Geoffrey Peter Bede Hawkshaw Tozer (5 November 195421 August 2009) was an Australian classical
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
and
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
. A child prodigy, he composed an opera at the age of eight and became the youngest recipient of a
Churchill Fellowship
Winston Churchill Memorial Trusts (WCMT) are three independent but related living memorials to Sir Winston Churchill, based in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. They exist for the purpose of administering Churchill Fellowships, a ...
award at 13. His career included tours of Europe, America, Australia and China, where he performed the ''
Yellow River Concerto'' to an estimated audience of 80 million people. Tozer had more than 100 concertos in his repertoire, including those of
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
,
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
,
Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
,
Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
,
Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
,
Medtner
Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (russian: Никола́й Ка́рлович Ме́тнер, ''Nikoláj Kárlovič Métner''; 13 November 1951) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. After a period of comparative obscurity in the 25 years immedi ...
,
Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...
, Bartók,
Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...
,
Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer ...
and
Gerhard Gerhard is a name of Germanic origin and may refer to:
Given name
* Gerhard (bishop of Passau) (fl. 932–946), German prelate
* Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg (1292–1340), German prince, regent of Denmark
* Gerhard Barkhorn (1919–19 ...
.
Tozer recorded for the Chandos label, beginning with the works of
Medtner
Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (russian: Никола́й Ка́рлович Ме́тнер, ''Nikoláj Kárlovič Métner''; 13 November 1951) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. After a period of comparative obscurity in the 25 years immedi ...
. He was regarded as a "superb recitalist" and had the ability to improvise, transpose "instantly" and reduce an orchestral score to a piano score at sight.
[ Tozer won numerous awards and much recognition worldwide, but suffered comparative neglect in Australia, during the last years of his life.]
Early life
Conceived in Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
, Tozer was born in 1954 at Mussoorie
Mussoorie is a hill station and a municipal board, near Dehradun city in the Dehradun district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is about from the state capital of Dehradun and north of the national capital of New Delhi. The hill st ...
, a hill station
A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia (particularly in India), but also in Africa (albeit rarely), for towns founded by European colonialists as refuges ...
in the India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
. His mother was Veronica Tozer (born Hawkshaw), a gifted musician and pianist who had become a music teacher to support herself and her two sons after her separation and subsequent divorce from Colonel (later Major-General) Donald Tozer.
In early 1954 she visited Tasmania to recover from a serious medical condition.[ There she met Geoffrey Conan-Davies, who was the son of an Anglican priest and who had studied theology himself during his years at Oxford University. He was a retired colonial administrator, formerly of East Africa, who was married to Ermyntrude (born Malet), with whom he had four children.][
Veronica then returned to India, where Tozer was born. He lived his first four years in India, thanks to the generosity of Princess Usha.][ At the age of three, he picked out the notes of ]Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
's ''Appassionata'' Sonata, which his mother had been teaching a pupil.[
He moved with his mother and older brother Peter] to Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, where Veronica taught him Beethoven, Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
and Bartók.[ He attended St Joseph's Parish School, Malvern, and then ]De La Salle College, Malvern
, motto_translation = With God As Leader
, city = Malvern
, state = Victoria
, zipcode = 3144
, country = Australia
, coordinates =
, type ...
.[
In 1962, at the age of eight, Tozer performed Bach's Concerto No. 5 in F minor with the Victorian Symphony Orchestra][ under Clive Douglas,][ in a concert that was televised nationally on ABC TV. In April 1964, at Melbourne's Nicholas Hall, he performed the same concerto with the Astra Orchestra under ]George Logie-Smith
George Logie-Smith OBE (2 December 191419 April 2007) was an Australian orchestra and choral conductor, music examiner, and music educator.
Biography
George Logie Smith was born in Ascot Vale a suburb of Melbourne, to parents David Edgar "Edgar ...
. In February 1965 he performed the Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led ...
Piano Concerto in D before a live audience at the Myer Music Bowl
The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor bandshell performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain on Linlithgow Avenue close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinct ...
, a performance which can be heard on the disc issued to coincide with his Celebration Forty tour in 2004. Within four years he had played all five Beethoven concertos.
