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| Sunday, 21 July 2002 |
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Hollywood stars on Rohan Joseph's Bruckner Managing Director of the world famous London-base Philharmonic Orchestra, David Whelton, arrives in Sri Lanka later this week to sign a recording contract with Sri Lankan born conductor Rohan Joseph, of the complete Bruckner Symphony Cycle which Joseph will conduct in December at London's Royal Festival Hall.
"I am not surprised at all but I am surprised that it has taken this long", stated a leading concert agent in New York when asked to comment on the Philharmonia Orchestra's announcement that they will be recording the complete Bruckner Symphony cycle with conductor Rohan Joseph. This agent went on to state that "Maestro Rohan Joseph gave New York a memorable Bruckner cycle in the 1980's and he was the toast of the town. You could see cults forming even then. People used to line up to buy tickets on the day the box office opened and this was for Bruckner who does not enjoy the same popularity that Tchaikovsky and Beethoven do. It was quite amazing. But then, may be not so amazing. Have you heard a live Bruckner performance of his? I did, in fact several times. I rarely go to concerts except of my own artistes but The New York Times critics were going nuts over this conductor - so curiosity made me go. It was a revelation. I have never seen an orchestra play as if their lives depended on it. He works the orchestra to the bone. The brass players could hardly stand to acknowledge the tumultuous applause at the end of the performance because they had been blowing their brains out for over seventy minutes. Oscar winning actress Joan Fontaine, the star of the Hitchcock films Rebecca and Suspicion, recalled being present at his Bruckner Seventh symphony performance at Carnegie Hall. She was so moved that she insisted on visiting the conductor backstage after the concert. She told the New York Daily News that she had never enjoyed a concert more. Legendary ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev stated that he suddenly found his feet tapping to the Scherzo of the Bruckner seventh symphony at the Wolf Trap Music Festival while he was in the audience listening. He told the Washington Post's music critic that he believed this happened because Rohan Joseph took Bruckner at his word and conducted the Scherzo fast enough to make it into a dance. The actress/tap dancer Ann Miller recalled how she got her agent to get information on this conductor after attending a Bruckner performance of his at Carnegie Hall. She said that she couldn't believe that she had sat through a symphony as along as film when she could have sworn that the Bruckner Third symphony was only about ten minutes long! She stated that she was fascinated by the reaction of the players to the directions coming from the podium. Television talk show host Bill Boggs invited the conductor to appear on his TV show as a guest immediately after attending a Bruckner performance at Lincoln Centre. He claimed he had never heard such exciting sounds at a concert. Singer Connie Francis was so taken up with his Bruckner Sixth that she stated that she would never consider her career complete until she sang with him. Dean Martin stated that the conductor opened up a whole new world of sound to him when he attended his Bruckner ninth at Carnegie Hall. The dancer Ginger Rogers also commented in a movie fan magazine on the volume generated by Rohan Joseph. She told the interviewer that she had attended a Bruckner Fifth performance with a group of friends ever so reluctantly. The only reason she did go was because her friends told her that she would be blown back to California by the sheer sound. She agreed. She said the Finale had her holding onto her seat. But Rohan Joseph's Bruckner performances are not merely about incredible and exciting sound volumes as the comments below will clearly show. When it comes to the handling of the great slow movements of the Bruckner canon and the ravishing soft passages contained therein, this is where he scores big with the critics. The Archbishop of the Armenian Church in New York stated to a member of his board that he had never felt a calm so telling as when he heard the great adagio from the Bruckner ninth at Carnegie Hall. Time and time again, people have claimed to have had spiritual experiences while listening to these slow movements. A leading French designer told a fashion magazine that he wished he could produce something as beautiful as what he had just heard at Lincoln Centre. He said he was never so moved by music as he was when he heard the Bruckner eight adagio conducted by this Asian. Sri Lanka's highly respected Lake House journalist and writer, the late Tarzie Vittachi lamented that Rohan Joseph kept a lot to himself. He did write an open letter to his home town newspaper in Sri Lanka on the grand success enjoyed by the opening night performance of the Bruckner Eighth at the Lincoln Centre when he discovered that Rohan Joseph's parents were not being informed of his doings. His parents were never told that he had met so many celebrities nor did he ever tell them about his exploits. Actually he apparently never wrote to them and the parents had to rely on the American Embassy in Colombo to provide them with news clippings. Mr. Vittachi tried to befriend him but found him to be most un-communicative. He apparently is a loner and only two Sri Lankans in New York could claim to have had any access to him. His two conducting teachers, the Austrian Dr. Carl Bamberger and the Russian Vladimir Kin have voiced their thoughts about their 'star student' in numerous articles and interviews. It is interesting to note that they found him extremely accessible and extremely humble. Almost reverential in his dealings with both these gentlemn. Dr. Bamberger found him to be extraordinary. He recalled how he could sight read orchestral scores at the piano and these were not Haydn symphonies but work like Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps and Hindemith's Mathis der Maler. He was the only one of his conducting students who never refused to accompany singers on the piano. He never complained even when he had to deal with first year singers. Vladimir Kin claimed he was in a constant battle with Dr. Bamberger to win supremacy for Russian composers over Austrian composers. Is there any wonder that the composers closest to Rohan Joseph's heart are the Austrians Bruckner, Mahler, Schubert, Mozart and the Russian Glazunov, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky and Scriabin. |
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The author of this article on Rohan Joseph, Ann Mason, is a feature
writer based in California. She specialises in reporting on entertainment.
