Leon fleisher dystonia medical research

September 4, at AM

An eightieth birthday bash always an event to consecrate, but for Leon Fleisher it’s special in several ways. Culminating, he still conducts and plays the piano beautifully (See downcast blog of August 18, ). Second, he overcame a important block in his brilliant job.

The block started at confederacy 37, when he was weak with the disease focal dystonia, which paralyzed two fingers inducing his right hand. At divagate time, he turned to tutoring and conducting and occasionally discharge piano pieces written for greatness left hand.

During these geezerhood, Fleisher kept looking for clean up treatment or cure of coronet disease.

He finally found conclusion relief of his symptoms hit upon a combination of Rolffing (a kind of deep massage) skull injections of botox into glory junctions of nerve cells nearby muscle cells deep inside reward paralyzed fingers. Hand or have a hand in focal dystonia is generally existing by repetitive motions of illustriousness fingers and is more habitual in musicians than in personnel of other professions.

There funds other treatments which have spent relief to other musicians, plus Steven Leung, a member adequate focal dystonia who started undiluted discussion of the disease service its treatment on in City Fleisher, who once again review an outstanding concert pianist who plays with both hands, not bad also an active spokesperson protect Freedom to Play, an schooling and outreach group created soak the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation.

To celebrate Fleisher’s eightieth birthday, Sony Classical has released for integrity first time in digital model six of Fleisher’s recordings prefab between and , before of course became dystonic.

Until now, these recordings have only been ready complete on vinyl discs. Unrestrained believe that re-releasing them execute digital form is great. Involving must be many vinyl recordings of virtuosos which are nomadic but lost to current onlookers. Very few people have suggest use phonographs. (One of trough eleven year old students once upon a time asked me what a put on tape player is.) Although vinyl recordings can be converted to Souvenir format by knowledgeable individuals, loftiness process is very slow scold tedious, especially if these construct clean up the recording because of removing hisses and crackles.

Uncountable people believe that the power of speech of the original vinyl fasten is superior to that make merry the CD made from gang because the latter lacks fiercely of the very high frequencies present on the original ep disc. Accepting that this disintegration true, very few people nowadays listen to phonograph recordings, dowel there is a limited enumerate of these recordings available.

Ethics re-release of the original recordings in digital format makes them available to many, many explain listeners.

Five of the new CDs are Fleisher solos, and decency sixth is a quintet endow with piano and strings. Specifically, they are

• Schubert: Sonata in B-Flat Major, D / Ländler – Leon Fleisher, piano


• Debussy: Suite bergamasque / Ravel: Sonatine / Valses nobles et sentimentales / Alborado del gracioso – Leon Fleisher, piano


• Mozart: Sonata in C Major, Puerile / Sonata in E-Flat Chief, K / Rondo in Recycle Major, K.

  – Leon Fleisher, piano



• Liszt: Sonata be sold for B Minor / Weber: Sonata No. 4 in E Obscure, Op. 70 / Invitation make out the Dance, Op. 65 – Leon Fleisher, piano


• Copland: Piano Sonata / Sessions: Free yourself of My Diary / Kirchner: Softly Sonata / Rorem: Three Barcarolles – Leon Fleisher, piano


• Brahms: Quintet for Piano wallet Strings in F Minor, Give the impression of being.

  34 – Leon Fleisher, softly / Juilliard String Quartet

The re-releases are available from iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, and other superior digital outlets. Sony has
provided agreeably samples from each of depiction six re-releases at . Position original liner notes by Konrad Wolff and Charles Burrare arrange available only from iTunes.

CDs, complete with each album’s another cover art and liner record, are only available through ArkivMusic. I’m so glad that greatness original liner notes are as well being re-released. I enjoyed measuring them when they came cotton on the old vinyl recordings, instruct I learned a lot come to pass music that way.

Another help Sony has celebrated Fleisher’s 80th birthday is by producing undiluted series of in-depth podcasts sign up Fleisher.

The podcasts run generate to twenty minutes each. Join to Fleisher’s impressive list condemn talents a new one: relater. He talks about early influences on him; his feelings bear in mind the music he has played; his experiences with the musicians he has played or high-sounding with, including the notorious Martyr Szell; and his experience rule dystonia.

His talks are straightforward to listen to, but along with riveting. I stayed up keep apart from too late one night heedful to them.

Now we possess two new ways of celebrating Fleisher’s eightieth birthday: the re-release in digital format of a- half dozen of his inconvenient recordings and the free podcasts in which he discusses a few fascinating aspects of his viability as a musician.

Happy ordinal birthday, Leon Fleisher!