Given the well-deserved attention focused upon Leon Fleisher as a 2007 Kennedy Center honoree and for his recent return to two-handed piano playing, it seems fitting for Sony/BMG to include the pianist in its “Essential” compilation series alongside luminaries such as Placido Domingo, Sonny Rollins, and Taj Mahal. Seriously, though, this two-disc set proves as good a place as any to take stock of Fleisher’s mindful virtuosity, from his earliest Columbia and Epic sessions to left-hand specialties recorded in the early 1990s. The more recent items, of course, benefit from up-to-date sonics and do justice to Fleisher’s big, variegated sonority in the Bach/Brahms Chaconne, the Korngold Op. 23 Suite’s third movement, and Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony (although I marginally prefer Fleisher’s more incisive digital version for Vanguard). The earlier recordings show Fleisher to be less of a colorist per se, yet the flinty tone I took as gospel via the original LPs acquires noticeable roundness and depth on CD.
Nearly 50 years after they first appeared, Fleisher’s collaborations with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra still represent a kind of concerto gold standard, as we readily perceive in the Beethoven Emperor and Brahms Op. 15 opening movements, the Grieg Concerto’s slow movement, and the Mozart K. 503 finale’s joyous, chamber-like jousting between soloist and conductor. The mono Ravel Alborada del gracioso abounds with nervous energy and vivid harmonic pointing, a higher-strung, gaunter version of Lipatti’s classic recording.
Older collectors will welcome the Schubert B-flat Sonata first movement and the Brahms Piano Quintet (with the Juilliard Quartet) Scherzo–but why has neither complete performance made it to CD? Sony/BMG ought to consider an Original Jacket boxed set reissue devoted to Fleisher’s complete Columbia Masterworks output. It would be a perfect 80th birthday present for Fleisher in 2008, and an invaluable legacy to the rest of us for all time. [2/20/2008]
