Leon Fleisher: Two Hands

Product Description Sony classical is proud to re-issue American pianist s Leon Fleisher's legendary album Two Hands. This was the first 'two-handed' recording Leon Fleisher had made since the 1960s when he lost the use of his right hand due to an ailment eventually diagnosed as focal dystopia. The recording was released in 2004 (on Vanguard Classics) to huge critical acclaim. Leon Fleischer was a child prodigy who became Artur Schnabel's youngest student at the age of ten, thus continuing a long line of piano tradition reaching back to Beethoven himself. Fleischer is currently experiencing a welcome revival both in the recording studio and on the concert platform. -amazon.com

"This disc is a minor miracle. Leon Fleisher (born in 1929) was one of the most promising pianists of the 1950s, a formidable artist who had recorded many of the major concertos with George Szell in Cleveland, before a neurological condition that affected his right hand, dystonia, made performing impossible. For more than three decades he concentrated on teaching and conducting, but then a course of Botox therapy restored the use of his hand and, astonishingly, he began to play again. The results are here - wonderfully rounded performances of two Bach transcriptions, dark-hued Chopin and an autumnally tinted account of Schubert's final sonata that is full of natural integrity. A wonderful document of a brave and very fine musician." --The Guardian "One of the outstanding musicians of our time" --The Independent -amazon.com

Price: $22.98