Fee Download My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette
Be the very first who are reading this My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette Based upon some factors, reading this e-book will certainly offer more advantages. Even you need to read it detailed, page by web page, you could finish it whenever and any place you have time. When much more, this online e-book My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette will certainly offer you easy of checking out time as well as task. It additionally offers the experience that is inexpensive to reach as well as acquire substantially for much better life.
My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette
Fee Download My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette
What do you do to start checking out My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette Searching guide that you like to review very first or locate an intriguing e-book My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette that will make you intend to review? Everyone has distinction with their reason of reviewing a book My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette Actuary, reading behavior should be from earlier. Lots of people might be love to review, but not an e-book. It's not mistake. An individual will be bored to open the thick publication with small words to check out. In more, this is the actual problem. So do happen possibly with this My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette
To conquer the problem, we now supply you the modern technology to purchase guide My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette not in a thick printed data. Yeah, checking out My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette by on-line or getting the soft-file only to check out could be one of the ways to do. You could not feel that checking out a book My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette will serve for you. However, in some terms, May individuals effective are those that have reading behavior, included this sort of this My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette
By soft file of guide My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette to check out, you could not should bring the thick prints all over you go. Whenever you have going to check out My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette, you can open your device to review this e-book My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette in soft data system. So simple as well as quick! Reading the soft data e-book My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette will certainly offer you easy method to review. It can likewise be quicker because you can review your e-book My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette everywhere you really want. This on the internet My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette can be a referred e-book that you can delight in the solution of life.
Due to the fact that e-book My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette has terrific perks to read, many people now increase to have reading practice. Supported by the established modern technology, nowadays, it is simple to purchase the publication My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette Even the e-book is not alreadied existing yet in the marketplace, you to hunt for in this website. As what you can find of this My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette It will actually ease you to be the very first one reading this publication My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, By Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette and also get the perks.
My Nine Lives is a powerful and stirring memoir of one of the greatest pianists of the postwar era—an inspiring tale of courage, compassion, and triumph over outstanding odds.
At the peak of his career, celebrated pianist Leon Fleisher suddenly lost the use of two fingers on his right hand. Miraculously, at the age of sixty-six, he was diagnosed with focal dystonia, and learned to manage it through a combination of physical therapy and experimental Botox injections. In 2003 Fleisher returned to Carnegie Hall to give his first two-handed performance in over three decades and brought down the house.
With his coauthor, celebrated music critic Anne Midgette, Fleisher reveals here for the first time the depression that threatened to engulf him as his condition worsened, and the sheer love of music that rescued him from complete self-destruction.
- Sales Rank: #173015 in Books
- Published on: 2011-11-01
- Released on: 2011-11-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .72" w x 5.16" l, .72 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 352 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Pianist Fleisher played the Brahms D Minor concerto at his debut with the New York Philharmonic when he was 16 years old. A brilliant career seemed assured. But at the age of 36, Fleisher lost the use of two fingers on his right hand (due to a neurological condition called focal dystonia), which ended his performing career. This heartfelt memoir chronicles Fleisher's remarkable musical life, beginning as a child prodigy playing Beethoven in San Francisco to his acceptance of Kennedy Center Honors in 2007. Writing chronologically, Fleisher recalls his early training with the master teacher Artur Schnabel, his early performance success followed by career disappointments. He recounts his foray into conducting, his love of teaching, and his years of contentment as the director of Tanglewood. In each of the five interludes interspersed within the narrative, Fleisher provides a learned and lively synopsis of a single composer and a seminal composition. Aptly titled as a master class, these worthy asides will delight serious students of classical music or anyone interested in musical theory. Fleisher intimately chronicles his years of despair during his search for a cure to his mysterious malady, and the ultimate understanding of how his disease opened up new careers within his beloved world of classical music. (Dec.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
For many, Leon Fleisher may be more famous for the injury to his right hand that curtailed his piano concertizing for 30 years than for the sublime playing that made him one of the world’s foremost pianists. He details the near-madness the injury caused him and, subsequently, after endless therapies, the successful cure through Botox and rolfing. More important, though, he shares a life led near the epicenter of the musical world for more than six decades, starting with his Carnegie Hall debut in 1944 at age 16 and including lessons with piano eminence Artur Schnabel, a fruitful musical relationship with conductor George Szell, associations with the great pianists of the day, conducting, teaching, and his performance approaches to signal works in the canon, which are thoughtfully handled in “Master Class” subsections. A winning volume for musicians and music fans both. --Alan Moores
Review
“A delight. . . . Deeply felt, well-structured . . . . A great rarity.” —Wall Street Journal
“A book that is thrilling as much for its narrative suspense as for its psychological sensitivity and intellectual insights.” —Washington Post
“Here’s the real story, terrifically and frankly told, along with an enjoyable sprinkling of gossip and just enough insights to justify his reputation as the Obi-Wan Kenobi of pianists.” —Los Angeles Times
"A remarkable story, beautifully told. I think it will fascinate anyone interested in a life (or nine) lived to the hilt, from the highest peaks to the deepest valleys and – hallelujah! – back up again. It’s a great read: inspirational, cliff-hanging, informative, funny, horrific. (And furthermore, most of it is true.)" —Gary Graffman
“Amazingly informative. . . . Mr. Fleisher’s musicality jumps off the page. This is a very human story, beautifully told.” —The Washington Times
"Leon Fleisher, one of our most prodigiously talented musicians, has lived a very rich human life—many lives—reinventing himself, after a career-ending injury, as a teacher and conductor, before ultimately returning to performance. His book, like the man himself, is warm, witty, honest, and wise—and full of vivid portraits of the world of professional musicians. A bravura performance." —Oliver Sacks, M.D.
