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December, 2006
 
The Comeback Kid
Leon Fleischer Completes His Journey by Kim Davis Perhaps the greatest stories are the ones where a cruel twist of fate denies the main character of the thing they love the most, only to have that character overcome all the odds and triumph in the end. In most cases these stories are fiction, but in the case of Leon Fleischer, it's all too real. Fleischer's story began on July 23, 1928. He was born in San Francisco, Calif., where he began studying piano at the age of 4. He made his public debut at 8, and played with the New York Philharmonic by 16. He went on to record albums, perform around the world and achieve great success. In 1965, at the age of 37 and at the height of his career, a neurological ailment called focal dystonia caused Fleischer to lose the use of his right hand and caused his whole world to come crashing down. Where his hand once moved fluidly, it became twisted and contracted. His fingers would curl into the palm or extend outward without control. He was forced to reexamine his role in the musical world. "Suddenly I realized that the most important thing in my life wasn't playing with my two hands; it was music," he says. And so he was forced to continue his career as a teacher, conductor, and a performer of left-hand literature. The teaching became a highlight of his career, and he has become affectionately know by his students as "The Obi-Wan Kenobi of piano." His techniques were unique and he gave almost no private lessons. Instead, students audited each other's lessons. "I consider this approach most beneficial for students, as well as very stimulating for the teacher," he notes. "Repeating the same thing to each student can become very tedious. When students work in a group, they come to understand that all of them share the same challenges and problems at one level or another." Fleisher found great satisfaction in his new career. However, he longed to perform again. After 35 years of medical treatments, arduous rehabilitation, unrelenting determination, amazing medical breakthroughs via Botox, and a deep massage technique called Rolfing, his hand has become progressively more flexible. And in 2004, he beat all the odds and returned to the piano with both hands. His first comeback CD was simply entitled Two Hands. His latest release is The Journey. The title refers to the journey of life, which, Fleischer says, "matters more than the destinations" and finishes the story that Two Hands began. Now in his late 70s, the legend has created a body of work that features the music he performed before 1964 but was never able to record. These pieces include Beethoven's infamous "Für Elise," Stravinsky's Serenade in A, Chopin's "Berceuse" and Mozart's Sonata in E-flat. Though some are often seen as student recital music, this master shows how the work should ultimately sound. Fans can also enjoy a special, limited-edition two-disc set with The Journey, which includes a feature interview and a Vanguard Classics sampler. |