Bowing out with Bruckner: TSO musician retires after 43 years

Rob Clark

Forty-three years is a long time in any job, but when that job involves playing bass trombone in the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, it’s an occupation that has brought a wealth of memorable experiences.

Rob Clark, who joined the TSO as Principal Bass Trombone in September 1974, will be retiring from the orchestra at The True Romantics, a TSO concert in Federation Concert Hall on Friday 7 April.

The major work in that concert is Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No 6, which is a big play for the orchestra’s brass section.

“I’ve timed my retirement to coincide with the Bruckner symphony so that I can go out with a complex work that provides plenty of challenges but also plenty of rewards.

“What’s more, Bruckner’s Sixth comes only a few weeks after the TSO’s performances of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, two colossal pieces of music for us brass players. In fact, I’ve waited all my career to play The Rite of Spring, which is normally off-limits to the TSO because it requires such a huge orchestra.

“So, for all of these reasons, this seems the right time to bid farewell to my professional life with the orchestra.”

In more than four decades of performing with the TSO, Rob has had the pleasure of working with many outstanding musicians.

Among the conductors who have made a strong impression, he cites Charles Dutoit, Kurt Sanderling and En Shao, along with the TSO’s current Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Marko Letonja.

As for standout soloists, he lists pianists Stephen Hough, Michele Campanella and Howard Shelley, and singers Julia Lezhneva and Nina Stemme.

Indeed, Rob rates last November’s concert of excerpts from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with Nina Stemme and Stuart Skelton as the finest concert of his career.

As for his post-TSO life, Rob says “I am looking forward to continuing my studies in Japanese at UTAS, skiing, bushwalking, travelling and playing trombone purely for my own pleasure.”

THE TRUE ROMANTICS
FRIDAY 7 April 7.30pm

Federation Concert Hall, Hobart
Johannes Fritzsch conductor
Australian String Quartet

SCHUBERT Rosamunde (excerpts)
HINDSON The Rave and the Nightingale
BRUCKNER Symphony No 6

Tickets from $32 at tso.com.au or 1800 001 190.
SAMUEL J CAIRNDUFF | Director Marketing and Communications | Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra