With Auckland Sinfonietta.
Between 1965 and 1996, Geoffrey Tozer performed twenty-four of the twenty-seven Mozart concertos in public performances in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, England, Singapore and the United States of America.
Tozer regarded the music of Mozart, with that of Bach and Beethoven, as being at the core of his repertoire and, at least until the mid 1980s, was more associated with the music of Mozart that of any other composer. When the great Mozartian Ingrid Haebler visited Melbourne in February 1965, The Age reported that she considered his playing ‘brilliant’. Five years later in London, Tozer made his debut playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 in the Royal Albert Hall to enormous acclaim. Later, when Tozer attended Haebler’s concert at the Albert Hall, she complimented in her programme, writing ‘I would have much rather been listening to you’.
In 1980 in Australia, Tozer gave a stupendous performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.16 with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The entire performance was filmed and, with Tozer’s performance of Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto is an Australian national treasure, one that is still awaiting release 34 years later. Tozer first performed Mozart’s final concerto in the 1970s and he played it frequently throughout his career. He seems to have been especially inspired for the performance in Takapuna, Auckland and probably never surpassed the quality of his performance there on 9 September 1996.
Notes © 2014 Peter Wyllie Johnston
MD 3387