Max Rostal

Max Rostal (7 July 1905 – 6 August 1991) was a violinist and a viola player. He was Austrian-born, but later took British citizenship.

Biography

Max Rostal was born in Cieszyn^[1] and studied with Carl Flesch. He won the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1925.^[2] From 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, Howard Leyton-Brown, Igor Ozim, Edith Peinemann, Bryan Fairfax and members of the Amadeus Quartet. He died in Bern.

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.

He premiered Alan Bush's Violin Concerto of 1946-8 in 1949.^[3] He was the dedicatee of Benjamin Frankel's first solo violin sonata (1942),^[4] and he also made the premiere recording.

He played in a piano trio with Heinz Schröter (piano) and Gaspar Cassadó (cello), who was replaced in 1967 by Siegfried Palm.^[5]

He edited a number of works for Schott Music, and produced piano reductions as well.^[6]

Discography

• Benjamin Frankel: Sonata No. 1 for solo violin, Op. 13 (1942) on Decca K 1178 ^[7]
• Frederick Delius: 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).^[8][9]
• Violin concertos by Béla Bartók (No. 2), Alban Berg, Bernard Stevens, and Dmitri Shostakovich (No. 1) recorded between 1948 and 1962, released on CD on Symposium Records, UK ^[10]
• Franz Schubert: Fantasie in C major, D.934, Robert Schumann: Sonata A minor, Op. 105, Claude Debussy: Sonata, Igor Stravinsky: Duo Concertant, Symposium Records, UK
• Johann Sebastian Bach: 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

• Rostal, Max; 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 (1985). Beethoven: The Sonatas for Piano and Violin: thoughts on their interpretation. London: Toccata Press. ISBN 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, München, 1981
• Rostal, Max, Handbuch zum Geigenspiel, unter Mitarbeit von Berta Volmer, Musikverlag Müller & Schade, Bern, 1993
• Rostal, Max, Violin - Schlüssel - Erlebnisse, Erinnerungen, Mit einem autobiografischen Text von Leo Rostal, Ries & Erler, Berlin, 2007

Editions

• Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: Passacaglia für Violine allein, London 1951, Bern 1984
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonaten und Partiten, Leipzig 1982
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violinkonzert KV 218, Mainz 1967
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violinkonzert KV 219, Mainz 1961
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Adagio KV 261, Mainz 1964
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Rondo KV 373, Mainz 1975
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonaten, München 1978
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Romanzen Nr. 1 and 2, Mainz
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Violinkonzert, Mainz 1971
• Franz Schubert: Rondo A-dur, Mainz 1964
• Peter Tschaikowsky: Konzert für Violine und Orchester, Mainz 1973
• Carl Maria von Weber: Rondo Brillant op. 62, Berlin 1930/1985
• Carl Flesch: Das Skalensystem, Berlin 1987
• Jacob Dont: Etüden und Capricen op. 35, Mainz 1971
• Pierre Rode: 24 Capricen, Mainz 1974
• Henryk Wieniawski: 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

References

1. ^ Silvela, Zdenko (2001). A new history of violin playing : the vibrato and Lambert Massart's revolutionary discovery. New York: Universal Publishers. pp. 378. ISBN 1-58112-667-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=gXqBVbWm6tkC&pg=PA378&dq=rostal+1905&ei=2MwxR5H3DIWQ6AK-h9zOAQ&sig=KDS_zMSYt2cAKavqEgQ3qZOVs2w. 
2. ^ Schenk, Dietmar (2004) (in German). Die Hochschule für Musik zu Berlin: Preussens Konservatorium zwischen romantischem Klassizismus und neuer Musik, 1869-1932/33. Pallas Athene. Beitrage zur Universitats- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Franz Steiner Verlag. p. 318. ISBN 9783515083287. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=clqVokEKBecC. Retrieved 14 November 2010. 
3. ^ Craggs, Stuart R. Alan Bush: a source book. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. pp. 66. ISBN 0-7546-0894-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=lNHyBiEIbDgC&pg=PA54&dq=rostal&ei=o84xR-C3FoKM6ALmjszDAQ&sig=2GOf5SEDC7lnyS2rH5HG82oMXgQ#PPA66,M1. 
4. ^ "Description Page of Frankel Sonata". Chester Novello. http://www.chesternovello.com/default.aspx?TabId=2432&State_3041=2&workId_3041=12250. Retrieved 2007-11-07. 
5. ^ "Obituary by Margaret Campbell in The Independent". 2 July 2005. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/siegfried-palm-497261.html. Retrieved 31 August 2009. 
6. ^ 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.)
7. ^ "Benjamin Frankel Website Discography". http://benjaminfrankel.org/?page_id=24. Retrieved 2007-10-18. 
8. ^ "Description from Label Site of Testament SBT1319". http://www.testament.co.uk/shop/product/sbt1319.aspx. Retrieved 2007-10-18. 
9. ^ "Elgar Foundation Information for the Testament Delius/Walton/Elgar CD". http://www.elgarfoundation.org/trolleyed/2/10/index.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-18. 
10. ^ "MusicWeb Review of Max Rostal in Memoriam CD". http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Apr02/Max_Rostal_In_Memoriam.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-18. 

Persondata
Name	Rostal, Max
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1905
Place of birth
Date of death	1991
Place of death