Death
Geoffrey Tozer was undoubtedly affected by the deaths of his mother in 1996, and of his long-time manager Reuben Fineberg in 1997; but it is debatable whether, as was stated in various obituaries, he 'became unwell but carried on'. According to his medical records, Geoffrey Tozer's illness did not become apparent until at least seven years after the death of his mother.
On 21 August 2009 he died from liver disease at the East Malvern house in Melbourne in which he lived as a child, having been released from the Alfred Hospital the previous week. He was survived by four of five siblings.
A public memorial service was held on 1 October 2009 at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. In a stinging address that lasted 45 minutes the former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, said that Tozer:
"...deserved to be remembered alongside the Australian triumvirate of Nellie Melba, Percy Grainger and Joan Sutherland, he was treated with indifference, contempt and malevolence by the Melbourne and Sydney symphony orchestras. The people who chose repertoire for those two orchestras and who had charge of the selection of artists during this period should hang their heads in shame at their neglect of him. ... If anyone needs a case example of the bitchiness and preference within the arts in Australia, here you have it.
Keating described the death of Tozer as:
"... like Canada having lost Glenn Gould, or France, Ginette Neveu. It is a massive cultural loss, the kind of loss people felt when Germany lost Dresden."
He compared Tozer to pianists of the calibre of Emil Gilels, Arthur Rubinstein, Sviatoslav Richter, Ferruccio Busoni and Artur Schnabel. Keating also compared Tozer's death to that of Maria Callas, who died alone in Paris in 1977. "In the end, his liver failed. But I think I have to say we all let him down. ... We should have cared more and done more." The service was sparsely attended.
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