Pianist who put her solo career on hold to care for her husband and established the John Ogdon Foundation to preserve his legacy
The pianist Brenda Lucas Ogdon, who has died aged 90, achieved greatest prominence in the duo with her husband John Ogdon, one of the most dazzling performers of his day. It was at the suggestion of the conductor John Minchinton that they started playing as a duo, and in 1962 Lord Harewood invited them to perform Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion at the Edinburgh international festival. It proved to be a notable success, and in the following year’s festival they gave it again.
John’s joint victory at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in 1962, sharing first place with Vladimir Ashkenazy, led to international tours. In Australia in 1964 the couple had separate performing schedules as well as playing as a duo, and Brenda cared for their infant daughter, Annabel. Later tours included several to the US, where on one occasion they performed Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos in Houston with the conductor, André Previn, at the third keyboard, and to the Soviet Union.
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