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Described by the New York Times in 1944 as "One of the most remarkably gifted of the younger generation of American keyboard artists," Leon Fleisher was born in San Francisco in 1928. In 1944, at age 16, he played the Brahms first Piano Concerto as soloist with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Monteux. In 1952 he won the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels. He played the two Brahms Piano Concertos often and recorded them with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. Fleisher recorded with Szell the 5 Beethoven Piano Concertos as well as many other concertos and piano solo repertoire. DOREMI is proud to offer here a hitherto unreleased live recording of both concertos with Pierre Monteux and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 1964, he began to notice that the ring and little fingers of his right hand were beginning to involuntarily curl up. He tried every therapy that existed then, but his solo career was effectively ended. He continued to teach, and conduct and in 1967 began to perform works for the left hand. In 1995 he succeeded to regain the use if his right hand and began performing and recording with two-hands. Leon Fleisher passed away in 2020 at age 92.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)