sunday's program is Ravel's "Valses Nobles et Sentimentales," which, in this 1958
recording, exudes ease and confidence. More noble than sentimental, it never succumbs to impressionistic
haziness. Debussy's "Suite Bergamasque," with its famous "Claire de Lune" third movement, is played boldly and
securely, bursts of joie de vivre mixed with pointillistic dryness.

Liszt, Weber. A recording from 1959 reveals Fleisher's overwhelming strength and stamina. Liszt's Sonata in B
minor surges from a lyrical, endearing calm in the Andante to a wild, nearly demonic temperament in the finale. So
unfettered is Fleisher's dynamic range in this album, the origins of his future physical maladies can easily be
imagined.

Mozart. Two piano sonatas are combined with the Rondo in D major in performances from 1958 and 1959.
Although performed with metronomic regularity, Fleisher makes these pieces breathe with his architectural vision,
swelling and ebbing dynamics and cascading arpeggios and scales.

Copland, Sessions, Kirchner, Rorem. In 1962, Fleisher was providing living composers with performances of a
lifetime. The recipients on this recording were a diverse group whose music ranged from pillars of dissonance to
nostalgic tenderness. No composer is treated less worthily than any other, but Copland, in his more adventurous
mode in the Piano Sonata, is given a particularly vibrant reading. More melancholy writing pervades Rorem's
"Three Barcarolles," Fleisher performing them with haunting beauty.

Brahms. The Juilliard String Quartet could not have asked for a more communicative collaborator than Fleisher for
Brahms' Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34, recorded in 1962. Impeccable ensemble, grace, drama and, most
important, unanimity of musical vision, make this a treasured component of a historic set.

The pitfalls of the set are obvious and expected. Half-century-old recording equipment and techniques put listeners
in a what-if-this-was-digital mode, and occasional tape splices interrupt the flow. Get past that, and listen to Fleisher
during his first heyday. Then hear him next weekend in his third.
 Monday, March 30, 2009

Struggles don't deter from Leon Fleisher piano recital in Birmingham,

Alabama
MICHAEL HUEBNER
News staff writer

Listening to a Leon Fleisher recital is like peering into his soul.

Set aside the 80-year-old pianist's tragic illness that detoured his performing career for decades,
and his triumphant return to two-handed performance in recent years. His solo recital Sunday,
before a less than half-full Jemison Concert Hall, revealed a musician of thoughtful introspection
and insight, as though each movement of each piece was a new revelation - not only for him, but
for his listeners.

Fleisher is not the same pianist who recorded the music on this recital in the 1950s. Because of his
ongoing battle with focal hand dystonia, he has difficulty rattling off muscular octave patterns and
intricate scales with crystalline accuracy. He clearly struggled in that regard in Brahms' Waltzes,
Op. 39.

What he has gained in a half century is an unflagging sense of rhythmic urgency and the ability to
convey musical structure through touch, silence and purity of sound. Repeated phrases in
Schubert's "Landler," D. 790, and that composer's Sonata in B flat major, D. 960 weren't mere
repeats or echos, but subtle mood shifts, each brimming with discovery.

In "Valses nobles et sentimentales," Fleisher capitalized on Ravel's witty rhythmic play with suave
connections between the eight waltzes, fashioning a wide impressionistic canvas of gentle pastels.
Most revealing were the inner melodies, often overlooked in performances of this work, that
phased in and out of focus. Wrong notes or not, this reading topped dozens of others I've heard,
including Fleisher's own 1958 recording.

The opening movement of the Schubert sonata was shaped by profound pauses, an undulating
bass and a melody that sang tenderly. The minor-key Andante played out like a poignant novella,
complete with moments of major-key relief.

By accepting his affliction, Fleisher appears to have transcended it. More important, he is using it to
its best advantage - to genuinely inform each piece he plays with purpose and meaning.

E-mail: mhuebner@bhamnews.com
http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idCATRE52P3CI20090326?sp=true

Fleisher plays Mozart in two-hand concerto return

Thu Mar 26, 2009 12:30pm EDT

By Mike Collett-White

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. pianist Leon Fleisher's right hand is one of the most famous in
music.

In the mid-1960s the superstar of the classical music world lost the ability to play with the
hand when two fingers became immobile due to a condition called focal dystonia.

After 30 years of teaching, conducting and playing music composed for the left hand,
Fleisher regained the use of his right hand after treatment involving botox injections.

The first recording since his rehabilitation came in 2004, and now the 80-year-old has
released a recording of Mozart piano concertos including one where he performs with his
wife.

He said the choice of music was partly dictated by physical limitations.

"I am still a dystonic, if you will," Fleisher said in a telephone interview from the United
States.

"I have focal dystonia and although I take treatments that help minimize the effects of it,
nothing cures it, at least not yet, so I have to pick and choose my repertoire.

"I'm not a spring chicken. I don't know what is the dystonia and what is the toll of years."

He described Mozart as "the most transcendent and economical" of composers.

"If we had to be paid by the note, we would be paupers if we played Mozart, in contrast to
Rachmaninov. I love these pieces very much and they lay in the purview of my
possibilities."