CD Reviews (The Straits Times, April 2016)

FOUR HANDS

LEON FLEISHER &

KATHERINE JACOBSON, Piano 4 Hands

Sony Classical 88875064162 / ****1/2

The venerated American pianist Leon Fleisher, once afflicted with focal dystonia of the right hand, has returned to play piano repertoire for both hands. This album sees him joined by his wife and former-student Katherine Jacobson in a lovely programme for piano duet. Johannes Brahms' Liebeslieder Walzer (Love Song Waltzes), heard here without the voices, is a more extended and mellower follow-up to his Waltzes Op.39.

The Fleishers play with great sensitivity and sympathy for the idiom, and this gemütlich (carefree and relaxed like only the Viennese know how) feeling continues into Franz Schubert's masterpiece Fantasy in F minor, which rises to dramatic height from its initial lilting indolence.

The concert closes with Lucien Garban's transcription for piano duet of Maurice Ravel's La Valse. Confined to a single keyboard, its range seems unusually constricted for most part, but the duo generates a voluminous sound and much excitement towards its climactic end. The encore is a 4-hand arrangement of living American composer William Bolcom's most famous short piece, The Graceful Ghost Rag, rendered with rare finesse and nostalgia.

THE LURE OF THE EAST

GEOFFREY SABA, Piano

Carnegie Concerts CC017 / ****1/2

Here is an excellently-programme recital of piano music inspired by Western composers' fascination with the Orient. Its generous 77 minutes of exotica may be subdivided into three parts. First is traditional musical picture-postcard views represented by Debussy's Estampes (Pagodas evoke the sound of gamelans), Godowsky's Gardens Of Buitenzorg (after the famous botanic gardens in Bogor) and Ravel's Jeux D'Eau with its cascades of pentatonics.

The substantial central section delves deeper with Szymanowski's Sheherazade (from Masques), Messiaen's ferociously complex Canteyodjaya (which in Sanskrit translates into “song of joy”), Australian Peter Sculthorpe's Harbour Dreaming and Indonesian Krisna Setiawan's AgMaTa 1, which relives techniques used in gamelan music and the kecak dance.

The final and lightest third part approximates kitsch, closing with Abram Chasins' Three Chinese Pieces (the best known is Rush Hour In Hong Kong) and Percy Grainger's Beautiful Fresh Flower, a transcription of Molihua. Australia-born British pianist Geoffrey Saba has the requisite technique, sense of colour and shade to do his selections justice, and this is accompanied by well researched programme notes and historical illustrations.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2015)

ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE

LEON FLEISHER, Piano left hand

Bridge 9429 / ****1/2

For the most part of his later career, the American pianist Leon Fleisher was afflicted with focal dystonia which seriously curtailed the use of his right hand. Although he has now returned to performing the piano with both hands, this disc is a sample programme of his left handed repertoire, including new works dedicated to him. It opens with Brahms’s transcription of Bach’s Chaconne in D minor, a simpler and more faithful version of the original violin classic than the better-known Busoni conflation. Fleisher’s control and authority is immediately apparent, where the left hand’s ability of crafting both melody and harmony simultaneously gives the illusion of polyphony.

Written specially for him are Leon Kirchner’s L.H.(1995), George Perle’s three atonal Musical Offerings (1997-98, for his 70^th birthday) and Dina Koston’s Thoughts Of Evelyn (2000), which receive definitive readings. Less astringent are Federico Mompou’s Prelude No.6 and two transcriptions of popular songs. Earl Wild’s alternative take on Gershwin’s Embraceable You, conceived as a virtuoso étude, and Stephen Prutsman’s reworking of Jerome Kern’s All The Things You Are are bound to raise a smile in this hour-long anthology. Recommended for all committed pianophiles.

THE MOZART ALBUM

LANG LANG, Piano

Vienna Philharmonic / NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT

Sony Classical 888430825321 (2CDs) / ***

After the unmitigated successes of his Liszt and Chopin albums, Lang Lang’s take on Mozart comes with a more qualified recommendation. It appears that Artur Schnabel’s adage that “Mozart is too simple for amateurs, and too difficult for professionals” applies here; the Chinese phenom does not always seem to know what to do with Mozart. In Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor (K.491), dawdling pacing inflates the work to about 33 minutes, but is redeemed by Piano Concerto No.17 in G major (K.453), which is free-flowing and cheery. Little wonder that veteran conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt is quoted in a Gramophone interview referring to Lang’s “very open spirit and unmoulded musicality”, probably an euphemism for “unformed musical mind”.

