Igor Ozim is a Slovenian (Yugoslavian) violinist and
teacher born (in Ljubljana) on May 9, 1931.
(Ljubljana – formerly in Yugoslavia - is now in Slovenia and it is its
capital.) He is widely known as a violin
pedagogue rather than as a touring concert violinist, although that is how he
began his career. He started violin
lessons in his native city with Leon Pfeifer (a student of Otakar Sevcik) at
the Academy of Music at age 8. However,
by that time, he had already been studying violin for three years but with
someone I don’t know anything about. When
he was 18, after graduating from the academy, he traveled to England to study
with Albert Sammons at the Royal College of Music (commonly referred to as the
RCM.) He followed that up with two years
of study with Max Rostal, either as a private student or at the Guildhall
School of Music where Rostal was a teacher.
Ozim was now 20 years old. In
1951, he won the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition. After that, Ozim made his formal debut in
England – first in a recital at the Wigmore Hall in London and then in
Liverpool, playing the Mendelssohn e minor concerto with the Liverpool
Philharmonic. In 1953, he won another
violin competition (the ARD Competition, in Munich, in its second year of
existence. The name ARD in German is a
very long name but translates to something like “German Consortium of Public
Broadcasters.” Technically, every German
household is a member of the ARD since fees charged by and paid to the ARD are
not optional; they are mandatory.) He
was 22 years old. Ozim then embarked on
a concertizing career which eventually took him to the Far East, Australia, the
U.S., Europe, and Russia. He has
appeared with top orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the London
Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the Warsaw Philharmonic, and many
others. His repertory ranges from early
Baroque to contemporary and includes approximately 60 concertos. Understandably, he has premiered many works
by Slovenian composers. His recordings
are few but cover some of the standard repertoire as well as many contemporary,
modern works. He continues to tour as a much-respected
violin pedagogue, holding master classes in several countries. Ozim has held teaching posts at the Advanced
Music School in Cologne (Germany), the Advanced School of the Arts in Bern
(Switzerland), and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He plays a modern violin by Andreas Hudelmayer. Ozim's most famous pupils are probably Richard
Tognetti, Sophia Herbig, and Lea Birringer. Here is a
YouTube audio file of the Mozart Rondo in C with Ozim and the Ljubljana
Symphony Orchestra.
Max Rostal was an Austrian violinist, arranger, and teacher born (in Teschen) on July 7, 1905 (Heifetz was four years old.) He is not particularly well-known for anything other than that he had a long teaching career and was under-rated as a violinist. He began his violin studies at age 5. He began playing in public from age 6 (1911.) From the age of 8, after arriving in Vienna, one of his teachers was Arnold Rose, concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic for many years. (When Fritz Kreisler - as a teenager - applied to the Vienna Philharmonic, it was Arnold Rose who turned him down.) In 1920, his mother took Rostal to Berlin, along with his siblings. There, he took private lessons with Carl Flesch, when Flesch was still teaching there. According to at least one source, Rostal was often compared to Bronislaw Huberman, Fritz Kreisler, and Eugene Ysaye. Rostal made his formal debut in Berlin on February 3, 1923. He was 17 years old. Although he played pieces by Reger, Vivaldi, Dvorak, and Paganini, the main work on the program was the violin concerto by Alexander Glazunov. In 1925, he won the Mendelssohn Scholarship. Another obscure violinist who won this prize was Leonora Jackson in 1897. In 1926, Rostal moved to Vienna, where he made a living mostly by giving private lessons. In 1927, he was offered the position of concertmaster of the Oslo Philharmonic. In 1928, he returned to Berlin to become assistant to Carl Flesch at the Berlin Music Academy. From 1930 to 1933 he taught at the Advanced School for Music in Berlin. Rostal organized the Rostal String Quartet in 1930. The quartet enjoyed great success for the duration of its existence (three years.) In April of 1933, he was dismissed from his teaching position and subsequently (in 1934) moved to England, where he established himself, primarily as a teacher. From 1944 to 1958, he taught at the Guildhall School of Music in London and played many concerts broadcast over the BBC. He then taught in Cologne (Germany) from 1957 to 1982. Simultaneously, he was a violin teacher at the Conservatory in Bern, Switzerland (1958-1985.) Several recordings of his are posted on YouTube and it is said that his few recordings are now treasured by collectors. Many critics have also said that he had a very individual style. He was especially praised for his interpretation of Bartok’s second concerto (as is Silvia Marcovici nowadays) and was known to champion contemporary music. Rostal premiered Alan Bush’s violin concerto in 1949, a work which has not been heard from since. He also edited quite a few works for violin and wrote a method book as well. These works can easily be found on the internet. A violin (and viola) competition (begun in Bern in 1991 and now held in Berlin) is named after him. In 1944, Rostal was instrumental in organizing the Carl Flesch violin competition (which ran from 1945 until 1992. Raymond Cohen was the first winner of that competition.) Among his pupils were Thomas Brandis, Sergiu Luca, Norbert Brainin, Yfrah Neaman, Desmond Cecil, Edith Peinemann, and Igor Ozim. His Guarnerius del Gesu is now owned by the Stradivari Society (Chicago, USA.) Max Rostal died in Switzerland on August 6, 1991, at age 86.