Studies
Tozer studied with Eileen Ralf and Keith Humble in Australia, Maria Curcio
Maria Curcio (27 August 1918 or 191930 March 2009) was an Italian classical pianist who became a sought-after teacher. Her students included Barry Douglas, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Martha Argerich, Evelyne Brancart, Radu Lupu, Dame Mitsuko Uchida, ...
(the last and favourite pupil of Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel (17 April 1882 – 15 August 1951) was an Austrian-American classical pianist, composer and pedagogue. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th centur ...
)[ in England and Theodore Lettvin in the United States.] Eileen Ralf lived in Hobart
Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
, and the airline TAA
Trans Australia Airlines (TAA), renamed Australian Airlines in 1986, was one of the two major Australian domestic airlines between its inception in 1946 and its merger with Qantas in September 1992. As a result of the "COBRA" (or Common Brand ...
flew Tozer there and back every week for lessons, free of charge.[ He later described Ralf's teaching as "the greatest musical gift given me".][ Aged 14, he became the youngest semi-finalist ever at the ]Leeds International Piano Competition
The Leeds International Piano Competition, informally known as The Leeds and formerly the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, takes place every three years in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1961 by Marion, Countess ...
and soon afterwards made his European debut at a BBC Promenade Concert in the Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...
under Sir Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis (25 September 1927 – 14 April 2013) was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra, having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire was broad, but among the composers with whom h ...
. He was the youngest person to be awarded a Churchill Fellowship.
In 1971, aged 16, he stayed with Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
for several weeks. Britten invited him to perform at the Aldeburgh Festival
The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall.
History of the Aldeburgh Festival
Th ...
, where he accompanied the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered by many to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was wel ...
.
Tozer performed at the inaugural concert of the Melbourne Concert Hall in 1982. In the early 1980s he taught at the University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
. From 1983 he based himself in Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
and briefly taught at the ANU School of Music
The ANU School of Music is a school in the Research School of Humanities and the Arts, which forms part of the College of Arts and Social Sciences of the Australian National University. It consists of four buildings, including the main School of ...
,[ ]Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
before his touring and recording schedules made this impractical. His early recordings were not commercially released; his first commercial recording, in 1986, was of John Ireland
John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...
's Piano Concerto in E-flat major with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Measham
David Michael Lucian Measham (1 December 19376 February 2005) was a British-Australian conductor and violinist.
Measham was born in Nottingham, England, to a musical family. His father, Lester, had trained as an opera singer and his mother, J ...
, still considered by many the best recording of the work. In 1989 he worked with Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Joshua Sculthorpe (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighboring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aborigin ...
to record a disc of Sculthorpe's works for piano and strings.[
]
Later career
When Tatiana Nikolayeva
Tatiana Petrovna Nikolayeva (russian: Татья́на Петро́вна Никола́ева, ''Tat'jana Petrovna Nikolajeva''; May 4, 1924November 22, 1993) was a pianist, composer, and teacher from the Soviet Union.
Life
Nikolayeva was born ...
visited Australia in the 1990s, she asked to be introduced to "the one who plays like a Russian" (meaning Tozer).[ In 1993, Tozer made his first tour of ]China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, appearing in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities. In 1994, he made the first complete recording of the four piano concertos of Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi ( , , ; 9 July 187918 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. List of compositions by Ottorino Respighi, His compositions r ...
, with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
The BBC Philharmonic is a national British broadcasting symphony orchestra and is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Philharmonic is a department of the BBC North Group division based at MediaC ...
under Sir Edward Downes
Sir Edward Thomas ("Ted") Downes, CBE (17 June 1924 – 10 July 2009) was an English conductor, specialising in opera.
He was associated with the Royal Opera House from 1952, and with Opera Australia from 1970. He was also well known for his ...
.
In May 2001, Tozer was the first Western artist to perform the '' Yellow River Concerto'' in China,[ at the invitation of the Chinese Ministry of Culture.][ His performance, which received a standing ovation, was broadcast live on Chinese national television and was watched by an estimated audience of 80 million people.][
In May 2003, Tozer gave a recital in ]New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
with Colin McPhillamy in which they gave the first performance in the United States of Nikolai Medtner
Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (russian: Никола́й Ка́рлович Ме́тнер, ''Nikoláj Kárlovič Métner''; 13 November 1951) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. After a period of comparative obscurity in the 25 years immedi ...
