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Tyler Hay JOHN OGDON 1937-1989 John Ogdon Was One of the Great Musical Geniuses of the 20Th Century

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Tyler Hay JOHN OGDON 1937-1989 John Ogdon Was One of the Great Musical Geniuses of the 20Th Century OGDON ORIGINAL PIANO WORKS Tyler Hay JOHN OGDON 1937-1989 John Ogdon was one of the great musical geniuses of the 20th century. His astonishing career on the concert platform saw him become one of ORIGINAL PIANO WORKS the world’s most popular pianists after winning joint 1st prize in the 1962 Sonata International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. Away from his life as a “Dedicated to my friend Stephen Bishop” pianist, he was privately a very passionate composer throughout his career 1. Allegro 7’15 and despite his extremely heavy concert schedule, managed to write 2. Andante 11’49 approximately two hundred works. Aside from a large number of piano 3. Allegro Energico 5’49 works, these include a string quartet, two piano concertos, an oratorio, a cantata, a brass quintet, four operas and solo sonatas for flute, violin and 4. Ballade 10’06 cello. Despite a small handful of works that were published during his lifetime, Kaleidoscope No.1 (6 Caprices) the rest of Ogdon’s manuscripts have remained almost entirely unexplored. 5. Scherzo Brillante 1’58 During his time studying at the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1953- 6. Prelude and Fugue in D Major 3’07 1957, he received composition lessons from Thomas Pitfield and Richard Hall. 7. Study in Compound Intervals 2’17 Ogdon’s keen interest in popularizing some of the contemporary music of the 8. Barcarolle 1’29 day saw him become one of the founding members of the group New Music 9. A Winter’s Day 1’27 Manchester and it was at this time that he became heavily influenced by his 10. Prelude and Fugue on a theme composer companions Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goher and Harrison by Harry Birtwistle 3’51 Birtwistle. Another of his primary influences as a student was the pianist and 11. Variations and Fugue 16’52 composer Ronald Stevenson. Due to his pianistic ambitions, composition was always an unfocused Tyler Hay piano pastime to John Ogdon and it is perhaps the reason why his writing style is sporadic and difficult to define. It is arguable that his best work was produced in the late 1950’s and 60’s before his infamous breakdown and they display a rather neo-romantic style, contrary to the avant-garde atonality written by most of his Manchester contemporaries. He constructed his compositions using a kaleidoscopic collage technique that throws around ideas in a potpourri of interesting colours and contrasts. Despite enormous Recording: 28/29 June 2017, Westvest Church Schiedam, The Netherlands Producer: Pieter van Winkel Engineer: Peter Arts Piano: Steinway D, tuner: Charles Rademaker Cover/inlay: painting of John Ogdon by N. Hendel. Photographer: Joanna Hudson The copyright of the music is owned by Mrs. Brenda Ogdon, who gave the kind permission for this recording p & c 2018 Piano Classics Piano Classics is a trade name of Brilliant Classics technical complexities, the piano writing is also wonderfully idiomatic and left hand with a new ostinato motif in the right hand. It is not until later on gives tremendous insight into the geographical facility of one of history’s in the theme where the dynamic momentarily comes down to Piano in the most renowned piano techniques. Ogdon’s gifts as a piano composer in left hand and stays at Mezzo Forte in the right, where we realize that the the romantic tradition relate back to his lifelong admiration for composers composer is deliberately irritating us with this penetrating ostinato. This is a such as Liszt, Alkan, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and Busoni. In 1943, he even unique character with which to open a large scale work. In the middle of this introduced himself as “John Rachmaninoff Ogdon” to his first piano teacher. movement, Ogdon shows off his ability as a contrapuntalist combining new John Ogdon always remained a very unassuming and humble musician and melodic material with old which builds to a Fortissimo climax in block chords. he rarely gave any of his works a public outing. We are fortunate enough to The density of the texture then peters out quickly, preparing us for some have several studio recordings of works played by the composer including his of the strangeness heard at the end of the second movement. After this magnificent Piano Concerto no 1, played for the last time in 1987 to celebrate reflective passage, the movement then comes to a close with the same four- Ogdon’s 50th birthday at the Royal Festival Hall. This recording presents the note ostinato with which it began and Ogdon uses this to keep the music four most important solo piano works from John Ogdon’s early years as a suspended