Graham Johnson

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Graham Johnson (born July 10, 1950 in Bulawayo , Rhodesia ) is a British pianist and song accompanist .

career

Johnson came to London at the age of 17 to study at the Royal Academy of Music . Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons deserve special mention among his teachers . At the age of 22, Johnson was brought up as a pianist in Peter Pears ' first master class in The Maltings in 1972 , which brought him in contact with Benjamin Britten and became a major impetus to establish his career as a song accompanist.

In 1976 he founded the Songmakers' Almanac together with singers Felicity Lott , Ann Murray , Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Richard Jackson in order to re-perform hitherto neglected repertoire of piano-accompanied vocal music. Over the next few decades this led to the development of over 250 different recital programs.

Graham Johnson accompanied singers like u. a. Thomas Allen , Victoria de los Ángeles , Elly Ameling , Arleen Augér , Janet Baker , Juliane Banse , Ian Bostridge , Elizabeth Connell , Brigitte Fassbaender , Matthias Goerne , Thomas Hampson , Simon Keenlyside , Angelika Kirchschlager , Philip Langridge , Sergei Leiferkus , Marjana Lipovšek , Edith Mathis , Hanno Müller-Brachmann , Lucia Popp , Christoph Prégardien , Margaret Price , Thomas Quasthoff , Dorothea Röschmann , Peter Schreier , Elisabeth Schwarzkopf .

One of his particular merits is the complete recording of Schubert's lieder with many internationally renowned song interpreters on the Hyperion Records label , known as The Hyperion Schubert Edition . He then initiated similar projects for the same label with the songs Robert Schumanns and Gabriel Faurés . He has also recorded countless CDs of English art songs and themed song groups for Hyperion and Collins.

All of these recordings gained their fame not only because of the actual pianistic part of Johnson's, but also because of his excellently researched explanations of the programs in the extensive booklets of the CDs, which Johnson himself wrote.

His recording of Francis Poulencs Mélodies with Felicity Lott also achieved particular fame. He also recorded songs by Saint-Saëns , Reynaldo Hahn , Déodat de Séverac , Emmanuel Chabrier and Louis Durey , to name just a few.

Johnson is one of the main representatives of the concert scene at Wigmore Hall in London.

Johnson is also the author of books on the French art song (together with Richard Stokes), a documentation of lectures on the songs of Benjamin Britten, and a book on the songs of Gabriel Fauré.

Johnson is a lecturer and holds master classes at music colleges and festivals. In 2010 he was made an honorary member of the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS). His life partner is the baritone singer Brandon Velarde.

bibliography

  • The Songmakers' Almanac. Twenty Years of Recitals in London . Thames Publishing, 1997
  • The French Song Companion . Oxford University Press, 2000
  • Britten, Voice & Piano. Lectures on the Vocal Music of Benjamin Britten . Guildhall, 2003
  • Gabriel Fauré. The Songs and Their Poets . Guildhall, 2009
  • Franz Schubert: The Complete Songs . 3 vols, with song text translations by Richard Wigmore, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-11267-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Communication from the RPS , accessed on January 18, 2011
  2. ^ Schubert: songs of the pack . The Guardian, March 10, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Johnson, Graham
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British pianist and accompanist
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Bulawayo