John Ogdon: Views?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

how many discs does that Sorabji take up, out of interest?

Four, mercia:

http://www.co.uk/clavicembalisticum-Ogdon-Kaikhosru-Shapurji-Sorabji/dp/B000003IYD

Hmm: the link doesn't seem to link. But the set is available from Amazon & presumably other such outlets.

Best Wishes.

[Mandryka]

The 4CD 70th Anniversary set (which I have obtained for a mere £5.99) contains several of JO's own attempts at composition. His Piano Concerto is....interesting.

It also includes a Bartok 1st PC, in which JO is improbably paired with Malcolm Sargent!

[salymap]

The 4CD 70th Anniversary set (which I have obtained for a mere £5.99) contains several of JO's own attempts at composition. His Piano Concerto is....interesting.

It also includes a Bartok 1st PC, in which JO is improbably paired with Malcolm Sargent!

I don't see why you think that odd Mandryka. From way back in the 1930s, Sargent was often the chosen conductor to accompany Heifetz, Curzon, Schnabel and many others in their concerto recordings.

[umslopogaas]

Sorry to hear that he is becoming forgotten, the time was (1960s/early 70s), when he had plenty of recordings in the catalogue. I have 26 discs by Ogden (some in duos with Brenda Lucas):

Beethoven Sonata 29 RCA
" Piano vars (2 LP set) HMV
Busoni pc (2 LP set) HMV
Elgar piano quintet HMV
Glazunov pc HMV
Mendelssohn pcs 1,2 HMV
Mennin pc RCA
Nielsen misc. piano music RCA
Rachmaninov pc 2 HMV
Rawsthorne Ballades HMV
Scott pc 2 Lyrita
Shostakovich pc 2 HMV
Tippett pc BBC Transcription Service
Chopin Scherzo 3 etc HMV
Lizst Don Juan etc HMV
Scott pc 1 Lyrita
Scriabin 24 preludes HMV
Shostakovich pc 1 Argo
Tippett pc HMV
Debussy Petite Suite (+ Lucas) HMV
Lizst Conc. Path. (+ Lucas) Argo
Mendelssohn conc. 2 pianos (+ Lucas) Argo
Messiaen Visions de l'Amen (+ Lucas) Argo
Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals (+ Lucas) HMV

I dont know how many of these made it to the current CD catalogue: not many, by the sound of it. For me, the one that really stands out is the Busoni concerto.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I don't see why you think that odd Mandryka. From way back in the 1930s, Sargent was often the chosen conductor to accompany Heifetz, Curzon, Schnabel and many others in their concerto recordings.

I think Mandy was referring more to the repertoire (Bartok not often in Sargent's repertoire) than Sargent's competence as an "accompanist", sals.

[salymap]

I think Mandy was referring more to the repertoire (Bartok not often in Sargent's repertoire) than Sargent's competence as an "accompanist", sals.

Morning fhg. Well, he seemed to play a lot of Bartok when I went to his concerts. He played the Concerto for orchestra a lot and most of the concerti, as I remember. I don't think he went as far as Bluebeard though,

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Morning sals. Thanks for this information; I never knew Sargent had Bartok in his repertoire - you learn something new every day. (Some of it, as in this case, useful! )

[amateur51]

The 4CD 70th Anniversary set (which I have obtained for a mere £5.99) contains several of JO's own attempts at composition. His Piano Concerto is....interesting.

It also includes a Bartok 1st PC, in which JO is improbably paired with Malcolm Sargent!

You do jump in with both feet, Mandy!

[salymap]

Morning sals. Thanks for this information; I never knew Sargent had Bartok in his repertoire - you learn something new every day. (Some of it, as in this case, useful! )

Just looking at the Prom Archive [You DO have that I hope] Sargent conducted the first PC with Hepzhibah Menuhin and the following year with Andor Foldes, c1959/60. Lunch needs attention but lots more there. sals

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Quite so, sals: twelve Proms performances of six different works. or as you choose!

Best Wishes.

[salymap]

Quite so, sals: twelve Proms performances of six different works. or as you choose!

Best Wishes.

Sorry back pain makes me lose my soh. best wishes, sals. Bubbly please

[Serial_Apologist]

He was also a phenomenal sight reader. I remember a programme on TV about JO in which, sitting at an upright, he explained that music just went automatically from the page to his fingers.

And of course he was a member of the Manchester School of musicians and especialy composers in the 1950s/'60s, known more as a phenomenal performer and sight reader than for his compositions - Alexander Goehr described him as more of a Busonian than was "aesthetically current", so to speak. That would account for his thunderously powerful interpretations as much as his choice of materials for performance (when he was given that choice), and I well remember being bowled over by my first encounter with his playing in mid-'60s broadcasts of, among other things, the Bartok PC No 3, "Canteyodjaya" and two pieces from the "Vingt Regards" by Messiaen, which were my astonished intro to this composer. I love that story of Goehr's from the Manchester days, when he, and presumably Birtwistle and Maxwell Davies, were puzzling over a score of the second Boulez piano sonata. In walks Ogdon exclaiming, "Aha! - what have we here?" - whereupon he sits down at the piano and sight reads his way through the piece with nonchalant ease and fluency.

I bought the "Pianistic Philosophies" boxed set of 5 LPs at the time of its release, 1974: an odd assortment of works until one considers Goehr's Busonian ascription:

Yardumian: Chromatic Sonata; Armenian Suite; 3 preludes; Prelude and Chorale; Dance
Ogdon: Sonata
Lloyd: An African Shrine
Dukas: Sonata in E flat minor
Dutilleux: Sonata
Schmitt: Mirages
Messiaen: Canteyodjaya
Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No 2 Op 38 (composer's transcription - w Lucas)
Williamson: Sonata for 2 pianos (w Lucas)
Britten: Mazurka Elegiaca; Introduction and Rondo Alla Burlesca (w Lucas)

S-A

[johnb]

I remember the day when, in my mid teens, the young music teacher walked into the class at school and announced "John Ogdon has jointly won the Tchaikovsky Competition". I had never heard of JO before but the music teacher was so enthusiastic about his playing that I became very curious indeed. (The teacher was David Ellis who had been at the RMCM at the same time as Ogdon, etc and was himself a composer who later became a BBC music producer based in Manchester.)

[Mandryka]

I'm currently on my second listen to the JO 70th Anniversary Edition (which should be in the Bargains thread - a £5.99 from amazon it is, to use a phrase I try to avoid, a no-brainer) and I'm sold! This guy could really work miracles of sound on a keyboard. Some very unusual repertoire, too. I'm now very keen to hear his Busoni Concerto.

[Don Petter]

The 4CD 70th Anniversary set (which I have obtained for a mere £5.99) contains several of JO's own attempts at composition. His Piano Concerto is....interesting.

I had forgotten that he also composed, until I turned up my copy of the Gamut CD of Brenda Lucas playing some of his compositions. (See my post on the 'Unissued' Recordings thread for the story of its acquisition.)

This includes:

Five Preludes (dedicated to Denis Matthews)
Sonatina (To Brenda)
Piano Sonata No.4, 'An American Sonata' (dedicated to Brenda)
Twenty Five Preludes