John Ogdon - The Complete RCA Album Collection John Ogdon

• Carl Nielsen (1865–1931)
• 1 Chaconne, Op. 32 10:15
• 2 I. Allegretto un pochettino 03:30
• 3 II. Poco moderato 02:24
• 4 III. Molto adagio e patetico 05:41
• 5 IV. Allegretto innocente 02:00
• 6 V. Allegretto vivo 00:58
• 7 VI. Allegro non troppo ma vigoroso 08:01
• 8 I. Intonation - Maestoso 02:16
• 9 II. Quasi allegretto 03:42
• 10 III. Andante 06:03
• 11 IV. Finale - Allegro 03:47
• 12 No. 1 - Impromptu - Allegro fluente 02:43
• 13 No. 2 - Molto adagio 03:16
• 14 No. 3 - Allegro non troppo 05:16
• Sergei Rachmaninow (1873–1943)
• 15 I. Allegro moderato 11:55
• 16 II. Lento 08:58
• 17 III. Allegro molto 13:01
• 18 I. Allegro agitato 07:30
• 19 II. Non allegro 06:51
• 20 III. Allegro molto 04:45
• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
• 21 I. Allegro 10:45
• 22 II. Scherzo, assai vivace 02:43
• 23 III. Adagio sostenuto 15:22
• 24 IV. Largo, allegro 12:11
• Peter Mennin (1923-1983)
• 25 I. Maestoso - Allegro 11:12
• 26 II. Adagio religioso 08:25
• 27 III. Allegro vivace 05:56
• Richard Yardumian (1917-1985)
• 28 I. Passacaglia 08:17
• 29 II. Recitative 05:36
• 30 III. Fugue 03:44
• Charles Valentin Alkan (1813–1888)
• 31 I. Allegro assai 26:44
• 32 II. Adagio 11:47
• 33 III. Alegretto alla barbaresca 10:17
• Total Runtime 04:05:51

Info for John Ogdon - The Complete RCA Album Collection

Sony Classical releases a six-album collection encompassing John Ogdon’s complete recordings for the RCA Victor label to mark the 25th anniversary of this legendary British pianist’s untimely death in 1989.

Four LPs appear here for the first time on CD, while a 1972 Liszt recital is released for the first time outside of Japan. The repertoire reflects different facets of Ogdon’s large-scale pianism and unusual musical proclivities. From an early age he displayed a passion for Liszt that never abated. His penchant for surmounting the piano repertoire’s most challenging edifices brilliantly manifests itself in Beethoven’s mighty “Hammerklavier” Sonata, Rachmaninoff’s two piano sonatas and the first complete recording of Alkan’s Concerto for Piano Solo.

One album featuring piano music by Carl Nielsen drew attention to this composer’s often undervalued keyboard output, as well as Ogdon’s lifelong curiosity about important works outside the central repertoire. Ogdon’s recording of Peter Mennin’s Piano Concerto and the first of two recordings he made of Richard Yardumian’s Passacaglia, Recitative and Fugue for piano and orchestra also represent the pianist’s fervent advocacy for the music of his time.

John Ogdon, piano
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Igor Buketoff, conductor

Digitally remastered

John Ogdon
Born in Nottinghamshire on January 27, 1937 John Andrew Howard Ogdon studied at the Royal Northern College of Music under Richard Hall, where he and fellow students such as conductor Elgar Horwarth and composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr and Peter Maxwell Davis founded the influential group New Music Manchester. After college he studied piano with Gordon Green, Dennis Matthews, Dame Myra Hess and the noted Busoni pupil Egon Petri, who declared Ogdon his most talented pupil. After winning first prize in the 1961 London Liszt Competition, Ogdon’s international reputation took off in the aftermath of his victory in the 1962 Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition, sharing first prize with Vladimir Ashkenazy. Gifted with a huge memory and an uncanny sight-reading ability, Ogdon amassed a large and diverse repertoire, much of which he recorded, including numerous works for piano duo with his wife Brenda Lucas.

While his career was curtailed by mental illness and a severe nervous breakdown in 1973, he eventually recovered to the point where he could resume concertizing and recording until his sudden death from pneumonia on August 1, 1989. During his final decade Ogdon continued to travel piano music’s lesser known paths, culminating with the first studio recording of Sorabji’s complex, five-hour-long Opus Clavicembalisticum. Ogdon also composed more than 200 works, including four operas, two piano concertos, two large orchestral pieces, piano and chamber music and more than fifty solo piano transcriptions based on composers ranging from Palestrina to Cole Porter.

This album contains no booklet.