Daniel Kossov: the calling: Rosemary Tingley

Daniel Kossov: The Calling

Close your eyes and listening carefully to the music as the orchestra winds up, the audience sits in awe and you hear the first notes as the conductor raises his baton and the concert begins. Daniel Kossov has a way of mesmerizing his audiences, conducing or playing his violin as if it is a human expressing his/her own emotions that are evoked within the sounds of the manuscript being played. The book opens with the author meeting with Daniel and discussing one of the greatest composers Wagner and the twenty-six years it took him to create the libretti and the music for The Ring. She includes the composers that he conferred with and the passion and diligence that Wagner eluded and passes on to Daniel whose passion for perfection is no different than the other masters.

There are two stories told within this book as it was just launched. The journey of Daniel Kossov, his goals, his weaknesses and the fire within him to hopefully create a sound or music when played to an audience that would exemplify what the composer of the score wanted to translate to listeners. Not, the power of making money from the concert but from allowing listeners to be one with the music and understand what Wagner, Bach, Chopin and the great masters wanted to impart to those hearing their music.

The second story is that of the author whose goal was to publish this third volume in the trilogy, the pitfalls of trying to get the information organized and reminding us of how she came to write the first two including the difficulties involved with each book launch. Both the author and Daniel were looking to each other and to others to find their own calling.

Chapter 2, Dr. Faustus deal with the fact that Danny wants the listener to hear the music, he programs he prepared. How does he make the listener a part of the music its lie as the author says, your attention has been arrested into the present moment? The chapter deals with Danny getting is Australian citizenship and giving him her copy of Doktor Faustus. Stating that he was promised it and ranted and raved when he thought she was not going to hand it to him.

Throughout the book both Danny and the author travel to many physical places and many within both of their minds. He is difficult to deal with, hard to live with for long periods of times and yet Rosemary set her sites on completing this third volume having to deal with many setbacks, his moods, critiques of her writing and yet hoping to not lose her own way of self-esteem. It is as if Danny had a low opinion of himself as a musician, concert master and person not living up to his own high standards.

Daniel Kossov is more than just talented he is skilled, and yet he feels unfulfilled. Disconnected, discontented and yet the minute he has the violin in his hands and the lights are dimmed as the conductor raises his baton, the audience is under a magic spell and the inspirational and undying calmness within himself and the audience is one and the same.

Scheduling concerts for him, creating a schedule that he would adhere to was difficult but the one Chapter : Wherefore art thou Romeo brings a whole new dimension to life. Allowed to preview the rehearsals we learn that the audience was to learn how to distinguish between the performance and the work itself. How can he make the audience cognizant to make the differentiation between the music they hear and the actual performance of the work? Would an audience respond to the invitation to be crucial and outspoken about performances and did Danny believe that ordinary musicians could be capable of sublime excellence in the performance? A question with few if any answers?

While in Jerusalem the author meets Izsak,  Daniel’s, father and they discuss how he should be portrayed in her writing. Izsak stating in a glowing format and Daniel and I quote: Rose writes it as it is.

Chapter 5 is enlightening as both Rose and Daniel have their rows and their views on what happens during a rehearsal and the errors made by violinists and the fact that money should not be the reason for a performance but the passion about the music. The launching of Part 2 was stressful and as events were established, people were there buying the book, but will  Danny arrive? His behavior was erratic at times and you often did not know which moods or mood the author would have to cope with, yet she never falters and never gives up on her mission to complete the third book.

Some concerts make the music come alive and the author on page 115 takes us inside the music of Prokofiev and three great ballets: Tchaikovsky ballets, the Nutcracker my favorite, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. But, at the end we can see and feel the dancers movements and experience it along with the author and the audience.         The poem the Pledge the author writes and includes seems to sum up not only Daniel’s feelings about his music and life but hers too. His friend Michael meets her, and she talks about the fact that maybe Daniel should give up playing in the orchestra . Watching him when she is finally allowed into the Course takes us to different places within her mind and world.

To comprehend the world of music the author takes classes and becomes a music teacher. She found a 2-year course at the University of Western Australia for the very purpose to ensure the level of professionalism need to main piano teaching in Perth. But it was discontinuing, and the only areas open to study were at two other schools. After listening to Danny’s concerns with how music should be inteprete4d she need to know what she was doing and in view of his passionate message concerning altruistic authenticity in art, she felt it was necessary to take care in what she was teaching young minds in their basic understanding of piano music. Then the hard part deciding on the covers: Part One: Blue Cover, Part Two: Red and three British racing green.

Daniel has that indefinable quality that brings  piece of life in a performance that distinguishes from the rest. Like Van Gogh, or Da Vinci or any painter, his music will flourish without imperfection as their paintings tell their own story so will his music emit their own each time you hear him play or conduct. The author includes his friendship with Jennifer who played the cellos with him and their friendship began when he arrived in Perth and this is remembered. But the final chapters bring to light something that most people would not realize about Daniel.  He never really feels that he is the best, nor does he feel that he can fulfill his own goals as the author begins to question her ability to write this final chapter, and yet the words should be hers, the writing is sharp, fluent and yet at the end Daniel expresses what he thinks she falls short of, the questions that she asks because he requires that she asks five and the end result is a starling revelation on both of their parts. We have a script hidden in what we want to achieve in life. When you read the epilogue, you will understand just where Daniel feels he finally is, if he realizes who he is when she says: This is ME! Just how that is defined you will have to read the epilogue for yourself, take the journeys from start to finish and listen to the music as its played and find yourself wanting to know more about Daniel Kossov and the author who created him and shared him with the world: Rosemary Tingley. Which one finds their true calling?

Fran Lewis: Just reviews