In three of Mozart’s sonatas, there are more extremes in dynamics. He is plodding in the 1^st movement of the E flat major Sonata (K.282) but speeds up the finale as if to compensate. He takes an epic view of the A minor Sonata (K.310), which means playing very loud, emphatically and clamping on the sustaining pedal. Only the G major Sonata (K.283) remains relatively unscathed. There are four short encores, crisply dispatched for the first three but a crude and aggressive Rondo Alla Turca sticks sorely in the mind long after the music has ended. Hold on to your Andras Schiff and Mitsuko Uchida recordings; this one is mostly for Lang Lang diehards. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2014)

LEON FLEISHER

Complete Album Collection

Sony Classical (23 CDs) / *****

This handsome box-set was issued in honour of Leon Fleisher’s 85^th birthday this year. He belonged to the “lost generation” of American pianists born during the 1920s and 30s whose careers were curtailed by death, illness or early retirement. Fleisher’s affliction was focal dystonia which for several decades robbed him the use of his right hand. Before that, he had produced some of the best recordings of Beethoven and Brahms piano concertos with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell, solidly musical and no-nonsense accounts which still stand the test of time.

These have been lovingly reproduced with the original LP designs and sleeve-notes. Also issued are several rarities appearing on disc for the first time, including Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody, Franck’s Symphonic Variations and Hindemith’s Four Temperaments, concerte works based on the theme and variations form. Collectors will also treasure his fine recording of Brahms’s Piano Quintet with the Juilliard Quartet and piano music by 20^th century American composers Copland, Kirshner and Sessions. 

There are three CDs which document Fleisher’s years as a left handed pianist, featuring a solo recital, left hand piano concertos (by Ravel, Britten and Prokofiev) and chamber music by Korngold and Franz Schmidt. The final CD from 2009 sees a glorious return to playing with both hands in Mozart piano concertos (No.12 and 23, both in A major) and the Double Piano Concerto (K.242) alongside his former student and present wife Katherine Jacobson. Here is a great career in music translated into a feast for the ears.

BRITISH VIOLIN SONATAS

TASMIN LITTLE, Violin

PIERS LANE, Piano

Chandos 10770 / ****1/2

This is Volume One of a highly promising survey of British violin sonatas from the excellent British duo of Tasmin Little and Piers Lane. The music of the two major sonatas by William Walton (composed 1947-49) and Howard Ferguson (1946) is gratifyingly tonal, tinged with a bittersweet lyricism from that bygone age. The 1950s and 60s would later usher in an age of atonalism that altered the face of music for several decades. The Walton, which shares a similar aesthetic as his celebrated Violin Concerto, is unusual in having just two movements, the second is an absorbing set of variations on a simple theme. The Ferguson is more traditional, in three movements, but no less enjoyable.

 

The true rarity is Benjamin Britten very early and eclectic Suite Op.6 (1934-35) which comprises four character studies as movements. A feel of the burlesque and grotesquerie occupy the March, Moto Perpetuo (Perpetuel Motion) and final Waltz. Those who enjoy his very accessible Piano Concerto (also from the 1930s) will appreciate his ironic sense of humour here. An added bonus are two short pieces by Walton from 1948-50, a Canzonetta and Scherzetto, dedicated to the Brangelina of that era, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Little, known for championing rarely-performed known British works, produces a sweet and beguiling tone, gloriously backed by the ever-sensitive Lane.

Thomas Hecht Reminisces About Leon Fleisher

THOMAS HECHT REMINISCES 

ABOUT LEON FLEISHER

Head of Piano Studies at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, Dr. Thomas Hecht was a student of (and also teaching assistant to) Leon Fleisher during his student years (1983-87) at Baltimore’s Peabody Institute. Following Fleisher’s week-long residency as the Ong Teng Cheong Distinguished Professor in March 2009, Hecht waxes lyrical about his mentor and his years as a student.

