Career Ogdon was born in
Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire; his family moved to Manchester when he was eight. He attended the
Manchester Grammar School, before studying at the
Royal Northern College of Music (formerly The Royal Manchester College of Music) between 1953 and 1957, The recordings were released in 2001. He recorded all ten
Scriabin sonatas in 1971. Ogdon was also a formidable exponent of the works of
Alkan and
Busoni. In more familiar repertoire, he revealed deep musical sensibilities, always buttressed by a colossal technique. He also recorded a number of duo-piano works with his wife Brenda Lucas, also known as
Brenda Lucas Ogdon. On 2 February 1969, on British television, he gave the first modern performance of
Edward Elgar's
Concert Allegro, Op. 46. The piece was never published and the manuscript had long been believed lost, but it came to light in 1968. Ogdon and
Diana McVeigh developed a performing version of the piece from Elgar's manuscript, which was full of corrections, deletions and additions. Between 1976 and 1980 Ogdon was Professor of Music (Piano) at
Indiana University. He completed four comprehensive tours of Southern Africa to enthusiastic acclaim between 1968 and 1976 and dedicated a composition to his tour organizer Hans Adler. His own compositions number more than 200, and include four operas, two large works for orchestra, three cantatas, songs, chamber music, a substantial amount of music for solo piano, and two piano concertos, the first of which he recorded. The majority of his music was composed for the piano. These include 50 transcriptions of works by composers as diverse as
Stravinsky,
Palestrina,
Mozart,
Satie and
Wagner. He also made piano arrangements of songs by
Cole Porter,
Jerome Kern and
George Gershwin and he wrote unaccompanied sonatas for violin, flute and cello. A planned symphony based on the works of
Herman Melville, and a comic opera were left unfinished. The original manuscripts of many of Ogdon's compositions are deposited in the Royal Northern College of Music Library.
Mental breakdown Ogdon's health was good, and his physical constitution was strong, as his wife often recalled in her biography. Regarded as a "gentle giant", known and loved for his kindness and generosity, he had tremendous energy. In 1973, he experienced a sudden severe mental breakdown. His illness was initially diagnosed as
schizophrenia, but later changed to
manic depression (now referred to as bipolar disorder). Either condition may have been inherited from his father, who suffered several psychotic episodes. Ogdon spent some time in the
Maudsley Hospital in London, and in general needed more nursing than it was possible to provide while touring. Nevertheless, he was reported to maintain three hours' practice a day on the hospital's piano. In 1983, after emerging from hospital, he played at the opening of the
Royal Concert Hall in
Nottingham. In 1988 he released a five-disc recording of
Sorabji's
Opus clavicembalisticum. He died in August 1989 of
pneumonia, brought on by undiagnosed
diabetes.
Legacy His wife Brenda, along with writer Michael Kerr, wrote a biography of her life with him in 1981, and released a second edition in 1989, shortly before his death. Another biography by Charles Beauclerk was published in March 2014. The programme was followed by
John Ogdon: A Musical Tribute featuring piano performances by
Peter Donohoe, including Ogdon's own
Theme and Variations. In 1990,
Gordon Rumson, another devoted advocate for Sorabji's music, composed the piano piece
Threnody for John Ogdon. Organist
Kevin Bowyer commissioned and premiered
Alistair Hinton's organ work
Pansophiae for John Ogdon (Hinton is the curator of the Sorabji Archive and worked with Ogdon on the recording of Sorabji's
Opus clavicembalisticum). Ogdon is survived by his daughter and son, Annabel and Richard Ogdon. ==Discography==