伴奏ピアニスト： ジェフリー・パーソンズ Geoffrey Parsons

Geoffrey Penwill Parsons AO OBE (15 June 1929 - 26 January 1995) was an Australian pianist, most particularly notable as an accompanist to singers and instrumentalists.

After the retirement of Gerald Moore, he was generally considered the world's finest and most sympathetic accompanist of lieder singers, "elevating the role of the accompanist to new heights with his musicality, authority and quiet strength of playing".

Biography

Geoffrey Parsons was born in the Sydney suburb of Ashfield, to a working-class family. He had two older brothers and a large extended family. He originally intended to study architecture, but his love of music prevailed. He studied with Winifred Burston (a student of Ferruccio Busoni) at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music from 1941 to 1948, (where a family friend, George Vern Barnett, was on the piano staff) and under the general tutelage of Eugene Goossens. He won the ABC's Instrumental and Vocal Competition in 1947 with a performance of Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2. He toured Australia with Essie Ackland in 1948, and in 1950 travelled to Britain to perform with bass baritone Peter Dawson. The six-concert tour completed, Parsons remained in London, earning a living initially as a cocktail lounge pianist. This led to an engagement with the popular duettists Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, and permanent residence in Britain.
A performance of Schubert's Winterreise with Gerhard Husch in his first London concert since World War II led to Parsons being invited to Munich to be Husch's permanent accompanist, where they worked together almost daily. There he studied with Friedrich Wuhrer in 1956. In 1961, he made his first appearance with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf at the Royal Festival Hall at the invitation of Walter Legge, and later became her principal accompanist. The list of singers with whom he worked includes Dame Joan Hammond, Victoria de los Angeles, Nicolai Gedda, Rita Streich, Birgit Nilsson, Hans Hotter, Hugues Cuenod, Norman Bailey, and Janet Baker.
Increasingly Parsons began to partner younger singers such as Thomas Hampson, Olaf Bar, Barbara Bonney, Thomas Allen, Jessye Norman and Bryn Terfel. Some of these younger artists such as Susan Kessler, Yvonne Kenny, Felicity Lott and Ann Murray were also pupils of Parsons's long-time life partner, the singer Erich Vietheer.
Geoffrey Parsons also accompanied some of the world's greatest instrumentalists, including Nathan Milstein, Ruggiero Ricci, Paul Tortelier, Wanda Wi?komirska and Ida Haendel. Artists whom he partnered quickly appreciated his exemplary standards of musicianship, and a level of pianistic command that was totally new to the accompanist's role. This led to his increasing recognition as the ideal accompanist in a career that saw him perform in over 40 countries in six continents, including all the major international music festivals. He also recorded widely throughout his career, leaving a vast output. He also partnered other pianists such as Leslie Howard, for example in works by Franz Liszt for two pianos, in which neither pianist is subordinate to the other.

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