Max Rostal

{{Infobox musical artist

|name = Max Rostal

|image =

|caption =

|background = non_vocal_instrumentalist

|birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1905|7|7}}

|birth_place = Teschen, Austria-Hungary

|death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1991|8|6|1905|7|7}}

|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.{{Cite web|title=Objekt-Metadaten @ LexM – Universität Hamburg |url=https://www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de/object/lexm_lexmperson_00002648}}

Biography

Max Rostal was born in Cieszyn{{Cite book|last=Silvela|first=Zdenko|title=A new history of violin playing : the vibrato and Lambert Massart's revolutionary discovery|isbn=1-58112-667-0|location=New York|publisher=Universal Publishers|year=2001|pages=378|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXqBVbWm6tkC&q=rostal+1905&pg=PA378}} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://sztetl.org.pl/en/biographies/4572-rostal-max|title = Rostal Max | Virtual Shtetl}}

He studied with Carl Flesch. He also studied theory and composition with Emil Bohnke and Matyás Seiber.M. Rostal, Violin – Schlüssel – Erlebnisse, pp. 16–39 He won the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1925.{{cite book

|last= Schenk

|first= Dietmar

|title=Die Hochschule für Musik zu Berlin: Preussens Konservatorium zwischen romantischem Klassizismus und neuer Musik, 1869-1932/33

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=clqVokEKBecC

|accessdate= 14 November 2010

|series=Pallas Athene. Beitrage zur Universitats- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte

|year= 2004

|publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag

|location=

|language= German

|isbn= 978-3-515-08328-7

|page= 318

}} 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, Lars Anders Tomter and members of the Amadeus Quartet.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

In 1945, in honour of Flesch, he co-founded what was later known as the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition with Edric Cundell.{{cite encyclopedia |author=Noël Goodwin|authorlink=Noël Goodwin |title=Rostal, Max |encyclopedia=Grove Music Online |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.23914 }}

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.{{Cite book|last=Craggs|first=Stuart R|title=Alan Bush: a source book|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7546-0894-3|location=Aldershot, England|publisher=Ashgate|pages=66|

url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lNHyBiEIbDgC&q=rostal&pg=PA54}} He was the dedicatee of Benjamin Frankel's first solo violin sonata (1942),{{Cite web|title=Description Page of Frankel Sonata|publisher=Chester Novello|url=http://www.chesternovello.com/default.aspx?TabId=2432&State_3041=2&workId_3041=12250|accessdate=7 November 2007}} and he also made the premiere recording. He commissioned the violin concerto by Bernard Stevens in 1943.[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]

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.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.)

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 on 6 August 1991 in Bern, Switzerland.{{cite web |url=https://www.rcm.ac.uk/singingasong/featuredmusicianscategory3/maxrostal/ |title=Max Rostal |access-date=25 August 2024 |website=rcm.ac.uk}}

Discography

Benjamin Frankel: Sonata No. 1 for solo violin, Op. 13 (1942) on Decca K 1178{{Cite web|title=Benjamin Frankel Website Discography|url=http://benjaminfrankel.org/?page_id=24|accessdate=18 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114134125/http://benjaminfrankel.org/?page_id=24|archive-date=14 November 2007|url-status=dead}}
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).{{Cite web|title=Description from Label Site of Testament SBT1319|url=http://www.testament.co.uk/shop/product/sbt1319.aspx|accessdate=18 October 2007|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080610204955/http://www.testament.co.uk/shop/product/sbt1319.aspx|archivedate=10 June 2008|df=dmy-all}}{{Cite web|title=Elgar Foundation Information for the Testament Delius/Walton/Elgar CD|url=http://www.elgarfoundation.org/trolleyed/2/10/index.htm|accessdate=18 October 2007|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080611035026/http://www.elgarfoundation.org/trolleyed/2/10/index.htm|archivedate=11 June 2008|df=dmy-all}}
Maurice Ravel: Sonate fur Violine und Klavier, Marcel Mihalovici: 2.Sonate fur Violine und Klavier op.45 Deutsche Grammophon SLPM 138 016, 1959.
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{{Cite web|title=MusicWeb Review of Max Rostal in Memoriam CD|url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Apr02/Max_Rostal_In_Memoriam.htm|accessdate=18 October 2007}}
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

[http://www.europarchive.org/item.php?id=lp-00944_BeG 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=

{{Cite book |last=Rostal |first=Max |title=Beethoven: The Sonatas for Piano and Violin: thoughts on their interpretation |year=1985 |others=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 |location=London |publisher=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, 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=

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 Tchaikowsky: 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