Today, if you would only hear His Voice…

My sound track today. So much to love about this performance. Leon Fleisher was once called the "greatest pianistic find of the 20th century." While touring the Soviet Union, as a young man, he began to notice that his 4th and 5th finger on his right hand were curling up uncontrollably and eventually clenched permanently in a fist. He was eventually diagnosed with focal dystonia. He lost use of his right hand. But he persisted. He didn't give up. While he searched for a cure, he became the foremost performer of the left-hand only repertoire, a conductor and a renowned teacher at Curtis, Peabody, & Tanglewood. Thirty years later, he regained use of his right hand through Botox injections (you can see the struggle in his pinky). 

This is a piano transcription of the Bach Cantata, BWV 208, Aria, Schafe können sicker weiden, translated, "Sheep may Safely Graze" (Ps 23). This is Bach's response to the chaos and brokenness of the world. I find this arrangement deeply comforting. "Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would only hear His voice..."