A Dictionary for the Modern Pianist by Stephen Siek

Author:Stephen Siek [Siek, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2016-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

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Oborin, Lev (b. Moscow, 1907; d. Moscow, 1974). Soviet pianist and teacher. At the age of seven, he began studies with Elena Gnessin (1864–1967), one of the founders of the Gnessin State Musical College and a pupil of Busoni. At fourteen, he entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with Konstantin Igumnov (1873–1948), a pupil of Zverev and Siloti, and he graduated five years later. With Igumnov’s encouragement, he entered and won the first Chopin Competition, held in Warsaw in 1927. Though he gave some concerts shortly thereafter in Poland and Germany, his performances were largely confined to the Soviet Union until the end of World War II. Ten years earlier in 1935, he had begun to work regularly with Soviet violinist David Oistrakh, and their lifelong collaboration enabled them eventually to partner for tours outside the USSR. At times they were also joined by cellist Sviatoslav Knushevitsky to perform piano trio literature. In 1937, Aram Khachaturian, also a pupil of Elena Gnessin, dedicated his piano concerto to Oborin, who premiered it that July in Moscow, a performance which Khachaturian said was “a dream come true.” Oborin joined the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory in 1928 and became a full professor in 1935, remaining there until his death. He trained many prominent Soviet pianists, including Vladimir Ashkenazy and Boris Berman.

Ogdon, John (b. Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, England, 1937; d. London, 1989). English pianist and composer. At the age of eight, he won a scholarship to the Royal Manchester College of Music, where his piano teacher was Claude Biggs, a pupil of Egon Petri, though Ogdon also studied more briefly with the Russian-born Iso Elinson (1907–64), a pupil of Felix Blumenfeld (who also taught Horowitz). His composition teacher was Richard Hall, and—despite their nine-year age difference—he soon befriended fellow student and composer Ronald Stevenson (1928–2015) when he heard him practicing the Busoni Concerto, a work Ogdon later did much to publicize. He also demonstrated a penchant for newer musical styles early on and a few years later joined with several RMCM composition students, including Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies, to form New Music Manchester, an organization that played a decisive role in bringing serialism and other modernistic elements to British composition. After he graduated, a scholarship from the RMCM allowed him to study in Switzerland for six weeks with Petri, with whom he coached the Busoni Concerto and who described him as “a pianistic genius.” He then returned to teach at the RMCM while also studying with Gordon Green, another Petri student who later taught Stephen Hough. Ogdon also worked for over a year with Denis Matthews and coached briefly with Matthews’s close friend Dame Myra Hess, as well as Ilona Kabós. In 1958, he made his London debut performing the Busoni Concerto at the Proms, and in September 1959, he made his Wigmore Hall debut to high acclaim, though the Times noted that his performance of the Brahms Handel Variations “must have beaten all existing speed records.” Similar observations followed Ogdon for much of his career.

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