Lionel Rogg

Lionel Rogg
(b Geneva, 21 April 1936). Swiss organist and composer. He studied the organ with Pierre Segond and the piano with Nikita Magaloff at the Geneva Conservatoire, gaining premiers prix on both instruments.

In 1961 he played all Bach's organ works in ten recitals in the Victoria Hall, Geneva, subsequently recording them on the Metzler organ in the Grossmünster, Zürich. This laid the foundation of his international reputation as a Bach specialist; as his interpretative skills increased he re-recorded the complete Bach organ works twice. His illuminating performance of the Art of Fugue (recorded in 1970 in Geneva Cathedral) won a Grand Prix du Disque. Rogg has proved equally authoritative with Buxtehude (whose complete organ works he recorded in 1980) and his contemporaries, François Couperin and his school, and the literature of Reger, Liszt and Brahms. He has travelled the world, giving countless recitals and masterclasses in Europe, the Americas, South Africa, Japan and Australia. He was professor of counterpoint (1960–72) at the Geneva Conservatoire, where he was appointed professor of organ in 1967; in addition he gives classes in improvisation and in interpretation at the Scuola Civica in Milan. In 1989 Rogg received an honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva. Having inaugurated the new van den Heuvel organ in the Victoria Hall, Geneva, in 1993, he has made several acclaimed recordings there as resident organist. From the 1980s he has been productive as a composer, principally of organ, piano and choral music. His writings include many articles in Tribune de l'orgue (Lausanne, 1963–).