My only previous experience with the music of composer Hans Rott (1858-84) came on another Acousence Classics release featuring a reading of Mahler’s “Titan” tone poem (an early version of his first symphony). That CD, due to some aberrant sound, should in my opinion have never been released. Rott’s Suite, thought to have supplied Mahler with some ideas in his first symphonic utterance, was rather inconsequential. Now I get a crack at the composer’s First Symphony, and all I can say is wow!
What a difference another piece makes! If you ever happen to think, as many do, that the music of Mahler is unique and bears no resemblance to anything else, think again; here you will find a semblance of pre-Mahler, if you will, who was also a classmate of Rott’s. But that is not all. The composer, whose parents had died early, developed another strong attachment to his organ teacher, Anton Bruckner. As a result the work is filled with beauteous Bruckner-like chorales, ethereal and cosmic in scope. It’s like finally being able to hear the missing link between those two oft-mentioned composers, Bruckner and Mahler.
Rott tried desperately to get some recognition for this symphony. The first movement, prepared for a composers’ competition, was actually laughed at, causing Bruckner to interject “Stop laughing gentlemen! You will hear great things from this man in the future.” Of course at that time the furiously partisan diatribes between the Wagner and Brahms schools were in full force (Rott had a horrible meeting with Brahms, who offered nothing but rude and nasty comments about his work), and no one on the Brahms side was about to support Bruckner and his student, avid worshippers of the shrine at Bayreuth. Rott did not last long; forced to travel outside of his beloved Vienna, he aimed a pistol at a man who was smoking on a train, fearful that Brahms had put dynamite in the car. Orderlies took him back to Vienna, where the diagnosis of mania and hallucinatory madness kept him locked in the loony bin for the rest of his short days.
I cannot overemphasize the joy of hearing this work, and the importance of this recording. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who loves Bruckner and Mahler will be astounded at some of the things they hear in this piece. The third movement scherzo is loaded with passages that Mahler obviously had in mind when creating his Second Symphony, and one could almost accuse the greater composer of plagiarism, so close is the lifting of the theme! Rott also makes use of the principle theme in the first movement all through the work, not that different from Mahler’s development concept of repeating a theme in a slightly different guise over and over.
Unlike the previous Acousence Classics release I reviewed, this one is completely different. The orchestra is recorded with a clarity and ambiance that rivals the very best. The power comes across when needed with a lot of impact and punch; and conductor (Los Angeles- born) Catherine Ruckwardt is a talent to be watched. She leads her forces with a great deal of skill and forward thrust, and knows when to let the softer passages speak. There are alternatives, but I have not heard them; you could not go wrong by investigating the Arte Nova release with Sebastian Weigle and the Munich Radio Orchestra, and the Dennis Russell Davies recording on CPO has garnered some good press. But this disc is a wonderful release, quite possibly one of the best of the year, and I encourage its acquisition by anyone interested in the gestation of the Mahler-Bruckner school. Rott’s early demise was indeed a loss for everyone.
— Steven Ritter