What were your early musical years like?

I was the seventh in an “Irish”-American Catholic family of ten children. My father, then a bank executive, had one great passion – music – and he played the trumpet and French horn. Incredible as it seems, all ten of us had to spend at least one year learning to play the piano - something like your compulsory National Service! When the year was through, though, we were left to make our own decision, no arguments. Most of my sibling counted the days (I can assure you!) so they could move on to other instruments. We used to give family concerts for the neighbourhood, like the Von Trapp family. Besides the piano, I played the alto saxophone for while, but soon discovered I was not a “transposing” person. That nearly drove me insane!

You were a Baltimore boy while Leon Fleisher had been teaching at Peabody since the 1950s. How did you first know about him?

It was my eldest sister Cathy, now a music teacher in elementary school, who introduced me to Leon Fleisher’s Beethoven piano concerto cycle with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. Those were, of course, on ten or so vinyl LP’s, well before the emergence of the CD. At that time (10 years old), I had been enrolled as a scholarship student of Frederick Griesinger at the Peabody Preparatory. Fred had really opened up my ears and really first taught me how to “perform”. And all this time Fleisher had been Head of the Conservatory’s Piano Department. You can imagine what a “Titan” he was, even then, and I can still remember exclaiming to my sister while we listened to his “Emperor” Concerto how amazing it was that Fleisher lived right here - in Baltimore!

What does it take to become a student of Fleisher?

I did not do my undergraduate studies in Peabody. Unlike many Asian students, I couldn’t wait to get away from home! At the Oberlin Conservatory (Ohio), just a seven-hour drive away, I studied with Peter Takacs, himself a former Fleisher student. Even then I had wanted to learn and train under a Fleisher “product”.

To become a Fleisher student is a test of perseverance and persistence. I played in many master classes for him in various cities, and gradually worked my way into his awareness. No, I do not think coming from Baltimore made any difference as to why I was selected for his class. But for me, being in those lessons with the great maestro really felt as if my “piano soul” were finally coming home!

What is Fleisher like as a teacher?

Fleisher is not just a great artist, but a teacher par excellence. Learning under him was a mind-blowing experience. He was (and still is) so compelling and commanding in his musical thought that it always seemed as if there was no other way to hear the music. He really knows how to work these thoughts into his students, making everything completely clear.

Despite his magnificence (and the very possible intimidation factor of playing for him each week), there was always a sense of great comfort with him in the room. He would sit very close to you, demonstrating everything in those days with only his left hand - which, of course, exceeds what most people can do with both their hands. It was like being one with him at the piano. And when I performed my recitals, I always felt that I was hearing his voice - that guiding force - in my head, and this always provided an amazing amount of support and direction for me.

I was asked to be his assistant only after one year of study with him. He had never before had a teaching assistant. Why? I do not know. I felt extremely flattered, honoured and mostly humbled (if not in a state of shock!) when he actually asked me. For my part, I had wanted nothing more in life than just to study with the man; never had I imagined assisting him as well. In fact, I can honestly say that everything I’ve experienced since those years has been icing on the cake. Studying with Leon Fleisher was the “cake” itself.

What exactly does a teaching assistant do?

I took over his students in his absence, and got everybody ready for their recitals while I prepared for mine. Sigh…Looks like nothing has changed, right?! Anyway, I felt my life transformed. I was younger than many people had expected [24 years old then], and he had so many students that had been with him much longer than I. But his wife Katherine Jacobson (also a Fleisher student and several years my senior) shared with me one day that the reason Fleisher chose me was because he thought that I was the only one capable of doing it.

Duo-pianists Hecht & Shapiro following the performance

in which the great Maestro had just conducted them in the

Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos with the Cleveland Institute

of Music Orchestra in 1991. The duo's last performance together

was with the Cleveland Orchestra, playing the

Poulenc Double Concerto under Jahja Ling in 2002.

Who were some of your contemporaries as Fleisher students?

Oh, it was quite a class, alright! My peers included Kevin Kenner [2nd prize at the 1990 Chopin International Piano Competition], Stephen Prutsman [Finalist at the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition], Marcantonio Barone [Finalist at Leeds] and, of course, my former wife and two-piano partner, Sandra Shapiro, [with whom he won the Munich International Two Piano Competition].

