For Immediate Release
FIRST DIGITAL
RELEASE OF SIX RECORDINGS
BY EMINENT PIANIST LEON FLEISHER
PREVIOUSLY AVAILABLE ONLY ON LP
The
Six Full-Length Releases Include Fleisher’s
Readings of Schubert, Debussy, Ravel,
Mozart,
Liszt, Copland and Brahms
In
Celebration of the Pianist’s 80th Birthday
Exclusively
Offered In Digital Format Through
iTunes and Other
Major Digital Service Providers
and as “on
demand” CDs through ArkivMusic
Available July 29, 2008
In
honor of pianist Leon Fleisher’s 80th birthday on July 23rd,
Sony Classical will release for the first time in digital format six
full-length recordings, made between 1954 and 1963 that have only been
previously available complete on LP. These recordings document Fleisher’s
extraordinary artistry in the solo and chamber repertoire before a neurological
affliction known as focal dystonia rendered two fingers of his right hand
immobile in 1965.
The six
recordings are:
·
Schubert:
Sonata in B-Flat Major, D.960 / Ländler – Leon Fleisher, piano
(original LP release 1956)
·
Debussy: Suite
bergamasque / Ravel: Sonatine / Valses nobles et sentimentales / Alborado
del gracioso – Leon Fleisher, piano (original LP release
1959)
·
Mozart: Sonata
in C Major, K.330 / Sonata in E-Flat Major, K.282 / Rondo in D Major, K. 485
– Leon Fleisher, piano (original LP release 1960)
·
Liszt: Sonata
in B Minor / Weber: Sonata No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 70 / Invitation to the
Dance, Op. 65 – Leon Fleisher, piano (original LP release
1960)
·
Copland: Piano
Sonata / Sessions: From My Diary / Kirchner: Piano Sonata / Rorem:
Three Barcarolles – Leon Fleisher, piano (original LP release
1963)
·
Brahms:
Quintet for Piano and Strings in F Minor, Op. 34 – Leon Fleisher,
piano / Juilliard String Quartet (original LP release 1963)
The re-releases are available from
iTunes, Amazon MP3, Rhapsody, Zune and other major digital outlets. iTunes is the only digital vendor to carry the original
liner notes by Konrad Wolff and Charles Burr. Physical
CDs, complete with each album’s original cover art and liner notes,
are only available through ArkivMusic.
Fleisher
has also recorded an exclusive series of podcasts for Sony BMG Masterworks,
available on iTunes. His conversation is appealing, relaxed and sincere, as he
recounts his early successes and stumbling blocks, most significantly his
battle with focal dystonia. He explains his art beautifully but also brings a
refreshingly human element to his often-funny interactions with some of the
most formidable artists of the 20th century, including Artur
Schnabel, George Szell and Leonard Bernstein. To hear these podcasts go to http://www.sonybmgmasterworks.com/podcast/
Leon
Fleisher is among the most revered pianists of his generation. His grace,
intelligence, and wide-ranging musical imagination are the hallmark of a
storied career that spans over sixty years and encompasses Fleisher’s
pursuits as a pianist, conductor, and teacher. All of these qualities are in ample
evidence on these six releases.
Born
in 1928, Fleisher led what seemed a charmed musical life. As a nine-year-old,
he began studies with the legendary Artur Schnabel before making a sensational
debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of 16 in 1944. Hailed by
conductor Pierre Monteux as the “pianistic find of the century” at
the time, he went on to become the first American to win the Queen Elisabeth
International competition in Belgium
in 1952. He made many recordings, foremost among them his concerto recordings
with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra, before his career as an
international star was cut short in 1965. For the next thirty years, he threw
himself avidly into a career as a teacher and conductor with Peabody
Conservatory, the Tanglewood
Music Center,
and Baltimore Symphony, among others.
Recently, following new forms of treatment and therapy,
Fleisher has miraculously resumed his performance of two-hand literature. The extraordinary renaissance of Fleisher’s career
has been documented in his first two-hand recording in some forty years, the
critically acclaimed Two Hands. The recordings in this re-release, which
were once thought to be the final word on Fleisher’s pianism, now stand
as a distinguished bookend to an ongoing career, an invaluable marker on his
timeline as an artist of the highest distinction. As Stephen A. Schwarzman,
Chairman of the Kennedy Center Honors, said of Fleisher, who was a 2007
honoree, he remains “a consummate musician whose career is a moving
testament to the life-affirming power of art.”
SONY BMG MASTERWORKS
RCA Red Seal, Sony Classical, deutsche harmonia mundi,
Masterworks Broadway and Masterworks Jazz are labels of SONY BMG MASTERWORKS.
For e-mail updates and information regarding RCA Red Seal, Sony Classical, RCA
deutsche harmonia mundi, Masterworks Broadway and Masterworks Jazz artists,
promotions, tours and repertoire, please visit www.sonybmgmasterworks.com.
About ArkivMusic LLC
ArkivMusic - The Source for
Classical Music™ (http://www.arkivmusic.com) is an
online retailer of classical music focused on offering a vast selection of
classical titles through an intuitive interface and a decentralized
distribution platform. Since opening its online store in February 2002,
ArkivMusic has built the largest selection of classical music recordings in the
U.S.,
with access to over 90,000 titles from over 1,500 labels shipped from 20
distribution centers. In keeping with its mission of preservation, promotion,
and efficient distribution of classical music, ArkivMusic’s
innovative production-on-demand ArkivCD
program allows consumers to find and purchase out-of-print recordings
alongside the in-print catalog.
LEON FLEISHER Tour Dates
7/24-25 Baltimore
Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore & Strathmore, MD
7/30 Ravinia
Festival, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Highland Park, IL
8/8
Tanglewood
– Boston Symphony Orchestra, Lenox, MA
8/20
La
Jolla Music Society, La Jolla, CA
9/13, 14 Chamber
Music Society of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
9/27
Germantown Performing Arts
Center, Germantown,, TN
10/2
Carnegie Hall, New
York, NY
10/3 Celebrity
Series of Boston, Boston MA
10/5
Shriver
Hall Concert Series, Baltimore,
MD
10/11, 12 Westchester Philharmonic, Purchase, NY
10/16, 18 San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco, CA
10/17 San Francisco Symphony, Cupertino, CA
10/22, 23, 24 The Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, CA
10/30, 31; 11/1, 2 Detroit Symphony, Detroit,
MI
11/7 Shepherd University,
Shepherdstown, WV
11/14 Royal Academy
of Music, London, UK
11/16 Wigmore
Hall, London, UK
11/19 Palais
des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, BELGIUM
11/23 Lucerne Festival, Lucerne,
SWITZERLAND
12/5 The
Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto,
CA
12/11, 12 The New York Philharmonic, New York, NY
# # #
CONTACT: Susan Schiffer
Sony
BMG Masterworks
212.833.4763
susan.schiffer@sonybmg.com
Wende Persons
ArkivMusic
PR
@ ArkivMusic.com
(7.22.08)
