Geoffrey Tozer (1954-2009)
Biography
by Peter Wyllie Johnston
© Copyright 2014
© Copyright 2014
|
Geoffrey Tozer was an artist of the first rank, a consummate musician, a concert pianist and recitalist with few peers, possessing perfect pitch, a boundless musical memory, the ability to improvise, to transpose instantly into any key or to create on the piano a richly textured reduction of an orchestral score at sight. He was a superb accompanist and a generous collaborator in chamber music. He was also a composer.
Tozer composed from childhood and left more than 160 compositions several of which he performed publicly in Australia and overseas. His prodigious abilities were recognized early in his childhood and during a professional career that lasted for nearly fifty years he developed into a mature artist, fully realizing his abilities and earning renown around the world with recitals and concerts on five continents. |
He made his first recording in 1963 and, as an exclusive artist of Chandos during his adult career, produced thirty-four recordings of distinction, six commercial recordings for several Australian record companies and hundreds of other recordings mainly for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, including complete concertos of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Medtner on film. Tozer won numerous awards during his career including the Rubinstein Medal (twice, Israel), the Diapason d’Or (France), the Liszt Centenary Medallion (Hungary) and a Grammy Nomination for Best Classical Performance (USA), becoming the only Australian pianist to achieve such distinction.
Geoffrey Tozer died on 21 August 2009 at the age of just fifty-four. After Tozer’s untimely death, journalist James Campbell described him in the media as ‘Australia’s greatest and most recorded pianist’. Tozer’s greatness is certainly evident in his recorded output and witnessed by his vast performance history which exceeds that of any other Australian pianist. Esteemed Australian pianists such as Eileen Joyce, Noel Mewton-Wood, Percy Grainger and Roger Woodward among those whom Tozer admired, certainly achieved greatness, but few pianists anywhere can rival Tozer’s repertoire or his output of recorded performances. The body of more than 600 recordings which Tozer produced between 1963 and 2009 fully justified Campbell’s description. Today many of Tozer’s recordings can be found in the ABC archives. They, along with other recordings by Tozer housed in the MBS radio archives in Melbourne and Sydney, the BBC archives in London and in archives in Israel, China, Hungary, Germany, Finland, Italy, Russia, Mexico and the United States, form an important part of Tozer’s musical legacy; a gift of national and international importance in music.
Throughout his career Tozer resisted the frequent calls that he permanently re-locate to the northern hemisphere and sign with a major international agent. Whatever this cost him in career terms, he proved it was possible to achieve international renown as a pianist while based permanently in Australia. His overwhelming motivation was always to bring music to the people whether this meant playing for a local audience or piano students in regional China, giving a Master Class in Mexico City or performing for three weeks on a tour of country towns in South Australia. He was invariably motivated to use his talents to make music at every opportunity, and regarded this as a duty which was more important than whether the performances themselves took place in the Australian outback, the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall, the Arts Centre in Gulangyu, China, or in Carnegie Hall. By 2009 Tozer had performed in at least forty countries over a period of forty-six years with many of the world’s major orchestras and conductors. As an exclusive artist of Chandos he had produced a series of recordings which had brought him acclaim as a ‘grand master’ of his instrument and which, in their quality and diversity, became a testament to his musical genius.
Tozer was conceived in Tasmania, but was born in India on 5 November 1954. He lived there with his mother Veronica and brother Peter until October 1958 when the family moved to Melbourne. Tozer’s father was Geoffrey Conan-Davies, a brilliant scholar who had been educated at Bromsgrove and, from the age of fifteen, at Keble College, Oxford University. Speaking in Berlin in 2001, Tozer recalled,
Geoffrey Tozer died on 21 August 2009 at the age of just fifty-four. After Tozer’s untimely death, journalist James Campbell described him in the media as ‘Australia’s greatest and most recorded pianist’. Tozer’s greatness is certainly evident in his recorded output and witnessed by his vast performance history which exceeds that of any other Australian pianist. Esteemed Australian pianists such as Eileen Joyce, Noel Mewton-Wood, Percy Grainger and Roger Woodward among those whom Tozer admired, certainly achieved greatness, but few pianists anywhere can rival Tozer’s repertoire or his output of recorded performances. The body of more than 600 recordings which Tozer produced between 1963 and 2009 fully justified Campbell’s description. Today many of Tozer’s recordings can be found in the ABC archives. They, along with other recordings by Tozer housed in the MBS radio archives in Melbourne and Sydney, the BBC archives in London and in archives in Israel, China, Hungary, Germany, Finland, Italy, Russia, Mexico and the United States, form an important part of Tozer’s musical legacy; a gift of national and international importance in music.
