Rott Symphony/Acousence

[sdtom]

I recently received a download from Naxos of the Rott Symphony, a once forgotten work until 1989 and now has several recordings to choose from. Has anyone else heard this recording yet? Acousence is a new company to me.
Tom

[eschiss1]

I can't seem to find it at the Acousence website, but I may not be looking in the right place (on their website - acousence.de). Intriguing CDs of Serbian piano works and stuff though... (hrm- this may be the label that released Rott's symphony for strings and string quartet - at least, it's on their site in their Living Concert section... but no Raff under search... hrm. ... curious, curious...)

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Ah, what nostalgia...  Acousence provided me with the first opportunity to listen to the rather marvellous Hans Rott String Quartet.

Apologies...nothing to do with Raff.

I've also never come across a recording of Raff on Acousence. I wonder, Tom, whether you might be mixing up labels in the excitement of listening to Raff?

[sdtom]

In my excitement I did mean Rott. The conductor is Catherine Ruckwardt and there are no fillers. I know I prefer this recording to the Hyperion/Cincinnati. I think it is a winner but I've not heard the other recordings.
Tom

[sdtom]

Alan could you change the thread title to Rott instead of Raff?
Tom

Done!
Regards,
Alan

[eschiss1]

Ah! Ok.

here's a link and audio samples to/for* the Rott (full-orchestra) symphony 1 CD in question, btw.

Thanks for mentioning this label, very interesting and helpful website, it seems to me (not trying to curse with faint praise, just pointing out something obvious and sound-unrelated, yes, but praiseworthy... haven't yet heard their recordings myself.)

*as prepositions go, that one's a tofor!

[mbhaub]

Well, this thread has gotten expensive. Many thanks for pointing out this previously unknown (to me) label. I'm a sucker for the Rott, and the sound samples provided are very impressive. Ordered it, and the other Rott disk. Then, a Mahler 6th that correctly puts the Andante second, and at a tempo that is what I have longed for someone to do - it isn't Adagio. And a FLAC disk to boot! And a Mahler 5, too. Looking forward to hearing them, esp. the Rott. While I'm at it: the Hyperion isn't the best version out there. It was the first, and for that I am grateful. If G Samuel hadn't made the effort who knows if or when we would have heard the symphony.

[eschiss1]

... I thought that was on Centaur, but I'm thinking of other recordings of Samuel's. The Centaur recording of the Rott isn't even the 2nd, it's the 3rd, apparently (after the Hyperion and the BIS, and I could be missing another of course...)  (My! Hyperion-now-on-Helios, BIS, Centaur, cpo 2002, Arte Nova 2004, then this one 2011 I think- that seems offhand not so bad for a once almost unknown symphony- as a relative thing (not so bad, not too many or enough )

I'll have to hear the Mahler 6 played with the Andante 2nd more often- correctly or not, it's always made more sense to me for it to be third and sounded better to me too- so far. Familiarity is 99% of the law, of course...

[minacciosa]

Listening to the Rott brings to mind Stravinsky's dictum: "Lesser artists borrow; Great artists steal." Mahler stole kit and kaboodle from Rott. He took the curtains, appliances, copper pipe, everything - and he put it to good use.

[Alan Howe]

Paavo Järvi's performance on RCA is the best so far. IMHO!

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I don't disagree with that last recommendation. However given the change of title to the thread I would request it be changed not to 'Rott Symphony No. 1/Acousence' but to, simply, 'Rott / Acousence'.

After all, the thread lurched from 'Raff' to 'Rott' since Tom's claims about Raff and Acousence ran into a brick wall, and then (although irrelevant at the time) I happened to recall my pleasure in getting to know the Rott quartet through the Acousence recording of it.

Poor quartet, for it has now been swamped by the symphony. Whatever the merits of the latter (and for me it is just too much of a formless wallow), the Rott String Quartet is an immensely satisfying work. The present title of the thread is prejudicial to it, and, please, do not allow us to overlook this fine and unique work.

The quartet, incidentally, got a second recording at the end of last year when Quintone released a recording by the Israel String Quartet.

[mbhaub]

...and for me it is just too much of a formless wallow...

It is formless, does wander, and it never lives up to that marvelous, evocative introduction. I love it anyway - warts and all. If you know the Mahler canon well, it is quite revealing to listen to the Rott.

[sdtom]

Paavo Järvi's performance on RCA is the best so far. IMHO!

Now I'm curious as to the reading and the sound quality of the Jarvi release. Again I'm sorry for the mixup in names. I fear this was one of the results of the stroke I had sometime back.

[Alan Howe]

Paavo Järvi's reading is swift and points up the Mahler connection much more clearly than the other recordings available. The recording is superlative.

No apologies needed, Tom, by the way. Glad to have you here.

[Paul Barasi]

Whilst not as good an interpretation as Segerstam's, Rückwardt on Acousence (2004) is a top Rott Symphony CD. This has been recorded 10 times and concerts are usually not with leading conductors and orchestras: so the work has yet to establish a performing tradition, although what has emerged so far at the extremes is:

* The slow dramatic approach allowing tempo variation, spearheaded by Segerstam who isn't afraid of Rott (like Mahler) mixing mess with beauty

* The over-paced sanitised approach taken by Jarvi.

Rückwardt, though not as expansive as Segerstam, belongs in the first camp which doubtless has more fidelity with what Rott wanted and heard in his head. She isn't ashamed to let us hear triangle or heavy texture and gets into the swing and swagger of  the Scherzo. Where it counts most she scores most, in the dramatic narrative fantasy of this third movement, where she surpasses even Segerstam (although he's still best at varying the tempo and overall in handling the psychological drama) and shows up the unfeeling shallowness of Jarvi who sidesteps all of this and loses the plot.

Rückward is one of the few who, vitally, realises the brief love theme and she does it by far the best. She seems to feel how Hans Rott imagines it would be like to take his Louise out of the Viennese ball for a interlude in which he just can't pluck up the nerve to express his love and returns to the ball without even a kiss.

What is so striking and effective is how Rückwardt transitions through this movement, bringing out the changes in Rott's emotional state, from the love scene to the yearning and pining, and on from the disappointment to Rott's anger and rants, whipping it up into the frenzy as Rott's emotional world starts to collapse because he can't control his feelings and shouts in protest and scorn at the other couples who dance on, obliviously, in what he parodies as a ghost waltz, before he plunges into the crisis of the finale.