in the air. composer. Like crystals sparking in light, this musically complex movement opens “I do enjoy composing, especially for the piano – I look on composing as a with a melodic theme disguised in a series of trills in the top register. A hobby that I enjoy. I devote myself more to playing and treat composition as more intricate counter melody is then introduced and it is hereafter that a spare time thing.” (JO) the movement develops into a long series of characters and uninterrupted variations on this thematic material. Ogdon uses this movement as an Sonata dedicated to my friend Stephen Bishop opportunity to experiment with tonality and perhaps the highlight is a Ogdon’s biggest piano sonata was produced in 1961 and despite never climactic chordal section in D flat Major, shortly after the opening and having been played by the dedicatee, it is one of the few works we have proceeded by counterpoint constructed using an Arabian mode. The tonality recorded by the composer himself. It is a conventionally structured sonata becomes harsher as the movement develops but then the music takes in three movements, the longest being the second and the piece displays another turn as it moves into a noble chorale in B flat Major. At the latter end an enormous variety of pianistic effects and textures as well as inventive of the movement, the composer writes an extended passage in the lowest melodic writing throughout. register of the instrument. He masks the melodic material with clusters and it This understated first movement begins with an arresting four-note is difficult to even hear the pitches. It is a murky and disturbing passage that ostinato that Ogdon uses to create a vague sense of inter-movement unity gives a totally new character to the same series of trills heard in the opening. over the course of the whole structure. The main theme then follows in the Movements one and two of this sonata have heavy influences from Michael Tippett but this Finale is a tour de force written more in the style of Kaleidoscope 1 – 6 Caprices Prokofiev. We finally hear the four-note ostinato coming back to start and The 6 Caprices make up the first of twelve sets of “Kaleidoscope” composed finish this movement, bringing the sonata full circle. The highlight is towards by Ogdon. On the title page of this set, he stuck a dictionary definition of the end of the movement when a sudden strident march powers through the word kaleidoscope. Other works in this unique genre include a set of ten in heavily dissonant 2nds. It is one of Ogdon’s most technically demanding Short Sonatas and a set of pieces in Homage to Britain’s Composers. This pieces for the piano and the octave glissando is an exciting way to close a set was written and put together between 1967 and 1970 and was given a great and underrated sonata. revision later in 1988. The manuscript is littered with large crossings out, “Most theologies admit the existence of the devil, who is not absent from perhaps when the composer’s confidence was at a low ebb. He later went the Finale of my Sonata.” (JO) back to the score and wrote the word “stet” as an indication to replace what had previously been omitted. However, he did maintain some changes to Ballade the original, including a complete reworking of the ending to the Prelude We are not aware of the composer ever having performed his 1969 Ballade and Fugue on a theme by Harry Birtwistle and the title of the fifth piece, but it is a work that featured heavily in the repertoire of his wife Brenda A Winter’s Day, which was originally named Snowflakes. This is perhaps Lucas Ogdon, long after John Ogdon died in 1989. One may expect a the most striking piece in the set because of its simplicity and along with dramatic structure for a ballade however this piece maintains its mysterious the Barcarolle, certainly foreshadows Ogdon’s later style which was more quality and contemplativeness. It opens with a Moderato Funebre in C minor impressionistic and understated. The two Preludes and Fugues are the most but then moves into the sound world of bitonality. The rest of the piece substantial pieces in the set, once again displaying Ogdon’s ability to weave thereafter is constructed using one key for the right hand and a different his ideas contrapuntally. The opening Scherzo Brillante is merely an exciting key for the left. Ogdon very successfully creates a varied array of colors showpiece written with the virtuoso pianist in mind while the delightfully using this technique. An intimate Adagio in the center of the work presents melodic Study in Compound Intervals, exercises the pianist’s ability to play beautiful lines in conversation with one another, resembling solo string large leaps with accuracy. instruments. The music works up to an impassioned climax towards the end but it does not last long enough to alter the magical character of the piece.
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