John Browning (pianist)
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John Browning (born 23 May 1933; died 26 January 2003), was an American pianist known for his reserved, elegant style and sophisticated interpretations of Bach and Scarlatti, and for his collaboration with the American composer Samuel Barber.
Browning was born to musical parents in Denver in 1933. Having studied piano from age 5, he appeared as a soloist with the Denver Symphony at 10. In 1945 his family moved to Los Angeles. He spent two years at Occidental College there. He began his studies at Juilliard with Rosina Lhévinne in 1950. He won the Leventritt Competition in New York City in 1955, and made his professional orchestral debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1956.
In 1962 he gave the premiere of Samuel Barber's Pulitzer Prize-winning Piano Concerto, which was written for him, in connection with the opening of Lincoln Center. His second recording of the work, with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony in 1991 for RCA Victor, won a Grammy for best instrumental soloist with orchestra. Browning won a second Grammy in 1993 with a disc of Barber's solo works on MusicMasters. He continued to follow the works of contemporary American composers but found relatively few to his liking.
Despite the competition from Van Cliburn and other virtuoso American pianists of the same generation, Browning developed a busy career, giving some 100 concerts a season.
He eased his schedule in the 1970s, explaining later that he had grown ragged from overwork. In the 1990's, his career had something of a renaissance. His last performance was, by invitation, at the United States Supreme Court in May 2002. His last public appearance was at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in April of that year. Mr. Browning is remembered for his penetrating, intellectual interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Domenico Scarlatti, among others, and for his many fine recordings of the works of these and other composers. Browning recorded for RCA, Delos and Music Masters labels.
