John Browning (1933–2003) was a prominent American pianist who made his first appearance at age ten in Denver, Colorado, where he was born. After study in Los Angeles, he went to the Juilliard School of Music as a pupil of Rosina Lhévinne. He won several awards and made his debut with the New York Philharmonic under Dmitri Mitropoulos in 1956—Barber was at that concert. Browning was subsequently in demand internationally and toured the USSR in 1965.

He was mostly involved with the standard repertoire, from Mozart to Rachmaninov, but he also recorded the Prokofiev concertos and made a particular impact with the Barber Piano Concerto when he premiered it with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf at Lincoln Center on September 24, 1962. The concerto was commissioned for the opening of the new Philharmonic Hall. Browning played it 50 times in its first two seasons and by 1969 had chalked up almost 150 performances. The concerto gained Barber his second Pulitzer Prize and a Music Critics Circle Award. Browning made two recordings and also accompanied the complete songs of Barber with Cheryl Studer and Thomas Hampson. Browning's obituary in The Times focused on his role in launching “one of the most popular … of the select body of distinguished piano concertos composed since World War II.”

Interview

By Permission of Elizabeth B. Witchey

JB Sam and I met in 1956. I was making my debut with Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic, and his Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance was being premiered. And then Schirmer's commissioned the Piano Concerto and Sam called me and said, “Do you want to do it?” and I said, “Of course. I would be very honored.” I didn't get the last movement until about ten days before the premiere, so I was practicing about fifteen hours a day trying to get it memorized because it's frightfully difficult.

PD What discussions did you have with Sam Barber about the kind of music it might be? Did he come to you with sketches?

JB Sam had a very interesting way of writing for artists. He would have any of us for whom he was writing a work come up to the country house at Mt. Kisco and play through everything we knew for three, four, or five days.