“Poignantly portray[s] the physical and mental turbulence of being a prodigy. . . . A great rarity—a book that tells the story of a personal and public triumph and also conveys an artist’s all pervading love for the instrument that has been with him for a lifetime.” —The Wall Street Journal
"Leon Fleisher's My Nine Lives is a modern-day musical ‘Odyssey’. His recounting of a fascinating life is told with great candor and philosophical wit. Musicians, of course, will gobble up this memoir from a legendary pianist; non-musicians will be enthralled by these adventures in both the outer and inner worlds of a great man. In short: a wonderful retelling of a truly epic life." —André Watts
“His performances are richly detailed in every way and with beautiful proportions. . . . [A] well-written book.” —California Chronicle
“In this candid memoir, Leon describes the many lives he has led and conveys one of the most significant of lessons: transforming adversity into triumph—and into wisdom.” —Yo-Yo Ma
“Entertaining. . . . [Musical excerpts] will sound even better now that we know the story behind them.” —Buffalo News
"Leon Fleisher is a giant among musicians. His memoir recounts the joys and sorrows of a most eventful life with the same characteristics as his playing – unflinching honesty, a probing intellect, and a very great generosity of spirit. This is a book to cherish, offering much wisdom to the reader. Read it and listen." — Ara Guzelimian, Provost and Dean of The Juilliard School
Most helpful customer reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
an absorbing memoir
By jsa
Pianist Leon Fleisher's story is a lesson in adaptation. After a mysterious condition robbed him of the use of several fingers in his right hand, Fleisher's promising career temporarily ground to a halt. His memoir naturally focuses a great deal of attention on his life-changing condition, from the suicidal feelings he experienced early on, to the struggle to get an accurate diagnosis and cure, all the while never giving up hope that he would regain the use of his hand. We feel some of the anguish and frustration Fleisher experienced as he trudged from one doctor to the next and seemed to have tried every conceivable treatment in his search for relief - and added to this was the question of whether or not he had brought this malady on himself. Did he depart from his teacher Schnabel's advice and take on too rigorous of a practice regimin a la Rudolf Serkin, or, perhaps worse yet, was he a victim of his own psychological processes, subconsciously programming himself to fail? All of this is played out in this absorbing memoir by the 82 year old pianist.
Fleisher's story is interesting from several perspectives. First, he recounts his youth in San Francisco, the child of parents who were willing to make huge sacrifices to get their son the musical training they believed his nascent talent merited. His mother in particular seems to have been the catalyst for much of this, while his father, who we hear little about other than the business he was in, closed his millinery stores in San Francisco and relocated the family to New York and went to work in a factory so that Leon could be close to his teacher, Artur Schnabel. On the one hand, Fleisher was aware that he was responsible for the upheaval in his family and says "it was a heavy burden for a ten-year old." On the other hand, Fleisher had an older brother, Ray, who he says adapted well to New York; but after Ray enlisted in the army, Leon says that his absence didn't make much difference since "I had always taken the brunt of the family's attention." Given the choice of words and the relatively little that's said about his parents after this (his father completely disappears from the narrative after the move to N.Y. - not even his death is mentioned), I gather that growing up as a wunderkind in the Fleisher family may not necessarily have been a bed of roses. (Fleisher, by the way, doesn't absolve himself when it comes to his own rocky domestic life, which consisted of three wives - he cheated on the first two - and, by his own admission, being a pretty lousy father to five children, although he seems to have made up for it.)