Throughout his career Tozer resisted the frequent calls that he permanently re-locate to the northern hemisphere and sign with a major international agent. Whatever this cost him in career terms, he proved it was possible to achieve international renown as a pianist while based permanently in Australia. His overwhelming motivation was always to bring music to the people whether this meant playing for a local audience or piano students in regional China, giving a Master Class in Mexico City or performing for three weeks on a tour of country towns in South Australia. He was invariably motivated to use his talents to make music at every opportunity, and regarded this as a duty which was more important than whether the performances themselves took place in the Australian outback, the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall, the Arts Centre in Gulangyu, China, or in Carnegie Hall. By 2009 Tozer had performed in at least forty countries over a period of forty-six years with many of the world’s major orchestras and conductors. As an exclusive artist of Chandos he had produced a series of recordings which had brought him acclaim as a ‘grand master’ of his instrument and which, in their quality and diversity, became a testament to his musical genius.
Tozer was conceived in Tasmania, but was born in India on 5 November 1954. He lived there with his mother Veronica and brother Peter until October 1958 when the family moved to Melbourne. Tozer’s father was Geoffrey Conan-Davies, a brilliant scholar who had been educated at Bromsgrove and, from the age of fifteen, at Keble College, Oxford University. Speaking in Berlin in 2001, Tozer recalled,
‘I was born in the Indian Himalayas in a small town high above the winter snowline called Mussoorie. The first music I heard in my cot was my mother playing and teaching the piano, and Beethoven works played on the windup gramophone by Artur Schnabel.’
In 1956, the great pianist, Jascha Spivakovsky toured India and Veronica Tozer, herself a gifted musician and pianist, realized that Melbourne, Australia offered unique musical riches. Soon after Spivakovsky's tour, Veronica, recognizing the prodigious gifts which her young son possessed, decided to re-locate to the musical Australian city. There, On 27 August 1963, Geoffrey Tozer gave his first broadcast recital on ABC radio. Seven months later, on 13 April 1964 he performed the Bach F Minor Concerto with the Astra Chamber Orchestra conducted by George Logie-Smith at the Nicholas Hall in Melbourne. Felix Werder, music critic for the Age wrote:
‘An interesting feature of the concert was the debut of nine year old Geoffrey Tozer as soloist. It was a performance of great charm that would have done credit to a seasoned campaigner, displaying fine musical talent and a natural instinct for a Bachian phrase, particularly beautifully realized in the ‘arioso’.’
During the next five years, under the watchful eyes of Eileen Ralf and her husband Thomas Matthews, Tozer became an experienced, fledgling concert pianist, giving numerous recitals and more than forty concerts with the major orchestras in various Australian cities. For his achievements during the 1960s he became the youngest recipient in the world of the Winston Churchill Fellowship when he was thirteen, moving to England to further his studies in 1969. During his childhood in Melbourne, he came to the attention of one of the greatest pianists in the world, Jascha Spivakovsky, (http://www.jascha.com) whose family had moved to Melbourne from Hitler's Germany in 1933, vowing never to return. Jascha's son, Michael Spivakovsky, tells the story of how his father awarded First Prize to the young Geoffrey Tozer in the first competition that Tozer entered in Melbourne.
Tozer constantly composed during the years of his early musical development. By the time he moved to London, he had produced more than 120 compositions and, at times, had contemplated a career as a composer, rather than as a performer. However, by the age of thirteen, his sheer brilliance on the piano and the constant, consuming impulse to perform meant that his career pathway was set. Although he would continue to compose from time to time, particularly during 1978 when he attained new heights of brilliance with several adult compositions, the majority of his compositional work took place during his years as a child prodigy.
Between 1969 and 1971, Tozer lived in England earning considerable distinction in Britain and Europe. In 1969 he became the youngest ever semi-finalist in the Leeds Piano Competition, later winning First Prize in both the Alex de Vries Piano Competition on Belgium and the Royal Overseas League Competition in London. He made his international debut on 17 August 1970 in the London at a Promenade Concert in the Royal Albert Hall playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 15 K 450 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Colin Davis. Important engagements followed with Tozer giving performances in Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, France and Britain, including invitations from Daniel Barenboim’s English Chamber Orchestra and from Benjamin Britten to perform at the 1971 Aldeburgh Festival. Tozer distinguished himself at Aldeburgh both as a recitalist and as an accompanist for the great cellist Rostropovich.
During the European tour that followed, a Belgian newspaper confidently predicted that, ‘Geoffrey Tozer will become one of the greatest pianists in the world.’ If greatness is measured by the quality of sound produced by an instrumentalist, by the ability to interpret music so as to move an audience through a gamut of emotions while demonstrating a unique sensibility and phenomenal piano technique, by a coverage of the repertoire that rivaled that of Sviatoslav Richter, by pianism of the highest standards for more than forty years and by a love of music that sustained an international career for four decades, performing on every continent while living mostly in Australia, then Tozer has an assured place among the great pianists.
