Notes and Editorial Reviews
Of the 18 works selected for EMI's retrospective to mark what would have been the late pianist's 70th birthday (he died in 1989 at 52), 13 are new to CD, including two previously unreleased concerto performances. Two Rachmaninov collaborations with John Pritchard and the Philharmonia dominate Disc 1. After the Second concerto's incisive and poetic first movement come a draggy Adagio sostenuto and an underplayed, inhibited Allegro Scherzando. Although the piano is unusually recessed in the unreleased Paganini Rhapsody's mix (the primary reason why the recording was rejected), it rightfully allows the concertante-like orchestration to assume center stage. Collectors who prefer a lyrical, easygoing journey through this work (i.e.
Read more
Cliburn/Kondrashin) will sympathetically respond to Ogdon/Pritchard (I personally like my Pag Rhaps lean, mean, and diabolic, à la Kapell/Reiner, Weber/Fricsay, and Wild/Horenstein).
Ogdon's elegant simplicity in the Fauré Ballade contrasts with his unbridled, breathless dash through the Litolff Scherzo, both alertly backed by Louis Frémaux and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. With the Philharmonia Orchestra on vintage form, John Barbirolli's red-blooded and beautifully balanced conducting unwittingly upstages Ogdon's accomplished but careful playing in the Tchaikovsky First and Franck Symphonic Variations. However, the pianist's imagination takes wing (as do his fingers) in the Liszt Hungarian Fantasy and Spanish Rhapsody (in Busoni's orchestral version), again with Pritchard at the podium.
Ogdon brings prodigious color and tonal variety to Bartók's First Concerto, where the snarling brass and vigorous percussion really hit home courtesy of EMI's vivid, robust sonics. You might not associate Malcolm Sargent with Bartók, yet his sympathetic support proves a welcome surprise in this previously unpublished recording. Also notable is how well and idiomatically Ogdon responds to the Glazunov First Concerto's Romantic riches (check out the fiery first-movement cadenza).
Perhaps Ogdon's own Piano Concerto and Piano Sonata reveal more about the facility with which the composer/pianist grasps the surface styles of Bartók, early Prokofiev, and Sorabji than they attest to a genuine creative force at work. I find Ogdon's Theme and Variations that opens Disc 4 more interesting from a textural, harmonic, and formal standpoint.
As a Liszt player, Ogdon could be brilliant or boring, sometimes within the same work. The B minor sonata's lyrical sections tend to dawdle, yet the bravura writing inspires Ogdon to swashbuckling heights that would humble many of today's virtuoso hotshots; the Fifteenth Hungarian Rhapsody's declamatory chords are powerful and decisive, yet its rapid filigree falls flat; the first Valse Oubliée hovers between caressing sensitivity and glib rushing, while En Rêve is calm and fleet, as though Ogdon is throwing the piece away. Everything comes together for a propulsive, insightful, and technically mesmerizing rendition of the late and obscure Csárdás Macabre. All told, this is a fascinating if uneven anthology that surely will capture the attention of Ogdon's admirers.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Concerto for Piano no 1, Sz 83 by Béla Bartók
Performer:
John Ogdon (Piano)
Conductor:
Sir Malcolm Sargent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philharmonia Orchestra,
New Philharmonia Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1926; Budapest, Hungary
2.
Concerto for Piano no 1 by John Ogdon
Performer:
John Ogdon (Piano)
Conductor:
Lawrence Foster
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: England
Date of Recording: 1970
3.
Sonata for Piano by John Ogdon
Performer:
John Ogdon (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: England
Date of Recording: 1972
4.
Concerto for Piano no 1 in F minor, Op. 92 by Alexander Glazunov
Performer:
John Ogdon (Piano)
Conductor:
Paavo Berglund
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1910-1911; Russia
5.
Concerto for Piano no 2 in C minor, Op. 18 by Sergei Rachmaninov
Performer:
John Ogdon (Piano)
Conductor:
John Pritchard
Orchestra/Ensemble:
New Philharmonia Orchestra,
Philharmonia Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: Russia
Notes: Composition written: Russia (1900 - 1901).
6.
Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Op. 43 by Sergei Rachmaninov
Performer:
John Ogdon (Piano)
Conductor:
John Pritchard
Orchestra/Ensemble:
New Philharmonia Orchestra,
Philharmonia Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1934; USA
Date of Recording: 1963
7.
Concerto for Piano no 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Performer:
John Ogdon (Piano)
Conductor:
Sir John Barbirolli
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philharmonia Orchestra,
New Philharmonia Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: Russia
Notes: Composition written: Russia (1874 - 1875).
8.
Hungarian Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, S 123 by Franz Liszt
Performer:
John Ogdon (Piano)
Conductor:
John Pritchard
Orchestra/Ensemble:
New Philharmonia Orchestra,
Philharmonia Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: ?1852; Weimar, Germany
Date of Recording: 1963
9.
Rhapsodie espagnole for Piano, S 254 by Franz Liszt
Performer:
John Ogdon (Piano)
Conductor:
John Pritchard
Orchestra/Ensemble:
New Philharmonia Orchestra,
Philharmonia Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: circa 1863; Rome, Italy
Date of Recording: 1963
Notes: Arranger: Ferruccio Busoni.
Customer Reviews
Be the first to review this title
Review This Title
