Geoffrey Tozer in Concert: Hobart 1991

Live solo piano recital by Geoffrey Tozer, recorded at the University Centre, Hobart, on 18 May 1991. Bach’s Italian Concerto and Schumann’s Carnaval open a programme that also takes in Medtner, Liszt, Beethoven and Elgar.

Geoffrey Tozer piano

Johann Sebastian Bach composer
Robert Schumann composer
Nikolai Medtner composer
Paul de Schlözer composer
Franz Liszt composer
Johann Strauss II composer
Carl Tausig composer
Ludwig van Beethoven composer
Sir Edward Elgar composer
Carl Tausig arranger
Geoffrey Tozer arranger

A live solo piano recital recorded at the University Centre, Hobart, on 18 May 1991. The programme ranges from Bach’s Italian Concerto and Schumann’s Carnaval through Medtner, de Schlözer, Liszt and a Tausig Strauss transcription to Beethoven’s Für Elise and Elgar’s Sea Slumber Song in Tozer’s own arrangement.

Shortly after the concert Tozer signed with Chandos, and this tape remained unissued until Move released it in 2014.

The music of Nikolai Medtner has suffered the fate of Sleeping Beauty, protected by its formidably thorny difficulty and almost total absence of available scores. It dates from the heroic age of pianism in Imperial Russia when pianists were expected to, and could, play such compositions with splendour and ease. Medtner was not only a superb pianist but was considered by Rachmaninov to be his superior as a composer. His music, unfamiliar and dense at first, has an uncanny ability to haunt the memory. Gramophone records by the composer himself have kept his music alive, just.

Paul de Schlözer’s Etude in A flat is a famous show-stopper from the old days, possibly written by Moszkowski (who apparently lost it in a card game to de Schlözer) and used as a daily warm-up by Rachmaninov. I am playing it tonight in tribute to the late, great pianist Eileen Joyce who made it her own. No one ever dashed it off with as much brilliance and charm as she did. Her dazzling recording of it is gramophone history: unknown at the start of the recording, three minutes later she had a contract at the conclusion of the Etude. This Etude is still used as audition material for the Moscow Conservatoire.

Liszt’s Farewell is a touching arrangement of a Russian folksong, written as a gift to the Russian pianist Siloti. Liszt’s favourite pupil, the volcanic Carl Tausig, died young, but not perhaps before his time. He appears to have burnt himself out attempting to conquer every difficulty known to pianists. Among his works are transcriptions of waltzes by Johann Strauss published in homage to Liszt, as Nouvelles soirées de Vienne. Rachmaninov made a famous recording of this one. One can gauge the diminished expectations of pianism in our own day by comparing contemporary performances of Tausig’s music to the reckless joyous accuracy of a former age.

— Geoffrey Tozer

Artist

Geoffrey Tozer

Geoffrey Tozer (1954–2009) was an Australian concert pianist and composer of the first rank, gifted with perfect pitch, a boundless musical memory, and the ability to improvise, transpose instantly into any key, or reduce an orchestral score at sight.

Audio previews

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Tracks

Italian Concerto, BWV 971 Johann Sebastian Bach

(first movement) 4:00
Andante 4:07
Presto 3:57
Carnaval, Op. 9 Robert Schumann 26:21
Sonata in C, Op. 11: No. 3 Nikolai Medtner 8:23
Romantic Sketches for the Young, Op. 54: No. 3: The Organ Grinder Nikolai Medtner 4:43
Improvisation, Op. 31: No. 1 Nikolai Medtner 7:24
Etude in A flat, Op. 1: No. 2 Paul de Schlözer 3:09
Farewell (“Abschied”) Franz Liszt 2:11
One only lives once Johann Strauss II Carl Tausig Arr: Carl Tausig 6:58
Für Elise Ludwig van Beethoven 3:56
Sea Slumber Song Sir Edward Elgar Arr: Geoffrey Tozer 4:40

Performers

Geoffrey Tozer

Composers

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer and organist of the late Baroque. His sacred and secular music for choir, orchestra, organ and solo instruments remains among the foundations of the Western concert and church repertory.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) was a German composer and pianist whose music stands at the centre of the Western classical tradition, bridging the Classical and Romantic eras.

Sir Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar’s music carries English romantic warmth into the concert hall: long-breathed melodies, rich harmony and tunes that lodge in the ear, from the intimate charm of Salut d’Amour to organ writing of near-symphonic scale.

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt (1811–1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic era. His vast output reshaped piano technique, invented the symphonic poem and pushed harmony toward the twentieth century.

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann (1810–1856) was a German composer and music critic of the early Romantic era. His piano works and songs remain among the most enduring of the period.

Nikolai Medtner

Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (Russian: Никола́й Ка́рлович Ме́тнер, Nikoláj Kárlovič Métner; 5 January 1880 [O.S. 24 December 1879] – 13 November 1951) was a Russian composer and pianist. A younger contemporary of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, he wrote a substantial number of compositions, all of which include the piano. His works include fourteen piano sonatas, three violin sonatas, three piano concerti, a piano quintet, two works for two pianos, many shorter piano pieces, a few shorter works for violin and piano, and 108 songs including two substantial works for vocalise. His 38 Skazki (generally known as "Fairy Tales" in English but more correctly translated as "Tales") for piano solo contain some of his most original music and are as central to his output as the piano sonatas.

Paul de Schlözer

Paul (Pavel Yulievich) de Schlözer[1] (1841 or 1842 – 1898) was a Polish or Russian 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 Moritz Moszkowski.

Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II wrote the waltzes, polkas and operettas that fixed three-quarter time at the centre of nineteenth-century dance music, from The Blue Danube and Tales from the Vienna Woods to Die Fledermaus.

Carl Tausig

Carl Tausig (1841–1871) was a Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger and composer. In a career cut short at twenty-nine he stood among the leading piano virtuosi of the nineteenth century.

Where to listen

Geoffrey Tozer in Concert: Hobart 1991 is available for streaming through Spotify and Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.

Geoffrey Tozer in Concert: Hobart 1991 is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.