“There is method in the madness” – A birthday tribute to Max Rostal

This year marks the centenary of the birth of Max Rostal. Rostal- for those who are too young to remember – was a frequent visitor to Australia and has left a distinct mark on string playing in Australia, not least through his many students who pursued careers “Down under”. One important link in the association between Rostal and Australia is the long-term presence of Jan Sedivka (one of Rostal’s assistants in London) who took up residence in Australia and founded his own, distinguished violin school.

Rostal was born in 1905 in Teschen in the then Austro-Hungarian empire. He received early violin lessons from Arnold Rose, the eminent concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1925 Rostal was awarded the Mendelssohn prize and soon after became an assistant to Carl Flesch in . Rostal’s pedagogical interest and talent manifested itself early in his life and he was appointed as a professor at the Berlin “Hochschule” in 1930. However, the advent of Nazi government in 1933 meant that both Flesch and Rostal left Germany bringing to an end a flourishing violin school – at least for some time- which had made up for some of the apparently irrational and faulty technical beliefs of the entrenched Joachim-School. Rostal settled in London, becoming a British citizen and establishing himself as a notable soloist and teacher. In 1957 Rostal returned to Germany where he was appointed a professor in Cologne. Following his formal retirement in Germany the tireless Rostal took on a professorship at the Berne Conservatorium where he continued to teach a regular violin class and gave annual summer courses and masterclasses with unsurpassed enthusiasm and energy until his death in 1995.

Rostal’s students include many distinguished violinists including Ulf Hoelscher, Edith Peinemann, the and , the latter continuing the Rostal tradition of combining high level artistry with outstanding pedagogical abilities. As a violinist Rostal combined an analytical approach with many intuitive characteristics. Some recordings of his own playing are still available and are being reissued on CD. His characterful playing in “Don Quichote” (with Tortellier, cond. Rudolf Kempe, Dresden Staatskapelle) captures the spirit just perfectly to my mind and the performances of Delius’ 2 nd Sonata (with , piano) or the Stevens Violin Concerto, which Rostal commissioned, remain important and timeless documents of a distinguished artist.

The conviction in Rostal’s playing make his pedagogical ability particularly interesting, for there would at least initially appear to be a degree of tension between the need of the soloist to perform with powerful subjective conviction and the ability of the teacher to listen and nurture many different types of personalities and interpretative conceptions. Rostal negotiated this tension in an admirably disciplined way by combining two seemingly paradoxical attributes: method and flexibility. In one of his favourite references - and one used often in relation to his own, somewhat over-edited edition of the Bach Solo-Sonatas – Rostal used to quote Shakespeare: “There is method in the madness”. And indeed, Rostal had a relaxed but persistent and organised way to tackle anything methodically - from technical issues to interpretative decisions. The methodical emphasis and its underpinning conviction that there is a path towards mastery which can be articulated was balanced in Rostal’s case by a distinct humanism, a belief that students ultimately need to go their own way and a trust in the ability of the student to make autonomous decisions. Rostal excelled in the ability to articulate paths of development and artistic decision making without manipulating or mesmerising the student. In this interest he was fundamentally rational, however, not in a dogmatic or cold-hearted way, but in the knowledge that rationality too can be fallible and that “many paths lead to Rome”. His approach preserved the student’s freedom to decide and aimed at a richer understanding how violinists (including he himself) make responsible violinistic, artistic and aesthetic decisions.

Fortunately for us, Rostal has left us a large legacy of editions and some writings. His edition of the Studies op. 35 by Dont in particular with their “preliminary exercises” are a model of analytic clarity and understanding. Editions of Beethoven Sonatas, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Dvorak Concerti (Edition Schott) are valuable sources for fingerings and bowings even if one decides not to follow all his suggestions. Rostal’s book on Beethoven’s Sonatas for Piano and Violin is (together with Joseph Szigeti’s book) an essential work to be consulted with much benefit by any violinist studying these works in earnest. A recent publication (to date regrettably only in German) of Rostal’s archival notes detailing ideas on technical and musical matters (Handbuch des Geigenspiels , Handbook of Violin Playing ) is a veritable treasure trove of technical and pedagogical insight and its English translation is hopefully not far off.

Page 1 Rostal Tribute, © Goetz Richter, 2005 Rostal was a remarkably comprehensive violinist and musician and would emphasise the need for a comprehensive musical and violinistic education. While he himself was characterised by strong individuality and intuition this would not stop his curiosity and reflection on how the violinist-artist creates the sounding works. In his investigation of – and contribution to this particular process of artistic recreation Rostal has not merely made a contribution to violin playing but one to the aesthetics of performance and violin playing, culture and history.

Goetz Richter (The author is immediate past president of AUSTA NSW and A/Prof. Strings, Chair of the String Unit at the Sydney Conservatorium)

Page 2 Rostal Tribute, © Goetz Richter, 2005