Great Performers: John Ogdon
Moments after John Ogdon began his first-round recital at the 1962 Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition, it became crystal clear that this 25-year-old British contestant had a major voice. Certainly he didn't look like a piano superstar in the making, with his huge gait, dishevelled appearance, introverted demeanor and awkward social graces. Yet his undeniable gifts made themselves felt, and ultimately compelled the jury to award Ogdon one of two Gold Medals, the other going to Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Read more…Ogdon's victory accelerated the course of an already promising career tenfold. He toured relentlessly and recorded prolifically throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. However, the spectre of mental illness gradually manifested itself, seriously threatening Ogdon's artistry and career, to say nothing of his basic health and well-being. Ogdon made no secret of his illness and long road to recovery, outlined in frank detail in several books and documentaries.
Born in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire on 27 January 1937, John Andrew Howard Ogdon, Jr. displayed remarkable musical gifts from childhood. Between the ages of ten and 16, he essentially taught himself by reading through and memorizing huge quantities of sheet music; indeed, his sight-reading abilities were legendary. In 1953 he went to the Royal College of Music in Manchester, befriending budding composers like Peter Maxwell Davies and Alexander Goehr, and meeting his future wife and piano duo partner Brenda Lucas. Among the many awards bestowed on the young Ogdon was a fellowship to study with Egon Petri, Ferruccio Busoni's most prominent disciple. Ogdon shared Petri's predilection for big programmes and his affinity for the repertoire's large-scale pillars: Liszt's Transcendental Etudes, Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata, the works of Alkan, and Busoni's mammoth-sized Piano Concerto.
At times, however, Ogdon spread his gifts too thin, relying on his tremendous facility to get through a concert or a recording session. He frequently was called upon to be a last-minute substitute for indisposed pianists, many less known than himself, and he rarely turned down an engagement. Ogdon's inability to say "no" led to promoters and producers taking him for granted. Yet Ogdon himself instigated numerous other projects, while finding the time to compose more than 200 works, including four operas, two piano concertos, numerous piano and chamber scores, and more than 50 solo piano transcriptions based on composers ranging from Palestrina to Cole Porter.
Ogdon's illness, treatment, recovery and subsequent return to the platform yielded variable artistic results during his final decade, although he still undertook programs that one critic described as "recklessly demanding in content and order". And during recording sessions for Sorabji's five-hour long 'Opus Clavicembalisticum', Ogdon warmed up with nothing less than Busoni's half-hour 'Fantasia Contrappuntistica'. He died suddenly and unexpectedly on 1 August 1989, aged just 52, after a brief bout with pneumonia, aggravated by undiagnosed diabetes.
Looking back at his mercurial career, one can marvel at Ogdon's high level of achievement in a wide and eclectic range of composers. Yet he is likely to be remembered above all for the risks and rewards he experienced while exploring beyond the core piano repertoire's safety net.
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