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To compliment this morning's airing of violinist Daniel Hope's debut recording, here's video that captured his June, 2008 performance of the finale from Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in e with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding conducting:
Chopin: "A moral vampire." "A strange person...hard to like." "A political arch-conservative, an artistic and social snob and a dandy who hated contact with the rest of the human race"
Curious to learn more? Here's the article from The Telegraph I mentioned on the air on Thursday, July 24.
PIanist Leon Fleisher turns 80 on July 23rd.
His musicianship is the stuff of legend, and his personal story is as heartbreaking as it is life affirming. Leon Fleisher was well on his way to conquering the music world at 16, singled out as "one of the most gifted of the younger generation of keyboard artists" by Olin Downes in The New York Times and soon hailed quite simply as "the pianistic find of the century" by the great conductor Pierre Monteux. He was cruelly sidelined at the height of his powers by a rare neurological disease that lost him the use of his right hand. Undeterred, while being told by his doctors that he would never play again, he became an inspirational teacher and an inspired conductor, all the while playing-and in fact revitalizing-the left-handed repertory, determined not to be defeated. Fleisher was, as the Times dubbed him, "a pianist for whom never was never an option." He underwent brain surgery, grueling experimental treatments, years of trials that certainly would have discouraged any ordinary mortal. Then, against all odds and baffling medical experts, he returned. "His comeback," wrote Holly Brubach in The New York Times in 2007, "has catapulted him up next to Lance Armstrong as a symbol of the indomitable human spirit and an inspiration to a broader public." (From Kennedy Center: Biographical Information for Leon Fleisher.)
Here's an excerpt from a short documentary (Two Hands: The Leon Fleisher Story) that explores the impact of Leon Fleisher's loss of use of his hand.
We aim to please! Unable to find a recording of this performance in our library for Sunday's Listener Request Show, the team here at WDAV did manage to come up with this video version for Pat. “Perhaps Love” sung by Placido Domingo and John Denver: