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Joined: Nov 2009
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Just learned it from a thread in another part of this site. Leon Fleisher, 1928-2020
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Joined: Feb 2007
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Oh wow, thanks for sharing. Very sad news for the musical world. I was fortunate to attend a masterclass by him on the Beethoven piano sonatas some years back, and he shared so much wisdom. His teacher Arthur Schnabel said of the teenaged Fleisher, “He has imagination and courage. He will try things and face the risk of failure. This is nowadays a rather rare quality. Courage is suppressed by the pursuit of safety.”
"Love has to be the starting point- love of music. It is one of my firmest convictions that love always produces some knowledge, while knowledge only rarely produces something similar to love."
Arthur Schnabel
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Sad to hear. There are a couple masterclasses on Tonebase, some really valuable information shared there. His book, "My Nine Lives" is a great read also.
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One of the greats, for sure. Never had the opportunity to hear him in concert, but his recordings of the Beethoven and Brahms concertos are the gold standard.
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On today's BBC Radio 3 'In Tune' program, which I listened as I was driving (as one does), it was mentioned that he said he would not have changed what happened to him (focal dystonia, which incapacitated his RH for some 30 years) for the world, because it got him into teaching, conducting etc, rather than just playing the piano, and realized that he was good at them.
I was also surprised to learn that in his early twenties, he was somewhat at a loss with his musical career, until he won the Queen Elisabeth Competition, which set him off on a secure concert career.
If music be the food of love, play on!
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I know somebody who studied with him. He seemed to have the ability to bring out the best in pianists. A great teacher is so much more than a mere "instructor".
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Very sad indeed - he was not just a pianist, but an incredible musician as a whole.
Seeing that his teacher was Schnabel, it got me thinking - who are the more prominent pupils of Fleisher? I know of Awadagin Pratt because he is local to me, but I am curious who else is carrying on Fleisher's pianistic legacy.
Shigeru Kawai SK7
Kawai NV10S
Hallet & Davis 165
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What a great career. Very happy to have seen him last year when he did his 90th birthday concert.
If you don't talk to your children about equal temperment, who will?
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Very sad indeed - he was not just a pianist, but an incredible musician as a whole.
Seeing that his teacher was Schnabel, it got me thinking - who are the more prominent pupils of Fleisher? I know of Awadagin Pratt because he is local to me, but I am curious who else is carrying on Fleisher's pianistic legacy. Actually Awadagin was a student primarily of Robert Weirich at Peabody. Fleisher's most famous student is probably Andre Watts. Yefim Bronfman and Jonathan Biss were Fleisher students that are well known. Fleisher had tons of other prominent students, those are a few off the top of my head. Check the bios of the faculties at most major music schools and you will find lots of Fleisher students.
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