's ''The Treehouse''. This followed an appearance in Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
to play in a tribute to Medtner's foremost pupil, the late Edna Iles
Edna Amy Iles (18 May 190529 January 2003) was an English classical pianist.
Edna Iles was born in Kings Heath, Birmingham in 1905. She began her studies in Birmingham with Appleby Matthews, making her debut as soloist with the City of Birmingh ...
.
Tozer championed the music of many under-recorded composers, such as Respighi, Alan Rawsthorne
Alan Rawsthorne (2 May 1905 – 24 July 1971) was a British composer. He was born in Haslingden, Lancashire, and is buried in Thaxted churchyard in Essex.
Early years
Alan Rawsthorne was born in Deardengate House, Haslingden, Lancashire, to Hu ...
, John Blackwood McEwen
Sir John Blackwood McEwen (13 April 1868 – 14 June 1948) was a Scottish classical composer and educator. He was professor of harmony and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London, from 1898 to 1924, and principal from 1924 to 193 ...
, Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897November 29, 1957) was an Austrian-born American composer and conductor. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential composers in Hollywood history. He was a noted pianist and compo ...
, Roberto Gerhard
Robert Gerhard i Ottenwaelder (; 25 September 1896 – 5 January 1970) was a Spanish Catalan composer and musical scholar and writer, generally known outside Catalonia as Roberto Gerhard.Malcolm MacDonald. 'Gerhard, Roberto' in ''Grove Music Onl ...
, Percy Grainger
Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...
, John Ireland
John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...
(the Piano Concerto in E-flat major) and Nikolai Tcherepnin
Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin (Russian: Николай Николаевич Черепнин; – 26 June 1945) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was born in Saint Petersburg and studied under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at t ...
. At one Berlin Festival, Tozer gave an all-Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel (17 April 1882 – 15 August 1951) was an Austrian-American classical pianist, composer and pedagogue. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th centur ...
concert in the presence of the entire Schnabel family; he also recorded Schnabel's music.
Tozer also championed another Melbourne prodigy, pianist Noel Mewton-Wood
Noel Mewton-Wood (20 November 19225 December 1953) was an Australian-born concert pianist who achieved international fame on the basis of many distinguished concerto recordings during his short life.
Life and career
Born in Melbourne, he studied ...
, who died in 1953. Tozer said of him: "He was the most stimulating and intellectually powerful pianist Australia has ever produced. He had been completely forgotten before his work reappeared on CD and everyone realised how revolutionary his playing was." Tozer first heard of him when he prepared to play Bach and Beethoven as a seven-year-old for Mewton-Wood's former Melbourne teacher, Waldemar Seidel
Waldemar "Wally" Carl Seidel (11 March 189317 September 1980) was an Australian pianist, accompanist, and piano teacher who taught many notable pianists from Australia.
Biography
Seidel was born in St Kilda, Victoria in 1893, son of a German imm ...
. "I played a few bars and he jumped up shouting, 'Noel's come back'. I had never heard of him, of course. But, after listening to his records, I realised it was the greatest musical compliment I've ever received." Tozer arranged for solo piano some of the music written by Mewton-Wood for the 1944 film ''Tawny Pipit
The tawny pipit (''Anthus campestris'') is a medium-large passerine bird which breeds in much of the central Palearctic from northwest Africa and Portugal to Central Siberia and on to Inner Mongolia. It is a migrant moving in winter to tropic ...
''.
He also created the piano reduction of the vocal score for Minoru Miki
Minoru Miki ( ja, 三木 稔, 16 March 19308 December 2011) was a Japanese composer and artistic director, particularly known for his promotional activities in favor of Japanese (as well as Chinese and Korean) traditional instruments and some o ...
's opera ''An Actor's Revenge''.
Tozer was a noted improviser. He sometimes ended formal recitals by improvisations using themes and styles suggested by the audience: Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...
, Bellini, Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...
, Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
, Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
, Bartók, Piazzolla, Cage
A cage is an enclosure often made of mesh, bars, or wires, used to confine, contain or protect something or someone. A cage can serve many purposes, including keeping an animal or person in captivity, capturing an animal or person, and displayin ...
