Zbyněk Sklenský

The performer's personality, Schubert's arrangements and stage fright in an interview with Benjamin Tinto. David Leisner on confidence in preparation, attention on stage and music as a refuge in life.

A musician doesn't have to be a copy of his teacher, and a concert doesn't have to be a continuous test of self-worth. In an interview with Benjamin Tinto, David Leisner discusses individuality, composition, Schubert arrangements and stage fright. Focal dystonia is not dealt with in detail here. Still, I find important connections in his words for anyone whose relationship with gaming has been disrupted by insecurity.

The teacher is not to make his own copies

Leisner wants the student's personality to enter the resulting music. This does not mean giving up on the composer's text. According to him, the performer recreates the form of an already written work, and his own imagination meets concrete commitments to the composition. The difference between two good players does not have to prove that one of them did not understand the single correct answer.

For me, there is a valuable balance between responsibility and freedom. The same color, gesture or fingering may not suit different people. The teacher can offer the means to search without deciding in advance exactly what the resulting person must sound like.

Composing also without a guitar in hand

As a composer, Leisner also works at the table or at the piano. He doesn't want the usual feel of the hand to predetermine all his musical ideas. Of course, the tool is then used to verify whether the intended solution can be implemented.

I am also interested in this distinction between imagination and verification outside of composing. When musical thinking is permanently tied to what the fingers will most reliably play, it easily becomes narrow. Listening, singing, knowing the form or talking about the character of a composition can remain a real musical work even in a period of physical limitation. This is my practical conclusion, not Leisner's treatment instruction.

Schubert and the art of subtraction

In his arrangements of Schubert's music, Leisner addresses another kind of limitation: the guitar cannot take over all the possibilities of the piano without thought. He talks about a gradual reduction, during which the musical essence must be preserved. The goal is not to play as many original notes as possible at the cost of a lost phrase and a clumsy result.

For the Arpeggione Sonatas he arranged the piano part for the guitar; the melodic line is taken over by the cello, in his collaboration with Zuille Bailey. It is important not to confuse these roles. The second great example is the song cycle Die schöne Müllerin, on which he collaborated with baritone Michael Kelly.

According to his interpretation, the convincing arrangement should stand up as live music in a new cast. A guitar is not an imperfect piano; it offers its own reverberation, colors and intimacy. Deciding what to keep and what to drop requires a deep understanding of the piece, not just a note conversion.

Shock stage and the inner reviewer

Concert nervousness is a big part of the conversation. Leisner describes how a player can be distracted by what the audience thinks of him. Instead of communicating something, he listens to a running review in his head. Every detail then turns into a stimulus for further evaluation.

His answer is directed to the musical task at hand and to giving. On stage, the music is meant for the audience. At the same time, trusting in learned movements does not have to mean mindless playing: you can let the prepared mechanisms work and at the same time create a live phrase. Disconnecting from the music and unnecessary control of every detail are not the only two options.

The very ban of error is a poor musical intention. An idea of where the phrase is going, what mood it has or how the tone should continue will tell more. It doesn't mean that a concertgoer can turn off anxiety simply by changing their thoughts. It is a direction of working with attention that can be gradually explored.

Whose story are we listening to

In this part, the presenter Benjamin Tint also tells his own incident with the incorrect use of a medicine for stage fright. It is not Leisner's experience or a dosage guide. I consider it important to maintain this distinction: a conversation about the psyche of the performance does not justify a change in the prescribed treatment.

In the same way, it cannot be deduced from the topic of stage fright that focal dystonia is just nervousness in front of an audience. The episode gives no such explanation. I see its contribution in understanding the musical experience, not in an additional diagnosis according to the nature of the player.

The hand belongs to the whole person

Leisner returns to the broader anatomical context of play. The gentle movement of the hand has support in other parts of the body; it cannot be well understood just by the appearance of the fingertips. At the same time, it highlights the differences between players. Imitating a striking element of the technique of an admired performer does not mean taking over all the conditions in which it works.

For readers with FD, I derive from this a useful topic for professional consultation: what does a specific task look like in relation to support, attention and musical intention? It is not an obligation to force the body into a universal pose. Even this time, I am not compiling instructions from the interview that should replace examination and individual work.

Music as a safe place

In the end, Leisner also talks about music as a refuge in difficult life circumstances. Her importance for him does not begin with professional success. This closes the whole conversation in a much more personal way: a person is not just a collection of performances that he can perform.

It is this idea that I want to keep. We don't have to wait for perfect technique, a flawless concert or the resolution of all health problems to stay in touch with music. The method of contact can change, but its value does not automatically disappear.

Points of reference in the transcript: 00:00 student's individuality; 08:22 composing; 10:54 Schubert arrangements; 18:46 stage fright; 32:00 whole body; 39:00 music as life support.

Conversation source

Podcast: The Lone Guitarist.
Episode: David Leisner.
Moderator: Benjamin Tint.
Guest: David Leisner.
Issued: 2022-08-04 at 01:26:23 UTC.
Platform of the delivered material: Apple Podcasts.
Listen and Show Details: The Lone Guitarist - Official Episode Page.
Background: supplied English transcript 03 - David-Leisner(1).txt. Apparent automatic name and title recognition errors are editorially corrected; this article is a thematic elaboration, not a literal translation.

Podcast and date are verified against the content of the interview and the official RSS feed; in the supplied header, the data of the two interviews were interchanged.

Another direct source: David Leisner: the book Playing with Ease. Personal experiences and pedagogical opinions in the interview are not a universal treatment for focal dystonia.