No More Molars

In today's fiercely competitive music market, contests have become a way of life. Virtually cut off from conductors, many of whom are too busy to wade through the welter of new works, struggling young composers have discovered that one quick way to command attention is to win a musical joust. One of the most impressive of such champions is England's Wilfred Josephs; by winning the $5,000 top prize in the first La Scala competition with his Requiem, he gained international recognition and the sweet satisfaction of having conductors court him for a change.

When Cincinnati Symphony Conductor Max Rudolf first read of Josephs' triumph, he sent for the score and decided to introduce it to the U.S. Last week at Manhattan's Carnegie Hall, Requiem was a winner in every respect.

Conceived during the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, the 50-minute oratorio based on the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, is a highly personal memorial to the Nazis' victims. Scored for bass-baritone, double chorus, orchestra and string quintet, the pace in all but one of the ten movements is slow to slower. To sustain interest within such a restrictive format, the score trades on subtlety rather than splash, deftly plays the wistful mewings of the string quintet against the dense harmonies of the orchestra, intertwines exquisite vocal patterns like a kaleidoscope turning in slow motion. Brilliantly performed, Requiem was distinctly modern but never abrasively atonal, a somber, moving prayer celebrating man and his God. For Josephs, 39, the success of his Requiem marks him as one of Britain's most promising young composers. He is something of a late-bloomer, he says, because to support himself he had to supplement composing with his career as a dentist. A few years ago, he happily switched from molars to movies, now supports his serious music by composing sound tracks for TV and feature films. But success, he finds, takes a bit of getting used to. Following the U.S. premiere of Requiem in Cincinnati earlier this month, he watched the audience rise and figured it was time to leave, only to discover that he was being given a standing ovation.

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