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The great Australian pianist, long a champion of obscure composers--Medtner amongst the most prominent of these--died last week:
OBITUARY: Geoffrey Tozer. Pianist. Born Mussoorie, India, November 5, 1954. Died Melbourne, August 20, age 54.
"PIANIST Geoffrey Tozer was one of the most gifted musicians this country has known. Born in the Indian Himalayas, he began piano lessons with his mother before moving to Australia at the age of four. A child prodigy, he gave his first public performance at age five at the St Kilda Town Hall; at eight he appeared on ABC television with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, playing Bach's Concerto in F minor. By 12 he had performed all five of Beethoven's piano concertos across Australia; two years later he was the youngest semi-finalist in history at the Leeds International Piano Competition.
In 1970, Tozer made his BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall, performing Mozart with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Colin Davis. During the following years he performed widely across Europe and the US, receiving a host of awards, including a gold medal in the Arthur Rubinstein competition in Israel in 1980 and Hungary's Liszt Centenary medallion in 1986.
Despite this international success, Tozer struggled to support himself in Australia and in the mid-1980s he took a job teaching music at a school in Canberra.
There he met Paul Keating, then the treasurer, who was inspired by Tozer's "greatness and his poverty" to establish the Australian Artists Creative Fellowships for artists in mid-career.
Tozer was awarded two consecutive fellowships, allowing him to travel to London and immerse himself in recording. He recorded a staggering 36 discs for the Chandos label, championing the works of lesser-known composers.
His recording of the Medtner piano concertos won a Diapason d'Or prize and was nominated for a Grammy award in 1992; and his recording of Roberto Gerhard's Piano Concerto was awarded Britain's Gramophone Critics Choice for recording of the year in 1998.
Tozer's knowledge of the piano repertoire was encyclopedic and he thrilled audiences with his ability to improvise on any theme in any style. Extemporisation lay at the centre of his art: his performances, though technically commanding, unfolded with an unstudied freedom and spontaneity.
There was a copiousness to his talent that demanded an outlet and he was a generous teacher who gave unstintingly to students, frequently without payment. In recent years, he taught at the Australian National Academy of Music and at the University of Melbourne, where he was appointed piano fellow in 1998.
His student Leigh Harrold remembers him as "a gentle, humble man who was always generous with his time and spoke about music with a childlike awe and wonder that I never failed to find extremely moving".
Despite his gentlemanly manner, Tozer had a mischievous sense of humour and was not averse to controversy.
"He was wonderfully and terribly outspoken and suffered every benefit and disadvantage from being outspoken," a senior music industry figure recalls. In 1997, Tozer announced he was moving to Europe to escape the provincialism of Melbourne; friends observe that had he followed through with this threat, he might have enjoyed more frequent engagements in this country.
In 1996, Tozer was devastated by the death of his mother, followed by that of his long-time manager, Reuben Fineburg, in 1997. In the absence of this support, he struggled to manage his career and his health began a gradual decline. However, he continued to give concerts and toured frequently to China. His 2001 performance of the Yellow River Concerto was broadcast to an audience of more than 80 million.
The same year he gave a performance in Berlin of the music of Artur Schnabel, before Schnabel's family. This had special resonance for him, as Schnabel's student Maria Curcio had been one of his cherished teachers, alongside Eileen Ralf, Keith Humble and Theodore Lettvin. His final performances took place in Bendigo in June this year, with cellist David Pereira, a colleague he greatly admired.
One of Tozer's many enthusiasms was Australian pianist Noel Mewton-Wood, whose brilliance and precocity - and untimely death - foreshadowed his own.
Tozer died at home last week from complications resulting from liver failure. Keating describes this loss as a national tragedy, but it has hardly made headlines.
"Had he been a boneheaded footballer who was biffing fellow players and chasing women down hotel corridors late at night he would have probably had a premium on his career," Keating observes. "But to have been among one of a handful of the world's greatest pianists with all of that learning and comprehension was not quite up to it."
Nonetheless, Tozer leaves a substantial legacy: in his discs for the Chandos label; in his copious recordings archived at the ABC, many of which I hope will be released; in the joy he has brought audiences worldwide; and in the inspiration he offered to a younger generation of Australian musicians.
The place I like to remember him is at ANAM, 10 years ago, where I was one of a small group of piano students huddled around him at the piano while he played us Medtner sonata after Medtner sonata.
An authoritative, mesmerising sound poured from the instrument as afternoon gave way to evening, then to night, but his face above it was that of a child, eyes sparkling with joy, innocent before music."
In my brief interactions with him (trying to set up some 2 piano concerts which sadly never came to pass) he was unfailingly kind, generous and a gentleman. His artistry will be sorely missed.
Last edited by Thracozaag; 08/26/0903:06 PM.
"I'm a concert pianist--that's a pretentious way of saying I'm unemployed at the moment."--Oscar Levant
Your post is right to say it's "hardly made headlines" - I didn't know he'd died until one of my students told me. There is an obit in today's paper however: Geoffrey Tozer
"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, only what you are expecting to give, which is everything. You give because you love and cannot help giving." Katharine Hepburn
RIP. There are also several recordings of him on Youtube, and also some recital videos. I just listened to his recording of Medtner's op. 11/1 - warm, poetic sound, comtemplative, more inward- than outward-oriented. I like it a lot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kH12jCIrjM
RIP. There are also several recordings of him on Youtube, and also some recital videos. I just listened to his recording of Medtner's op. 11/1 - warm, poetic sound, comtemplative, more inward- than outward-oriented. I like it a lot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kH12jCIrjM
Thanks for linking to that. I may have to get some of his Medtner.
Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear weapons.
Very sad story indeed - there's a reasonably good page on this guy on Wikipedia...
Justin ------- Bach English Suite #5 Scarlatti Sonata K141 . L422 Mozart Sonata K333 Schubert Impromptu opus 90 D899 Schubert Moment Musicaux opus 94 D780
What an amazing musician! You couldn't tell from his bearing if he was playing forte or piano. From pianissimo to fortissimo, it just seems to come out of his mind!
What an amazing musician! You couldn't tell from his bearing if he was playing forte or piano. From pianissimo to fortissimo, it just seems to come out of his mind!
What a poignant tribute (such a wistful morsel from Liszt's late years) to a great pianist who gave us so much. Goodnight, dearest.
I can think of no more fitting epitaph to this under-appreciated artist than a recital in honor of him and the unsung champions of the score he sought to honor during his life.
http://www.ecital.net Wikicital: A collaborative effort to build a knowledgebase of classical music history combined with examples. Your chance to both perform and write...
I'm somewhat behind in my reading and am only now seeing this. What a loss! The world will be a much poorer place without his artistry. I've owned and treasured his complete Medtner sonatas and concertos for years. They set the standard for other pianists incredibly high. I'm going to play them today in his honor.
