Pianist Regains Use of Right Hand, Performs This Tuesday

By Alexander Hough in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 27, 2009 5:40PM

If pianist Leon Fleisher had walked away from music when, at the age of 37, focal dystonia immobilized two fingers on his right hand and put a screeching halt to his soaring career, it would've been understandable, even expected. However, in an effort that can rightly be called heroic, Fleisher persevered and remained involved in music for the better part of the past four decades, teaching, conducting, and performing the surprisingly decent amount of piano repertoire written for left hand (much of which was written for concert pianist Paul Wittgenstein, brother of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in World War I).

Thanks to advancements in treatment in recent years, Fleisher gets to perform with both hands this Tuesday at the University of Chicago. He hasn't regained full use of the affected fingers - though Fleisher, now 80, says that he's not sure how much of that is due to the neurological disorder and how much is due to age - but he has enough command over all ten fingers to play this all-J.S. Bach program.

The show's highlight is actually a piece from Fleisher's one-handed days: the Chaconne from the Partita No. 2. Originally written for solo violin, the great Romantic composer Johannes Brahms arranged it to be played by one hand on piano. We could try to tell you how great this music is, but Brahms, in a letter to Clara Schumann in 1877, says it much more eloquently (and, since he's Brahms, with more credibility):

The Chaconne is, in my opinion, one of the most wonderful and most incomprehensible pieces of music. Using the technique adapted to a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I could picture myself writing, or even conceiving, such a piece, I am sure that the extreme excitement and emotional tension would have driven me mad.

Hearing this music performed by a person for whom music has been both tragedy and triumph ought to be a singular experience.

Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th, Tuesday, March 31, 7:30 p.m., $20, $5 with student ID, call (773) 702-8080 or e-mail chicagopresents@uchicago.edu for tickets