Would you say that your teaching methods are similar to Leon Fleisher’s?

I think it’s important not to try to be a clone of anyone, but I do try to do my best to impart to others - through my teaching and playing - what he had given me. Although my teacher did not appear on the performing stage for decades, his ideas, messages and artistic inspiration came clearly through his teaching and recordings. I am 48 now, so I have had the benefit of time and many international experiences since my Peabody days, all of which have helped me explore things and to evolve as an artist and teacher. I guess it’s safe to say I now have some of my own views, which he might or might not completely agree with, but I think that’s OK, isn’t it?

At the master class the other day, one of your students performed Liszt’s Rhapsodie Espagnole, not exactly “Fleisher” territory. Yet he managed to give a lot of himself.

Yes, that’s a common belief…but then again, why not Liszt, I ask? Fleisher is not one of those teachers who limit themselves to a certain set repertoire they are comfortable with. I have found that he often gives some of his best lessons on repertoire he does not normally play. When something’s new and it’s exciting for him, I think it gets his mind probing even more. Besides, there are always things like rhythm, line and texture in every piece, aspects which he loves to talk about whether it’s the first or hundredth time he’s taught a piece. It’s all about looking at something anew and making sense out of it; and that’s only one of the reasons he is so magnificent.

And…don’t forget that Fleisher made one of the greatest recordings ever of Liszt’s B minor Sonata [on Columbia Masterworks – yet to be reissued]. I had also studied Liszt (Venezia e Napoli) with him while at Peabody, so he was certainly open to such music, and our duo also studied the composer’s Reminiscences de Don Juan for Two pianos, which (alongside warhorses like Ravel’s La Valse ) became one of Hecht & Shapiro’s “signature” concert pieces.

Fleisher with his musical "child"

Thomas Hecht and musical "grandchildren"

Abigail Sin, Akkra Yeunyonghattaporn

& Nattapol Tantikarn (from L to R).

Are you still finding inspiration from him?

Oh, yes..and how! The master classes he just gave for us at YST will be forever cherished in my heart. All the things he said here were like taking a whole supplement of musical vitamins again. And it was really wonderful to see him work with my students - his musical “grandchildren.”

A few years back when I was preparing the Brahms D minor Piano Concerto for the Esplanade performance with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra, I flew all the way to New York City just to play for him at Steinway Hall, where they arranged a special room for us. He accompanied me on second piano and the whole experience was simply thrilling. And then to think I finally heard him play this same Brahms -after all the years of waiting - at Carnegie Hall in 2008. WOW!

Indeed, after all these years, I find that his message has been amazingly consistent. This is his vision. What he gives to people is the great gift of his energy, which at 80 is still incredible. I still remember that after most lessons with him I usually scheduled a game of racquetball with a friend because it was the only way I could stop from bouncing off the walls myself!

LEON FLEISHER WITH THE CONSERVATORY ORCHESTRA / Review

LEON FLEISHER 

WITH THE
CONSERVATORY ORCHESTRA
Conservatory 

Concert Hall
Saturday 

(14 March 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 March 2009.

American pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher’s week-long residence at the Conservatory as its Ong Teng Cheong Distinguished Visiting Professor culminated with a concert in which he fulfilled both musical roles. Conducting was an activity nurtured during his years away from active piano concertising, brought on by the affliction of focal dystonia.

Fine motor control, a pre-requisite in piano playing, gave way to the broad gestures of the maestro’s baton. These he exercised with great vision and purpose. The opening punched out chords of Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture – clean and resolute – showed who was in charge. Through his hands, the Roman consul’s inner turmoil and rage, portrayed by the music’s tug-of-war between tension and relaxation that followed, was also laid bare.

Conductor turned soloist in Mozart’s Double Piano Concerto in F major (K.242, sometimes performed in its 3-piano version) where Fleisher was joined by wife and former student Katherine Jacobson. Combining both roles without much fuss, the chemistry displayed on two keyboards and a pared-down orchestra was immediately palpable. Blinding brilliance was sacrificed for intimacy, as the warmth of exquisite chamber music-making reigned supreme.

