Leon Fleisher has died? This is the first I heard.
Thank you for saying something.
In my mind, where information about classical musicians
is several decades behind the times,
I always lump together
Leon Fleisher and Gary Graffman.
They both struggled with disabilities.
I remember for some reason
that Fleisher got THAT surgery done,
and Graffman did without it.
But I ought to look it up,
as I could be mistaken.

Then there was poor Byron Janis, whom I remember seeing,
as a teenager going to symphony concerts,
on the piano concerto circuit.
He battled arthritis, if I remember right.
How he struggled in performance!
He tried to literally muscle his way through the disability,
and I remember him attacking the keyboard with ferocity and something like desperation.
And I recall thinking,
if this is what the piano concerto circuit is like for a pianist,
then carry on without me,
because I'm too lazy to work that hard!