In memoriam: prof. Igor Ozim, Honorary Doctor of the University of Ljubljana
Date of publication:
"In recent years I have been visiting Igor Ozim in Salzburg. He was already very weak, but whenever I asked the respected professor and good friend how he was doing, he always replied, "Very well!" He lived his whole life in a Spartan, disciplined way, committed to his profession and to his pupils. He remained modest. Fortunately, he had his loving wife Wonji by his side, who cared for him touchingly all the time ..."
My association with Igor Ozim began in the 1950s. Even then, Ljubljana had an extremely vibrant musical life. Great artists from all over the world were giving concerts on the stage of the Slovenian Philharmonic, because there was no Cankarjev dom. Igor Ozim, the most important violinist in Yugoslavia at that time, stood out among them. At that time, he had just finished his studies in London, won two important violin competitions (Carl Flesch in London and ARD in Munich) and began to perform intensively on all continents. He became my violin idol!
A few years later, my dream came true. He accepted me into his class at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. What luck and privilege!
After my studies I became his assistant and later his colleague in the violin department of the same school.
Igor Ozim's teaching career began in the early 1960s at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, where he stayed for two years. While still very young, he took up a teaching post at the Cologne University of Music. He told me how a student approached him in the lift at that time and asked him, "Do you know which room Prof. Ozim teaches in?" He took him for a student. He went on to teach in Bern, Vienna and finally Salzburg.
In addition to teaching, Igor Ozim also gave concerts regularly. He played with world-famous orchestras: the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the BBC Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic. He has recorded almost all the most important works of violin literature. In his lessons he inspired us with his lively and spontaneous playing, his beautiful tone and his unique command of the instrument.
His pedagogical work was particularly characterised by his ability to analyse himself, to be aware of what he was doing, how he was playing and why he was playing the way he was playing. He also observed his pupils like an X-ray, seeing both their strengths and weaknesses and giving them clear guidance. He taught them to be able to think independently when they finished their studies. Ozim's ability to analyse related both to his mastery of the instrument and to the interpretative demands of a particular composition - including harmonic analysis and respect for the laws of style. I have never experienced in a violin teacher such a balance and deep knowledge of both areas, which are otherwise closely intertwined and in his case form a complete whole.
There was no centre of gravity in the repertoire. His reflections and his constant development, especially in the field of Baroque music, which is more remote from us, made a deep impression on me. His openness to fresh ideas was admirable. During the time I was his assistant, he also adopted with great enthusiasm some of the methodological approaches I had brought from my previous studies in the USA. Sometimes he would ask me to observe him playing chords, for example, and to describe to him how to perform them concretely.
He was involved in all stylistic periods and he worked until the end of his days to deepen his knowledge. He also paid a great deal of attention to contemporary music and published a textbook on the performance of contemporary music on the violin. Many composers, both Slovene (Krek, Lipovšek, Matičič, Petrič among others) and foreign, dedicated their works to him.
In Ozima's early years, during my studies and assistantship, I felt the intense pressure of his expectations. Whenever he returned from a tour or a competition (he was on the juries of all the most important international violin competitions), I found him particularly rigorous, because he knew how demanding it was to play in front of an audience. Over time he became more broad-minded and understanding, but you could always sense in him the personality of a stage artist. His words and playing were particularly vivid when the audience was present in the classroom or at the summer masterclasses. These were powerful performances by a great artist.
He clearly enjoyed teaching. He gave himself endlessly in the lessons. They were full of humour and metaphors. Whenever someone played a fast note unevenly, he would say, "It's like throwing a potato into a bowl!" One of his pupils, the world-renowned soloist Patricia Kopatchinskaya recalls, "Patricia, you can't throw so many colours at once on the canvas and then over the edge! At the very least, stick to the frame of the painting. No one will buy it." Or - "You can't lift your leg at every tree!" And a practical tip: "You have to remember where the problems are, how to overcome them, and in the excitement of the concert, like a driver on the road at high speed, with a cool head, you have to consciously pay attention to all the road signs."
He has trained several generations of outstanding violinists, soloists, concert masters in leading orchestras and teachers in colleges all over the world. As many as eight violinists play or have played in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Of the six current violin professors at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, five are directly or indirectly from his violin school. The only one who is not from Ozima's school has studied with him and is a fan.
Igor Ozim, Slovenian violinist, one of the immortals, honorary doctor of the University of Ljubljana, died in Salzburg at the age of 93. He taught with full vigour until the age of 85. His pupils could not have imagined that this supremely vital man could ever have fainted. His legacy will be preserved with gratitude.
Gorjan Košuta,
Professor of Violin at the Academy of Music University of Ljubljana
