Leon Fleisher: there's much more to the US pianist's career than tragedy | Martin Kettle

The 92-year-old, who died this week, is remembered for his eventual return after losing the use of his right hand aged 36 – but forgetting his masterful early recordings and inspiring work as a teacher is to do him a great disservice

Some may be tempted to describe the career of Leon Fleisher, the American concert pianist who died in Baltimore this week aged 92, as a deeply poignant one, and even as a tragedy. But that would be a huge misreading of his story.

Even so, there was indeed a tragic dimension to Fleisher’s long life. A child prodigy pianist and a pupil of one of the greatest of all keyboard masters, Fleisher had already climbed to the international pianistic heights when, in 1964, he found that the fourth and fifth fingers of his right hand were involuntarily curling up.

Related: Leon Fleisher, US pianist who lost use of his right hand, dies aged 92

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