By 5 November 1994, when Tozer celebrated his fortieth birthday in Melbourne he had scaled the peaks of the repertoire, reaching the pinnacle many times and was riding a huge wave of success, unprecedented for an Australian pianist. Recent highlights had included the Australian premiere of the Medtner Piano Concerto No 1 in C Minor Opus 33 with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra (1992), the Medtner Piano Concerto No 2 in Finland, a performance conducted by Leif Segerstrom and broadcast in Europe (1993), Tozer’s first tour of China at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture, with recitals in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities (1993) and his performances of the complete sonatas of Beethoven at the Melbourne International Festival (1994). The wave of success continued internationally until 2004, but came to a premature end in Australia at the Sydney Opera House on April 12, 1996. That night Tozer gave one of the most astounding performances of his career when, in the first half of the concert program, he played Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D Major K 175 and followed this minutes later with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3 in C Opus 26. Few pianists in the world would dare to undertake such a feat, but Tozer gave superlative accounts of both concertos and they were broadcast on ABC radio on 19 April 1996. From 1997 Tozer’s schedule of international engagements was busier than ever and he scaled new heights of musical achievement, giving some of the finest performances of his career. These included Tozer’s London premiere performance and recording of the Roberto Gerhard Piano Concerto (Gramophone Critics Record of the Year, 1997), his Berlin Festival performances of the Schabel Sonata and other Schnabel compositions (2001), and his performances in China, also broadcast live on Chinese national television, of the Yellow River Concerto (2001 and 2002).
Tozer constantly composed during the years of his early musical development. By the time he moved to London, he had produced more than 120 compositions and, at times, had contemplated a career as a composer, rather than as a performer. However, by the age of thirteen, his sheer brilliance on the piano and the constant, consuming impulse to perform meant that his career pathway was set. Although he would continue to compose from time to time, particularly during 1978 when he attained new heights of brilliance with several adult compositions, the majority of his compositional work took place during his years as a child prodigy.
Between 1969 and 1971, Tozer lived in England earning considerable distinction in Britain and Europe. In 1969 he became the youngest ever semi-finalist in the Leeds Piano Competition, later winning First Prize in both the Alex de Vries Piano Competition on Belgium and the Royal Overseas League Competition in London. He made his international debut on 17 August 1970 in the London at a Promenade Concert in the Royal Albert Hall playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 15 K 450 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Colin Davis. Important engagements followed with Tozer giving performances in Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, France and Britain, including invitations from Daniel Barenboim’s English Chamber Orchestra and from Benjamin Britten to perform at the 1971 Aldeburgh Festival. Tozer distinguished himself at Aldeburgh both as a recitalist and as an accompanist for the great cellist Rostropovich.
During the European tour that followed, a Belgian newspaper confidently predicted that, ‘Geoffrey Tozer will become one of the greatest pianists in the world.’ If greatness is measured by the quality of sound produced by an instrumentalist, by the ability to interpret music so as to move an audience through a gamut of emotions while demonstrating a unique sensibility and phenomenal piano technique, by a coverage of the repertoire that rivaled that of Sviatoslav Richter, by pianism of the highest standards for more than forty years and by a love of music that sustained an international career for four decades, performing on every continent while living mostly in Australia, then Tozer has an assured place among the great pianists.
By 5 November 1994, when Tozer celebrated his fortieth birthday in Melbourne he had scaled the peaks of the repertoire, reaching the pinnacle many times and was riding a huge wave of success, unprecedented for an Australian pianist. Recent highlights had included the Australian premiere of the Medtner Piano Concerto No 1 in C Minor Opus 33 with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra (1992), the Medtner Piano Concerto No 2 in Finland, a performance conducted by Leif Segerstrom and broadcast in Europe (1993), Tozer’s first tour of China at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture, with recitals in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities (1993) and his performances of the complete sonatas of Beethoven at the Melbourne International Festival (1994). The wave of success continued internationally until 2004, but came to a premature end in Australia at the Sydney Opera House on April 12, 1996. That night Tozer gave one of the most astounding performances of his career when, in the first half of the concert program, he played Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D Major K 175 and followed this minutes later with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3 in C Opus 26. Few pianists in the world would dare to undertake such a feat, but Tozer gave superlative accounts of both concertos and they were broadcast on ABC radio on 19 April 1996. From 1997 Tozer’s schedule of international engagements was busier than ever and he scaled new heights of musical achievement, giving some of the finest performances of his career. These included Tozer’s London premiere performance and recording of the Roberto Gerhard Piano Concerto (Gramophone Critics Record of the Year, 1997), his Berlin Festival performances of the Schabel Sonata and other Schnabel compositions (2001), and his performances in China, also broadcast live on Chinese national television, of the Yellow River Concerto (2001 and 2002).
Tozer’s private funeral was held in the Windsor Convent Chapel which was filled to capacity with mourners. Four weeks later, in accordance with Tozer’s wishes, his Memorial Service was held at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne. During the service Rosamund Illing sang a moving rendition of Schubert’s Ave Maria before the former Prime Minister of Australia Paul Keating, who since 1989 had been Tozer greatest and most important patron, galvanized the congregation of more than four hundred people when he delivered an impassioned eulogy, lamenting the loss of such an irreplaceable artist.
