| Memories |
|---|
| "Rohan was one of the very very few musician I’ve met in whom the musician and person were completely integrated. One felt that music-making simply flowed naturally without any artifice, from the core of his being. He was, really, that rare thing, a human masterpiece. Great as a man, great as a musician. " | P.H. |
| "Those few days working with him were revelatory for me, getting to spend time with someone who provided a role model not only for what a life in music could look like, but also for how to be a person in the world — generous, sharing, graceful, focused, humble, hard-working, creative, curious, and kind." | A.M. |
| "At our wedding in 1981 Rohan very kindly agreed to play the great cello movement from Messiaen’s Quartet for the end of time. We returned from signing the register to find the congregation silent and still, moved to tears by Rohan’s playing; touched by the sublime." | P.H. |
| "I heard him perform the Dvorak cello concerto, in Salisbury Town Hall. I was only 15. He made a strong impression on me, not only with the beauty of his playing, his sound in particular, but because there was something serene about his demeanour" | G.H. |
| "From Vivaldi to Dvořák, Dreamtiger to Xenakis, it was all a gift. His soul was as gentle as the rolling hills of Exmoor. The sweetest of men." | |
| "I want to remember and commemorate someone absolutely unique. Over the half century when I knew him Rohan opened up for me distant worlds that were closed to most Europeans of my generation" | |
| "I well remember a wonderful concert at the Wigmore Hall which, with a twinkle in his eye, he rounded off with a virtuoso rendition of The Flight of the Bumblebee as an encore." | |
| "He mastered music because he was always servant to music." | A.J. |
| "Rohan was more than a great cellist and musician: he was a great human being. We all thought he would live for ever." | |
| "I first heard Rohan play in, I think, 1967. I was playing in the St Matthew Passion in the Town Hall in Oxford, when suddenly the most amazing cello sound bloomed and filled the Hall. It was Rohan playing the Obligato, the Gamba solo." | |
| "I remember going to Sri Lanka about twenty five years ago as a visiting examiner and staying at the Galle Face Hotel. Around the magnificent front door were the names of famous guests including Rohan!" | |
| "...Rohan playing the cello at our wedding. Such a treat! I love the thought that the little dent he had to make in the stone floor of Penhurst Church is still there. " | |
| "Rohan a rencontré et joué avec de nombreuses personalités de la musique lorsqu'il était jeune - pour n'en citer que quelques-unes, il a joué en duo avec Glen Gould, travaillé avec Zoltan Kodaly sur sa Sonate pour violoncelle seul, joué avec Chostakovitch ... Rohan était l'un des meilleurs violoncellistes au monde, tres émouvant par son himilité et son humanité. Il a touché beaucoup de monde de façon profonde et laisera une marque indélébile dans le monde musical. Il nous manquera." | |
| "I have wonderful memories of accompanying him in the Elgar concerto back in 1987; a wonderful human being, amazing musician and superb cellist" | |
| "A profoundly beautiful musician whom I met at the late Stephano Scodanibbio's festival. Music seemed to flow from every cell in his body. His sumptuous recording of the Bach 6th Cello Suite and Kodaly Sonata at the Lou Harrison house, Joshua Tree, made possible by Movses Pogossian, was pure joy to host." | |
| "Rohan was a musical and personal model to me thoughtout my developing years as a musican - a brilliant cellist, superb musician and one of the most modest and gentle people you could ever meet." | |
| "As a young student. he was asked to play Poulenc's Cello Sonata for the composer on the occasion of Poulenc's award of an honorary Oxford DMus." | |
| "At a workshop with the Arditti in 2002, Rohan remarked how playable my quartet was - the last time anyone described my music like that!" | |
| "I had the privilege of working with him in the early 1990s when the the Arditti played an early version of my first string quartet in Darmstadt." | |
| "I invited him to Leeds to do a research seminar where he regaled us with fascinating tales of working with Britten, Shostakovich, Xenakis, Lachenmann et al." | |
| "Next to being an acclaimed cello prodigy, Rohan was a Kandyan drummer. Birminghm Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) were immensely honoured to commission and present the result of both aspects of his creative life in one unique piece of music - his 2022 Music for Kanyan Drum, Strings and Percussion, premiered at the Commonwealth games in the CBSO Centre with his son Suren on drums." | BCMG |
| "I'll never forget that incredible positive energy when we were on stage together." | |
| "I first heard him play Brahms and Kodaly 46 years ago in a school near my home - wonderful for a 13-year-old to experience." | |
| "When he entered a room, there was magic." | |
| "Perhaps the greatest cellist to have walked our planet. I think so." | B.D. |
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