Arnold Rosé

Arnold Josef Rosé (born Rosenblum; 24 October 1863 – 25 August 1946) was a Romanian-born Austrian Jewish violinist. He was leader of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for over half a century. He worked closely with Brahms. Gustav Mahler was his brother-in-law. Although not known internationally as a soloist he was a great orchestral leader (concertmaster) and player of chamber music, leading the famous Rosé Quartet for several decades.

Arnold Rosé was born in Iași (Jassy) in what is now Romania. As he and his three brothers showed musical potential the family moved to Vienna, where his father established a thriving business as a carriage builder. Arnold began his musical studies at the age of seven, and at ten entered the first class in violin at the Vienna Conservatory, receiving instruction from Karl Heissler.

He made his first appearance in 1879 at a Leipzig Gewandhaus concert, and on 10 April 1881 appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic in the first Viennese performance of Goldmark's violin concerto under Hans Richter. Shortly thereafter he was engaged as solo violinist and leader of the orchestra at the Hoftheater, or Vienna Court Opera (later the Staatsoper). This orchestra, in unique Viennese tradition, played both in the orchestra pit and on the concert platform, and later became known as the Vienna Philharmonic. He remained leader of these two venerable institutions until the 1930s. His reputation as an orchestral leader became legendary. For Sir Adrian Boult, he was quite simply “Europe’s greatest orchestral leader of his time”. In May 1936, he conducted the VPO Beethoven's Ruinen von Athen overture as the filler side of the three-sided recording of the Leonore Overture No. 3 conducted by Bruno Walter and released on HMV/Gramophone/Gramola/Victor 78s; both performances were both interpreted and played magnificently, as were many other VPO recordings of the period just before the 1938 Anschluss, most notably Walter's equally monumental 1936 readings of Beethoven's Pastoral and Schubert's Unfinished symphonies.

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