Interview with Leon Fleisher

[vlhorowitz]

Hi Everyone,

Our latest interview is with Leon Fleisher, who turned 86 this past summer. Here, the great teacher talks about his beginnings in San Francisco, the qualities of Schnabel, Horowitz' problems in classical repertoire, the cost of tuition today, music critics, etc.

Has anybody listened to his latest album ?

As always, thank you all for reading and commenting

https://www.examiner.com/article/interview-with-pianist-leon-fleisher

[amytsuda]

Leon Fleisher is for sure inspiring. In another article, I liked what he said. "Either you are a string player, a vocalist or a wind player, you always have to think three things 1) how to start/attack the note, 2) how to sustain the note and 3) how to end the note. Somehow, most pianists only think about how to attack the note, but not the latter two."

But I don't appreciate what he says about Conservatory taking too many students and how people need to start early (even 8 is too late) and so on so on. I'd say Conservatory should take as many students as there are people who want to come. I'd say it doesn't matter what age they start.  Let anyone who wants to study music study music, no matter how unlikely they can make a living from music.

I know someone who is a pharmacist with MM from MSM, or a successful insurance broker with MM from Rice. Graduating from Conservatory doesn't mean they can't do other things. In fact, I know a marketer who became a doctor later, or a doctor who became an engineer later. I know a lawyer who entered a cooking school. We will eventually all figure out how to live our lives. Don't feel bad about ones who didn't become a full-time musician after graduating from Conservatory.

If anyone cares about classic music dying, they should realize it's because they made it sound as if it's so exclusive to young prodigies whose life mission is to be "the" musician.

This is just a rant by an adult hobbyist sitting and being bored in the airport.

[carl_h]

I have to agree with Amytsuda.
Most interview you post are good and I like reading them but not this one.

A quote:
"German music is, to use your word, metaphysical. It really asks those existential questions of ‘How do I relate to the Universe ?’, ‘Is there a heaven ?’, ‘How am I like a brook, or a leaf on a tree ?’. "

I don't even... what?

This was the first interview I stopped reading halfway through.

[dima_76557]

But I don't appreciate what he says about Conservatory taking too many students and how people need to start early (even 8 is too late) and so on so on. I'd say Conservatory should take as many students as there are people who want to come. I'd say it doesn't matter what age they start.  Let anyone who wants to study music study music, no matter how unlikely they can make a living from music.

You may have misunderstood what Mr. Fleisher was really trying to say. He is talking about becoming a professional of a certain level; his own level. In that sense, I think he is right about what he says in the interview. If you just let anyone in who is able to pay, the general level drops to something that is simply unacceptable in art - mediocrity.

Within that same context, I think he is also right about building core repertoire at a very young age. Most of the virtuoso repertoire takes a lot of time to grow, time we don't have within a system where marketing and big bucks rule at the expense of mostly (very) young performers.

[amytsuda]

@Dima, you are right. But Mr. Fleisher is a super musician of the generation, that any conservatory hopes to get once in 10 years. And if anyone like that appears at the audition, they will never miss them. And no matter how selective conservatories are, if they don't appear at their door steps, they won't have those!

So what I was saying is for the rest of 20 or 50 spots, they should just take as many people as they get that comes to the door.

You are totally right, to be the world class, even Mr. Fleisher minus 30 %, you should start early and learn all repertoires as early as possible. But how can they get an exposure like that? Investing in primary schools is even too late, because kids are already 7 by then. It comes down to parents. 

How do we produce more parents who actually play music at fairly high level at home or expose young 3 years old to world class music? Just accept as many people as possible to conservatory.  No matter what they do in their life becoming a math teacher or chef whatever, those become the parents who expose kids early enough to music.

[faulty_damper]

Too many young people today play their instruments most wonderfully – they have such command of their instrument – but it’s as though they’re speaking a foreign language, phonetically. They pronounce all the words, but they have no idea of what they’re saying.

Fleisher here describes the difference between pianists - which most competitors/concert artists are - and musicians - which is very rarely heard.  Somehow, lost in those thousands of hours of practice, is the learning of, and the consequent expression of, music.  To be a musician requires freedom from the instrument.  But, all too many can't even be freed of their bodies, contorting their fingers and exercising their muscles in a manner most fruitless.  This isn't just a jab at Fleisher but at all aspiring musicians.  He hears the music well, ascertained from the critical comments he gives to his students, but his technique has prevented himself from fully expressing it.  Thus, I think Fleisher gets the point partly wrong about they not having any idea what they're saying.  They have no idea what they're saying because they don't know how play.  They are still stumbling upon their own fingers so much so that their focus can't be on the music.  Thus, what we hear, even if performed well, isn't music.  But, this requires actual musicians to evaluate, which very few of us are.

[dima_76557]

Thus, I think Fleisher gets the point partly wrong about they not having any idea what they're saying. 

Hi, Faulty!

Fleisher's comment should be read with the "as though" idea covering everything he says about those young people. He is not actually accusing them of anything. He is not stating facts. It is what he perceives as a musician. "As though", "As if". That's the impression they make on him.