Max Rostal Explained
Max Rostal |
Background: | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
Birth Date: | 1905 7, df=yes |
Birth Place: | Teschen, Austria-Hungary |
Death Place: | Bern, Switzerland |
Occupation: | Violinist |
Instrument: | Violin, viola |
Genre: | Classical |
Max Rostal (7 July 1905 – 6 August 1991) was a violinist and a viola player. He was Austrian-born, but later took British citizenship.[1]
Biography
Max Rostal was born in Cieszyn[2] to a Jewish merchant family. As a child prodigy, he started studying the violin at the age of 5, and played in front of Emperor Franz Josef I in 1913.[3]
He studied with Carl Flesch. He also studied theory and composition with Emil Bohnke and Matyás Seiber.[4] He won the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1925.[5] In 1930–33 he taught at the Berlin Hochschule, from 1944 to 1958 at the Guildhall School of Music, and then at the Musikhochschule Köln (1957–82) and the Conservatory in Bern (1957–85). His pupils included Yfrah Neaman, Igor Ozim, Edith Peinemann, Bryan Fairfax, and members of the Amadeus Quartet.
In 1945, in honour of Flesch, he co-founded what was later known as the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition with Edric Cundell.[6]
Rostal played a wide variety of music, but was a particular champion of contemporary works such as Béla Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 2. He made a number of recordings. Rostal premiered Alan Bush's Violin Concerto of 1946–8 in 1949.[7] He was the dedicatee of Benjamin Frankel's first solo violin sonata (1942),[8] and he also made the premiere recording. He commissioned the violin concerto by Bernard Stevens in 1943.[9]
Rostal played in a piano trio with Heinz Schröter (piano) and Gaspar Cassadó (cello), who was replaced in 1967 by Siegfried Palm. He edited a number of works for Schott Music, and also produced piano reductions.[10]
Rostal's daughter Sybil B. G. Eysenck became a psychologist and is the widow of the personality psychologist Hans Eysenck, with whom she collaborated. Rostal died in Bern.
Discography
Sonata No. 1 for solo violin, Op. 13 (1942) on Decca K 1178[11]
Violin Sonata No. 2, Sir Edward Elgar: Violin Sonata, and Sir William Walton: Violin Sonata (1954 recordings, released 1955-7 on LP on Westminster), reissued on the Testament UK label, SBT1319 (2003).[12] [13]
Sonate fur Violine und Klavier, Marcel Mihalovici: 2.Sonate fur Violine und Klavier op.45 Deutsche Grammophon SLPM 138 016, 1959.
Fantasie in C major, D.934, Robert Schumann: Sonata A minor, Op. 105, Claude Debussy: Sonata, Igor Stravinsky: Duo Concertant, Symposium Records, UK
Sonata in E minor (arranged by Howard Ferguson), Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: Passacaglia, Giuseppe Tartini: Concerto in G minor, Sonata The Devil's Trill, Ludwig van Beethoven: Romances No. 1 and 2, Symposium Records, UK
- Franz Schubert: 3 Sonatas, Op. 137, No. 1-3, Rondo in B minor, Op. 70, D. 895, Sonata in A major, Op. 162, D. 574, Symposium Records, UK
Media
- European Archive Copyright free LP recording of Beethoven's Kreutzer sonata by Max Rostal (violin) and Franz Osborn (piano) at the European Archive (for non-American viewers only).
Bibliography
Books
- Book: Rostal, Max . Beethoven: The Sonatas for Piano and Violin: thoughts on their interpretation . 1985 . Horace and Anna Rosenberg, translators, foreword by the Amadeus Quartet. With a Pianist's Postscript by Günter Ludwig and a History of Performance Practice by Paul Rolland . London . Toccata Press . 0-907689-06-X.
- Rostal, Max, Ludwig van Beethoven: Die Sonaten für Violine und Klavier, Gedanken zu ihrer Interpretation, Mit einem Nachtrag aus pianistischer Sicht von Günter Ludwig, R.Piper & Co. Verlag, Munich, 1981
- Rostal, Max, Handbuch zum Geigenspiel, unter Mitarbeit von Berta Volmer, Müller & Schade publishing house, Bern, 1993
- Rostal, Max, Violin – Schlüssel – Erlebnisse, Erinnerungen, Mit einem autobiografischen Text von Leo Rostal, Ries & Erler, Berlin, 2007
Editions
Passacaglia für Violine allein, London 1951, Bern 1984
Sonaten und Partiten, Leipzig 1982
Violinkonzert KV 218, Mainz 1967
Violinkonzert KV 219, Mainz 1961
Adagio KV 261, Mainz 1964
Rondo KV 373, Mainz 1975
Sonaten, München 1978
Romanzen Nr. 1 and 2, Mainz
Violinkonzert, Mainz 1971
Rondo A-dur, Mainz 1964
Konzert für Violine und Orchester, Mainz 1973
Rondo Brillant op. 62, Berlin 1930/1985
Das Skalensystem, Berlin 1987
Etüden und Capricen op. 35, Mainz 1971
24 Capricen, Mainz 1974
L'École moderne op. 10, Bern 1991
Compositions
- Max Rostal: Studie in Quinten, für Violine mit Klavierbegleitung, 1955
- Max Rostal: Studie in Quarten, für Violine mit Klavierbegleitung, 1957
See also
Notes and References
- Web site: Objekt-Metadaten @ LexM – Universität Hamburg .
- Book: Silvela, Zdenko. A new history of violin playing : the vibrato and Lambert Massart's revolutionary discovery. 1-58112-667-0. New York. Universal Publishers. 2001. 378.
- Web site: Rostal Max | Virtual Shtetl.
- M. Rostal, Violin – Schlüssel – Erlebnisse, pp. 16–39
- Book: Schenk
, Dietmar
. Die Hochschule für Musik zu Berlin: Preussens Konservatorium zwischen romantischem Klassizismus und neuer Musik, 1869-1932/33. 14 November 2010. Pallas Athene. Beitrage zur Universitats- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte. 2004. Franz Steiner Verlag. German. 978-3-515-08328-7. 318.
- Encyclopedia: Noël Goodwin. Noël Goodwin . Rostal, Max . . 2001 . . 10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.23914 .
- Book: Craggs, Stuart R. Alan Bush: a source book. 2007. 978-0-7546-0894-3. Aldershot, England. Ashgate. 66.
- Web site: Description Page of Frankel Sonata. Chester Novello. 7 November 2007.
- http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Apr02/Max_Rostal_In_Memoriam.htm 'Max Rostal - In Memoriam', Symposium CD 1142/43, reviewed at MusicWeb International
- A keyword search at http://www.schott-music.com turns up – after disabling fuzzy search – 16 items of sheet music – one, the Studie in Quinten for violin and piano (ISMN M-001-06487-3), of his own composition, but mostly edited by him. (Also two items in periodicals that are about his music-making or influence, but not by him.)
- Web site: Benjamin Frankel Website Discography. 18 October 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20071114134125/http://benjaminfrankel.org/?page_id=24. 14 November 2007. dead.
- Web site: Description from Label Site of Testament SBT1319. 18 October 2007. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20080610204955/http://www.testament.co.uk/shop/product/sbt1319.aspx. 10 June 2008. dmy-all.
- Web site: Elgar Foundation Information for the Testament Delius/Walton/Elgar CD. 18 October 2007. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20080611035026/http://www.elgarfoundation.org/trolleyed/2/10/index.htm. 11 June 2008. dmy-all.
- Web site: MusicWeb Review of Max Rostal in Memoriam CD. 18 October 2007.