Both pianos, voiced to an altogether mellow perfection, sang as one. This was no better demonstrated in the slow movement, which passed like a dream. The finale sounded almost over fastidious but was dance-like in its simplicity. Those who favour fireworks will be advised to check Mozart’s directions – not Allegro assai but Tempo di Menuetto!

Kent Ridge regulars will already be familiar with this orchestra’s undoubted prowess. Add responsiveness to its long list of positive attributes. With Fleisher’s guiding hand, it scaled the heights and furrowed the troughs of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, carving out a totally memorable reading.

This was a performance that eschewed heart-on-sleeve emotions (unlike the SSO’s recent recording) for greater objectivity. The opening was expansive but well-supported, and could have done with greater contrasts when the Allegro moderato arrived. No fear about the Dies Irae-inspired Scherzo, which bristled to tempestuous life unapologetically.

The slow movement, a final efflorescence of Romantic gestures (this being 1908), highlighted many wonderful solos, pride of place going to the clarinet, with its Mozart-like lyricism. The finale’s procession of surging climaxes brought the succession emotional highs to a highly satisfying close. Can the listener expect more? Most definitely, and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique awaits.

Leon Fleisher Masterclass @ Yong Siew Toh Conservatory

LEON FLEISHER MASTERCLASS
Tuesday evening, 10 March 2009

The octogenarian American pianist Leon Fleisher gave two masterclasses at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. The first class on Tuesday was greeted by a sizeable audience and its two and a half hours passed ever so swiftly. All photos by Jonathan Wong.

First up was Abigail Sin (Singapore) who gave a very clear-headed and accomplished performance of Bach’s Toccata in C minor (BWV.911), one which showed much awareness of its contrapuntal possibilities.

Fleisher gave the first poser, “Do you have any questions, doubts or frustrations?” which came unexpectedly. About the work’s introduction, a recitative on the right hand, he looked for simplicity in response to its declamatory and rhetorical character. He felt it could have been more direct and played less fast, and there was no need to find variety so soon in the piece. Also, he gave more emphasis to the off-note, while playing down the need to find extra voices when these were not written. He played the entire passage with his left hand and did so quite perfectly too!

In Baroque music, he felt that the temptation to introduce Romantic devices should be resisted, remarking that people often “got tired of simplicity and injected their own neuroses” to the music. On the fugal subject, he observed syncopations to be special events, and deserved to be supported, that is to linger that slight bit longer on the held note. He also helped Abigail shape the voice of the theme, so that it sounded less literal and less metronomic.

In the reprise of the fugue theme with the right hand decoration, he reiterated the importance of these extra notes as a means of variation. For a very short while, he also rested his hands on Abigail’s shoulders and the top of her head, indicating “don’t move excessively!” There is enough in the music for the pianist not to respond physically. So keep it simple, was his message.

The burly Akkra Yeunyonghattaporn (Thailand) played the first movement of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto in C minor (Op.37), accompanied by his teacher Thomas Hecht on second piano. It was big and blustery, as expected, but one filled with unusual sensitivity as well.

At the first instance, Fleisher reminded the young virtuoso to always acknowledge his orchestra ie. the accompanist. He described performing to be a complex activity. A musician is three persons at once: the first plans the performance in advance, the second does the playing, and the third listens and judges, and tells the second how to attain the goals of the first. This was according to him, an “ideal state of schizophrenia”, combining a microcosm (the purpose of each note) and a macrocosm (the grand vision of the work, from the first note to the last).

About the performance, he wanted the pianist’s entry to be more than just scales, a mini-eruption if possible. He gave the analogy of fast-acting yeasts, and how they achieve a rising quality immediately. On the scintillating descending arpeggio passage, he thought it could be achieved with one hand. “You’re too good a pianist to do it with two hands!” he joked, quite seriously. Again, he exhorted the young person to experience the music inside him, and not to be “physically active”.

Fleisher brought up the association between music and mathematics. He felt music to be closer aligned with physics – direction, forces and momentum – especially with its irresistible and inexorable drive. Thus, even a simple scale should not sound like a flat typewriter but rather a force that swells, and “takes the listener by the lapels”. He also noted that pianists are at an enormous disadvantage compared with their string and wind counterparts. They need to constantly create and recreate the illusion of continuity with their instrument. Finally, he discussed pedalling and the effect of senza sordino (without dampers), which he concludes to be with the sustaining pedal after all. He however warned that this effect “offends certain people, mostly Republicans.”

