Léon Goossens

Léon Jean Goossens (born June 12, 1897 in Liverpool , † February 13, 1988 in Tunbridge Wells ) was an English oboist .

Life

Léon Goossens was the son of the violinist and opera conductor Eugène Goossens , his brother was the conductor and composer Eugène Aynsley Goossens . Goossens began playing the oboe at the age of eight and performed publicly just a few years later. From 1911 to 1914 he studied at the Royal College of Music in London and at the age of 17 became principal oboist of the Queen's Hall Orchestra. In the First World War wounded, he returned to military service back to the Queen's Hall Orchestra. In 1924 he moved to Covent Garden under Thomas Beecham , also played in the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society and from 1932 to 1939 in the London Philharmonic Orchestra as principal oboist. He also taught oboe himself at the Royal College of Music from 1924 to 1939.

Goossens later embarked on a career as an oboe soloist and enjoyed a high reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. Several composers dedicated works to him, such as Ralph Vaughan Williams ( Concerto for Oboe and Strings in A minor ), Arnold Bax , Benjamin Britten and Francis Poulenc . His brother Eugène also wrote an oboe concerto for him. In 1950 he was appointed to the CBE . In 1962 he suffered injuries in the jaw and lip area in a traffic accident, but was able to resume his career in 1966 after changing his playing technique and performed until he was more than 80 years old.

Léon Goossens, who also led master classes and published the book Oboe (London, 1977) together with Edwin Roxburgh , is considered to be the founder of an English school of oboe playing.

literature

• The New Grove, 2nd edition

Web links

• Entry in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996
• Biographical and discographic information (Engl.)
• Obituary in the New York Times, February 15, 1988
• Leon Goossens in the Internet Movie Database (English)