, Satie
Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...
, Gershwin and Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
simultaneously, and many others.
In January 2003, to celebrate Miriam Hyde
Miriam Beatrice Hyde (15 January 191311 January 2005) was an Australian composer, classical pianist, music educator, and poet.
She composed over 150 works for piano, 50 songs, other instrumental and orchestral works and performed as a concert ...
's 90th birthday, the ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
broadcast Tozer performing her music live from the Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney. This included her Piano Sonata in G minor. He played one of her two piano concertos at the Australian Institute of Music
The Australian Institute of Music (AIM) is an Australian private tertiary education provider, with campuses in Sydney, New South Wales and Melbourne, Victoria.
Founded in 1968, AIM delivers education for careers in the Australian music, entert ...
in 2005, to an audience of only 15 people. Hyde said that the concerto needed someone of Tozer's power to play it.[
In an obituary after Tozer's death, former ]Australian prime minister
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the federal government of Australia and is also accountable to federal parliament under the principl ...
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician and unionist who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He previously serv ...
lashed the "indifference" and "malevolence" toward Tozer from the arts establishment in Australia. He had last played with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 1994 and with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra that was initially formed in 1908. Since its opening in 1973, the Sydney Opera House has been its home concert hall. Simone Young is the orchestra's chief conductor and firs ...
in 1995.[
]
Honours and awards
Tozer received several major awards twice in his lifetime. He won his first Churchill Fellowship at 14 and won a second at 17; this was possible only because the Churchill committee decided to lower the minimum age by five years in recognition of Tozer's talents.[ He was also twice awarded Israel's Rubinstein Medal, in 1977 and 1980; on the first occasion, he was handed the prize personally by ]Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist. who described him as "an extraordinary pianist".[
He was awarded two consecutive Australian Artists Creative Fellowships, worth more than A$500,000 in total, in the 1990s.] The grants were inaugurated after Paul Keating met Tozer while he was teaching at St Edmund's College,[ the ]Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
school where Keating's son Patrick was a student. Keating, who cites Tozer as Australia's greatest pianist, said he felt "ashamed" that a pianist of Tozer's talents was earning only A$9,000 a year, so he introduced the fellowships (they are sometimes referred to as "the Keatings") and the first five-year award in 1989 (A$329,000) went to Tozer.[ He was the subject of at least one political cartoon.
The fellowships allowed Tozer to travel to London to commence his recording career. He recorded most of the solo piano works of ]Nikolai Medtner
Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (russian: Никола́й Ка́рлович Ме́тнер, ''Nikoláj Kárlovič Métner''; 13 November 1951) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. After a period of comparative obscurity in the 25 years immedi ...
. His recording for Chandos of the three Medtner piano concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...
under Neeme Järvi
Neeme Järvi (; born 7 June 1937) is an Estonian American conductor.
Early life
Järvi was born in Tallinn. He initially studied music there, and later in Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky, and Nikolai Rabinovich, ...
won a Diapason d'Or
The Diapason d'Or (French for "Golden Tuning Fork") is a recommendation of outstanding (mostly) classical music recordings given by reviewers of '' Diapason'' magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the ...
prize in 1992 and was also nominated for a Grammy
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
award.[ Although a few recordings of the concertos had been made before the advent of CDs, Tozer's recordings are regarded as an important early addition to the recorded repertoire of the Medtner concertos using modern recording techniques. His Medtner recordings were described by the French critic Alain Cochard as "a landmark in recorded history". He wrote "All that Medtner demands, Tozer possesses. This is the playing of a grand master; there is no doubt about it". In 2001, on the anniversary of Nikolai Medtner's death, he gave a recital of Medtner's works to a capacity audience in Melbourne; however, this concert received no reviews in any media.][
His other international awards included Hungary's Liszt Centenary Medallion, Belgium's Prix Alex De Varies and Britain's Royal Overseas League Medallion, although he received no similar honours in Australia.
In 1996 his recording of piano works by ]Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...
won the Soundscapes (Australia) prize for "Record of the Year".
Among Tozer's unpublished recordings are some of historical interest, such as his recording with the tenor Gerald English
Gerald English (6 November 1925 – 6 February 2019) was an English tenor. He performed operatic and concert repertoire, was a recording artist, and was a sometime academic.