The third pianist to perform was Nattapol Tantikarn (Thailand), whose choice of Liszt’s Rhapsodie Espagnole seemed like a self-indulgent one. One wondered what Fleisher might have to say. What is there to be gained by bringing Balakirev’s Islamey to Arthur Schnabel, for example?

Fleisher, impressed by the flashy pianism, quipped, “That was a lot of piano playing,” and went on to help the young man work on his colour. “Silence, or air space, is often underestimated” he added and got him to take his foot off the right pedal. The effect was startling, as the amorphous mass of sonority had become so much better defined. Finding the right accents and effects amid the dotted rhythms also helped to make Folies d’Espagnole sound more orchestral. As to achieve pianissimo, Fleisher questioned him about not using the middle (sotto voce) pedal. “Why?” he asked. About Spanish music, Fleisher advised him not to be too sentimental as the “Spanish danced with straight backs”, adding that “bullfights were a ritual of blood and sand.”

Fleisher finally described music to be “a horizontal activity with vertical events”, and all musical activity to be “an adventure in anti-gravity”. He emphasised the need for a lift or a spring forward after the keys have been played, and not “hammering coffin nails”. He also asked the pianist to “go for a direct ending”, that is to be off the stool and off the stage before the sound dies out. With that, he leapt off his seat - to the appreciative applause from all who attended.

Leon Fleisher's Two Latest Recordings / Review

Two Hands (ATM CD 1551, recorded in 2004) is a total revelation. The programme is an unusually eloquent one, with a deliberate and conspicuous lack of barnstorming. The Bach transcriptions Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (Myra Hess) and Sheep May Safely Graze (Egon Petri) are beautifully rendered, coming to a full fruition of cantabile in the two night pieces, Chopin’s Nocturne (Op.27 No.2) and Debussy’s Clair de lune, both in the magical key of D flat major. In between these: a Scarlatti Sonata (E major, K.380) and Chopin Mazurka (C sharp minor, Op.50 no.3) are both gorgeously shaded.

All these merely whet the appetite for the main course, a glorious reading of Schubert’s final Sonata in B flat major (D.960). Time stands still in the opening Molto moderato, and even with the exposition repeat, there is much to savour in its seamless longeurs. The same goes for the meditative Andante sostenuto slow movement, with its stormy central interlude providing bold contrasts. The faster third and fourth movements breeze through almost effortlessly, and closing with one almighty sweep. One wonders how the musical world had coped with Fleisher’s nearly 40-year hiatus from this repertoire. This is a wonderful album to treasure and listen over and over.

The Journey (ATM CD 1796, recorded in 2005) is marginally less successful. The programme includes works Fleisher had planned to perform and record in the 1960s but curtailed by his right hand affliction. Bach’s Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother (BWV. 992), his only programmatic keyboard piece, and the “Traumatic” Fantasy & Fugue (BWV. 903, as Fleisher cheekily nicknamed) reveal a near-complete rehabilitation in overcoming fast and tricky passages. His mastery of counterpoint in the fugues comes close to perfection.

Mozart’s Sonata in E flat major (K.282) is two thirds successful; the opening Adagio and Minuets are sheer poetry, but the Allegro finale tends to rush fences somewhat unnecessarily. Could this be an over-compensatory measure on the part of the right hand? Chopin’s Berceuse (another gem in D flat major) follows on the successes of the earlier disc. Stravinsky’s Serenade en la was an unusual but symmetrically apt neo-Baroque choice; lots of Bachian counterpoint and figurations, but coming through with great clarity. After all this, Beethoven’s children’s favourite Fur Elise may seem almost a non sequitur, but one believes there may be far more to this selection. The first ever 2-handed work by a major composer he played as a child?

An interview with Bob Edwards comes as a bonus. Fleisher speaks ever so candidly (and modestly), and is full of humour. Revealing that he has not been cured of focal dystonia, but merely recovering, there was no bitterness to be had in his long but brave struggle. That only opened doors to new opportunities and experiences in life.