I found Fleisher's recollections of his years with Schnabel, first in Italy and then in New York, fascinating stuff. Interesting too was his relationship with Pierre Monteux, with whom he spent several summers at the Monteux school in Hancock, Maine. Not surprisingly, Fleisher devotes a great deal of space to his relationship with the mercurial George Szell, the conductor with whom he became most closely associated and with whom he made classic recordings of the Beethoven, Brahms, Grieg and Schumann concertos. Interestingly, he feels he was "fired" as a pupil by Schnabel, who he revered, after the master learned that he had played for Horowitz; and it was his mentor, Szell, in many ways a father figure, who told him that he wasn't in shape to go on a highly visible State Department tour of the Soviet Union, a crushing blow even though Fleisher himself was having serious doubts given the problems he was having with his hand. These experiences, among others, no doubt worked their way into what appears to be Fleisher's compassionate approach to teaching and mentoring.
Fleisher is a good story-teller, something he shares with his colleague Gary Graffman, who wrote an entertaining memoir back in the early 1980's, "I Really Should Be Practicing." (As it turns out, Graffman too developed problems with his right hand and took up works for the left hand only.) There are numerous anecdotes about Szell, Leonard Bernstein, Rudolf Serkin, Heifetz and others that make for enjoyable reading. Of Otto Klemperer, for example, Fleisher writes, "This was a man who, when he was dissatisfied with the service in a hotel he was staying in, went out and pissed on the hallway rug to show his displeasure. How could you not want to play with a figure like that?" This is a second-hand sample; there are plenty of first-hand stories that are better.
Among the things I like about this book are Fleisher's "Master Class" sections, where he dissects a particular work that's close to him. I especially appreciated his comments on the Ravel concerto, a piece he learned after losing the use of his right hand and subsequently "owned" for decades.
One curious omission - there's no index.
Altogether an interesting read, highly recommended for music lovers.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Witty and honest
By martbar
Fleisher's inspirational story is beautifully told here. Full disclosure--I studied with Fleisher in monthly masterclasses for five years, so I was predisposed, perhaps, to finding this book interesting. But I believe the combination of his self-deprecating wit and Ann Midgette's presentation skills has resulted in a work of literary art that will be interesting to musician and non-musician alike. The Fleisher family's sacrifices for the young artist, the excitement of his early career, the frustration of a crippling hand condition that baffled the medical community, the ways Fleisher found to keep expressing the music inside him--all are compelling. His honesty in the story of three marriages and his sometimes lacking parenting skills is laudable. His anecdotes about interactions with famous people both musical and otherwise are plentiful and entertaining. While there is no false modesty here, his extraordinary intelligence and talent are obvious, and Midgette allows for the same intimate but pithy conversational style I remember from Fleisher in person. Of special interest to musicians are the brief "masterclasses" Fleisher writes on some of his favorite keyboard compositions. These are colorfully presented and not at all pedantic so nonmusicians might find their insight enjoyable--or can easily skip them as they wish. This book is a skillfully crafted true story of triumph over adversity and deserves a wide audience.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Not the typical self indulgent memoir
By B. Flinchbaugh
First two disclosures: I know and have worked with Leon Fleisher while a student at Peabody. He conducted the Peabody Symphony in a very fine performance of Rach Symphony No. 1 that I played, and also I played on the Ravel Left Hand Concerto and Lucas Foss Concerto with Mr. Fleisher as soloist.
As a conductor, LF is the first person to downplay his baton technique, but whatever lack of finessed movement is made up 100 fold with his ability to communicate with musicians, especially about rhythm. Also, unlike the director of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Teri Murai, Mr. Fleisher respects each musician in the ensemble and cultivates a team from the first minute of the first rehearsal. While playing the Foss Concerto, the orchestra was having difficulty counting the complex rhythms and Mr. Murai put his infamous "clam can" on the podium, where he explained, "section players pay 25 cents per mistake and principals 50 cents." Mr. Fleisher immediately interjected, "um, excuse me Maestro, how much is it for the soloist or conductor when they make mistakes?"
The other memory I have of LF is that before performing Rach 1, the principal hornist and I were sitting backstage talking, and LF came out of his dressing room, baton in hand. He came over and sat with us, waiting for the concert to begin, and told story after story about Szell, New York Philharmonic premiere, etc. About 8:05 the stage manager ran down the steps and said, "Maestro, we've been looking for you. We need to start the concert!!" and he gradually got up, and conducted the concert.
Mr. Leon Fleisher is a truly humble world class talent, which is a rare combination. Throughout this book, his sense of self effacing humor shines throughout each and every story. Do not let the stream of consciousness style wear you down. The book is a quick read and filled with many wonderful and honest stories about the life of one of the greatest living musicians on the planet. Well done, Mr. Fleisher!
See all 26 customer reviews...
My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette PDF
My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette EPub
My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette Doc
My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette iBooks
My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette rtf
My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette Mobipocket
My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette Kindle
~ Fee Download My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette Doc
~ Fee Download My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette Doc
~ Fee Download My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette Doc
~ Fee Download My Nine Lives: A Musical Memoir, by Leon Fleisher, Anne Midgette Doc
