Hans Rott’s Symphony!
Artists, musicians, composers, and other creative people have often used ideas of others as starting points for new creative work. Picasso made a famous statement during his lifetime about “Take what you need…”. Johannes Brahms worked for more than 10 years on his Symphony #1, and when someone pointed out the influence of Beethoven, Brahms said: “Any idiot can hear that…”
Hans Rott was a student of Anton Bruckner and a friend to Gustav Mahler. Mahler was very impressed with Rott’s new direction in Symphonic writing, and Mahler borrowed themes from the third movement of Rott’s symphony for use in his own first symphony. The connection between these two composers is the vision which conductor Sebastian Weigle meant to project in this recording. Rott died in his 20’s, so there is very limited music that he left for us.
The Symphony in E major by Hans Rott was first recorded in 1989 by Gerhard Samuel and the Cincinnati Philharmonic Orchestra. Samuel’s taut, classically-oriented reading of the score was a sensation around the world, telling us all about a new symphony never before heard.
This CD, under the baton of Sebastian Weigle leading the Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra, was recorded in 2003. When I first heard this, I was impressed with Rott’s romantic sounds, and I felt that Rott was strongly affected by the music of his teacher, Anton Bruckner. No surprise here…
This recording comes with excellent informative notes about the composer, his works, the orchestra, and conductor.
Tracks on this CD:
1. Symphony in E major: 1. Alla breve
2. Symphony in E major: 2. Sehr langsam
3. Symphony in E major: 3. Scherzo: Frisch und lebhaft
4. Symphony in E major: 4. Sehr langsam. Belebt
5. Orchestra Prelude in E major
6. A Prelude to Julius Caesar, for orchestra
Here is an extract of Rott’s Symphony
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Tags: Hans Rott, Symphony in E major, Mahler, Bruckner