Conversations with Rohan de Saram

Rohan de Saram is one of the most important cellists on the contemporary music scene. In the 1950s, he studied with Gaspar Cassadó and Pablo Casals. In his nearly sixty-year career as a soloist, chamber musician, and member of the Arditti Quartet, he not only met almost all of the influential composers of his time, but also worked directly with them. From this unique perspective, he has not only witnessed the musical history of recent decades, but has also actively shaped it—as a performing artist who has played a key role in the creation and realization of innovative works of new music. Beyond his musical achievements, Rohan de Saram has a deep knowledge of the musical traditions of different cultures and the performance practices of different eras, and he has a keen interest in literary, philosophical, and religious issues.

In conversations with German musicologist Joachim Steinheuer, various aspects of Rohan de Saram's career are examined. The first four chapters follow a chronological structure: from his musical beginnings in childhood in Sri Lanka, through his studies in Florence, Siena, and with Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico, to a lengthy stay in culturally diverse Oxford in the 1960s, and finally to his first decisive steps toward new music in London in the 1970s.

The later chapters are organized thematically: two of them are devoted to his more than 28 years of membership in the Arditti Quartet, with a special focus on its diverse repertoire, new technical demands, work processes, and performance context. Another chapter deals with his musical collaborations with other musicians during and after his time with the quartet. Further sections are devoted to central aspects of his repertoire and thinking: questions of contemporary composition, his collaboration with Asian composers and European composers who integrate Eastern ideas into their works, his experiences with improvisation, and reflections on the connection between spirituality and music.

Joachim Steinheuer has been teaching musicology at Heidelberg University since 1996. His publications as author, co-author, and editor include works on Monteverdi and his Italian contemporaries such as Merula, d'India, Rasi, and Strozzi, on Purcell, Vivaldi, Haydn, Mozart, Schumann, and numerous contributions to the encyclopedia Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart(Music in History and the Present). Since 2002, he has been co-organizer of the Heidelberg festival LINKS – Biennale für zeitgenössische Musik (LINKS – Biennial for Contemporary Music) and, since 2011, artistic director of the Musica Insieme festival in Panicale, Umbria, together with composer Klaus Huber.

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