Léon Goossens

Léon Jean Goossens CBE, FRCM (12 June 1897 - 13 February 1988) was a British oboist. He was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal College of Music. His father was violinist and conductor Eugène Goossens, his brother the conductor and composer Eugène Aynsley Goossens and his sister the harpist Sidonie Goossens.

During the early and middle parts of the 20th century, he was the premiere oboe player in the world. He joined the Queen's Hall Orchestra (conducted by Henry J. Wood) at the age of 15 and was later (1932) engaged by Sir Thomas Beecham for the newly-founded London Philharmonic Orchestra, but he also enjoyed a rich solo and chamber-music career. He became famous for a unique pleasing sound no other oboist could match. Oboists of the past had tended to be divided between the French school (elegant but thin and reedy in tone) and the German (full and rounded but rather clumsy, with little or no vibrato), but Goossens brought together the best qualities of both styles.

Goossens commissioned a number of works for the oboe from such distinguished composers as Sir Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Rutland Boughton and collaborated extensively with other prominent soloists such as Yehudi Menuhin. Amongst his many pupils were the oboists Evelyn Barbirolli and Joyance Boughton, daughter of Rutland Boughton

He was awarded a CBE in 1950 and made a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in 1962.

References

* John Warrack, ‘Goossens, Léon Jean (1897–1988)’, rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39907, accessed 30 January 2008]

Works Comissioned/Dedicated to Léon Goossens

*Concerto in A minor for Oboe and Strings, by Ralph Vaughan Williams
* Concerto for Oboe and Strings No 2 in G, by Rutland Boughton
*Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings, by Benjamin Britten
*Concerto, op. 45, by Eugène Aynsley Goossens
*Sonata for Oboe and Piano, by Arnold Cooke

External links

* [http://www.oboeclassics.com/Goossens.htm From Oboe Classics]
* [http://idrs.colorado.edu/Publications/DR/DR9.3/DR9.3.Wils.Goos.html International Double Reed Society Article]
* [http://britishdoublereedsociety.com. British Double Reed Society]