He gave many premiere performances of works by composers such as Igo ...
of Sir Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten ...
's song cycle ''Boyhood's End''.
Death
While Tozer was undoubtedly affected by the death of his mother in 1996, and that of his long-time manager Reuben Fineberg in 1997, it is debatable whether, as some obituaries claimed, he "became unwell but carried on".[ According to his medical records, his illness did not become apparent until at least seven years after the death of his mother.
On 21 August 2009,][ he died from ]liver
The liver is a major Organ (anatomy), organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for ...
disease at the East Malvern house in Melbourne in which he lived as a child, having been released from the Alfred Hospital
The Alfred Hospital, also known as The Alfred or Alfred Hospital, is a leading tertiary teaching hospital in Melbourne, Victoria. It is the second oldest hospital in Victoria, and the oldest Melbourne hospital still operating on its original site ...
the previous week. He was survived by four of five siblings.[
A public memorial service was held on 1 October 2009 at ]St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne
The Cathedral Church and Minor Basilica of Saint Patrick (colloquially St Patrick's Cathedral) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, and seat of its archbishop, currently Peter Comensoli. ...
. In a stinging address that lasted 45 minutes, the former prime minister, Paul Keating, said that Tozer
deserved to be remembered alongside the Australian triumvirate of Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic dramatic coloratura soprano (three octaves). She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th century, ...
, Percy Grainger
Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...
and Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.
She possessed ...
, he was treated with indifference, contempt and malevolence by the Melbourne and Sydney symphony orchestras. The people who chose repertoire for those two orchestras and who had charge of the selection of artists during this period should hang their heads in shame at their neglect of him. ... If anyone needs a case example of the bitchiness and preference within the arts in Australia, here you have it.
Keating described the death of Tozer as "like Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
having lost Glenn Gould
Glenn Herbert Gould (; né Gold; September 25, 1932October 4, 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. He was one of the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann ...
, or France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, Ginette Neveu
Ginette Neveu (11 August 191928 October 1949) was a French classical violinist. She was killed in a plane crash at the age of 30.
Early life
Neveu was born on 11 August 1919 in Paris into a musical family. Her brother Jean-Paul became a class ...
. It is a massive cultural loss, the kind of loss people felt when Germany lost Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
." He compared Tozer to the pianists Emil Gilels
Emil Grigoryevich Gilels (Russian: Эми́ль Григо́рьевич Ги́лельс; 19 October 1916 – 14 October 1985) was a Russian pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time.
Early life and educatio ...
, Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist. , Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter, group= ( – August 1, 1997) was a Soviet classical pianist. He is frequently regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time, Great Pianists of the 20th Century and has been praised for the "depth of his int ...
, Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...
, Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel (17 April 1882 – 15 August 1951) was an Austrian-American classical pianist, composer and pedagogue. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th centur ...
, and the soprano Maria Callas
Maria Callas . (born Sophie Cecilia Kalos; December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised her ''bel cant ...
, who died alone in Paris in 1977. Keating said, "In the end, his liver failed. But I think I have to say we all let him down. ... We should have cared more and done more."[
]
Legacy
Tozer's legacy is preserved at the official Geoffrey Tozer Legacy website, which is administered by his estate and includes "more than 12,000 documents, 750 recordings of his performances, and a number of interviews from around the world, 3000 photographs, four portraits, film and video, prizes and awards from around the world, personal effects including performance apparel, 29 archival boxes of Tozer's annotated performance scores, 1500 books on music from his personal library, and his own drawings, caricatures and paintings, and more than 200 original Tozer compositions."
References
External links
* by Paul de Schlözer
Paul de Schlözer or Paweł Schlözer (1841 or 18421 July 1898) was a Polish pianist and teacher of German descent. He was possibly also a composer, but the only two works attributed to him may have been written by Polish composer Moritz Moszkowsk ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tozer, Geoffrey
1954 births
2009 deaths
Australian classical pianists
Male classical pianists
Deaths from liver disease
Musicians from Melbourne
Pupils of Maria Curcio
Child classical musicians
University of Michigan faculty
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century Australian musicians
20th-century Australian male musicians