by Moritz von Bredow ,Hamburg, April 21, 2025
John Leech – 100 years
John Leech, MBE, was born Hans Joachim David Baron von Reitzenstein in Potsdam on April 21, 1925. We are remembering him,
celebrating his 100th birthday today. My dear, revered friend John represented for me in every respect the ideal synthesis of a nobleman guided by Prussian virtues and a true English gentleman. Coming from ancient Franconian nobility on his father’s side (his father died when John was just 10 years old), and from a Jewish family on his mother’s side (his mother was later able to flee to England), he never forgot his origins and yet fully integrated himself into his new life after his escape to the
UK in 1939. John’s life of nearly a hundred years was undoubtedly based on his Christian faith which he shared with Noretta Conci, a student of Michelangenli’s, his beloved wife of over 60 years – how unforgettable was their Diamond Wedding celebration in January 2023! Their faith guided both of them throughout until
John’s very end on November 22, 2024.
A great and unwavering support for Noretta and John as well as for the Keyboard Trust’s work in the United States comes through John’s daughter from his first marriage, Caroline von Reitzenstein. She and her son Paris Ionescu, whom we dearly remember after his untimely death, were an integral part of Noretta’s and
John’s family life.
The virtues that distinguished John were above all his unwavering human integrity and strength of character, his modesty and kindness, his great sense of justice, his self-discipline, his conscientiousness, his personal restraint and his never-ending philanthropy. John, the gentleman, was an extraordinary personality of the highest humanistic and political education, fluent in several languages, extremely polite and always
full of the desire to do good.
The latter runs like a thread through John’s life – doing good, be it professionally in his decades- long work for the Commonwealth Development Corporation, or later as founder and spiritus rector of the international piano foundation The Keyboard Charitable Trust, his gift to Noretta on
the occasion of her 60th birthday in 1991. Noretta and John, the living souls of the Keyboard Trust, were able to combine their love of music and their love of humanity with the conviction of wanting to promote young pianists in a wonderful, selfless and highly successful way. In this way, both of them became not only my closest friends, but also great, obliging role models – my gratitude cannot be expressed in words
It is precisely in the deep connection between Noretta and John that the power of true, lived love, which extends far beyond death, becomes
clear:
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it. […] O Spirit of love! How quick and fresh art thou! […]. (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night I, 1)
We are standing before you, dearest John, bowing our heads in gratitude, love, and with fondest memories. May your legacy live, and may you be listening with joy to all the young pianists’ astonishing gift of music. And may your love for Noretta, as hers for you, always shine.
Happy, happy 100th birthday, dearest John!
And all our love to you, dearest Noretta!
(Moritz von Bredow, Hamburg, April 21, 2025)
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 