Friday 24 May 2013

John Ogden (the pianist)


A sketchbook drawing by JVL of the pianist John Ogden, 1957 or 1958.

This was drawn when I was an 18-year-old art student at Salford Art School. Not a very good one (the piano is far to small for instance) but it gives some kind of a flavour of the event. As you can see there were not many people attending the free concert at Forsyths, a music shop in Deansgate, Manchester. John Ogden was a student in Manchester at this time.  I thought I would include this sketch this week because BBC's Radio 3 is playing many of his performances as 'Artist of the Week' during the Essential Classics programme every morning. I still listen to his magnificent artistry on a number of CDs I have today, including performances of Rachmaninov Preludes,  pieces by Busoni, Ronald Stevenson's First Piano Sonata, the mighty Opus Clavicembalisticum by Sorabji, as well as his own Dance Suite. A great pianist. While I am typing this BBC Radio 3 is broadcasting Ogden's recording of Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto.

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