Hans Rott Orchestral Works Vol. 1

[Gareth Vaughan]

It just gives us something to complain about.

And "Wouldn't your life be terribly flat with nothing whatever to grumble at?!"  No prizes for guessing the opera.

[Alan Howe]

I'd an idea it might be G & S, but I digress...

[Gareth Vaughan]

Yes, Alan. It's "Princess Ida" and I paraphrased. The actual words are: "Isn't your life extremely flat with nothing whatever to grumble at." Anyway, enough of this digression. Apologies.

[Alan Howe]

Ida'n idea it was...

[Alan Howe]

Hurwitz opines...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyv7iNFe4qg

FWIW I agree (ducks!) Give me unrecorded Zellner, Grimm, Scholz, Reuss, at al instead! (Or as well as!)

[adriano]

In the Capriccio version of Symphony No.1, Christopher Ward needs 9:42 minutes for the (uncut) second movement. Leif Segerstam in his BIS recording 14:01 minutes... I have only these two versions - and that should do.

And I just wonder how Capriccio's cover artwork staff came to choose these rather Jugendstil-inspired subjects... They look like jewellery promotions... Rott's music has nothing to do with Jugendstil.

[Mark Thomas]

David Hurwitz gives this disc a resounding thumbs up in his latest video review, and gives Hans Rott and his music an emphatic thumbs down in the process. Can't say I disagree with most of what he says, actually.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I haven't heard the disk but, judging by the excerpts Hurwitz plays, if the Pastoral Prelude is the best piece on this CD, then I have to agree with him. The disk may be well-produced and beautifully conducted and played, but this music is not only uninspired but inept (witness the dreary fugue and awful coda to the Pastoral Prelude). And, given that, one seriously wonders why excellent musicians and a good record company would bother wasting their time on this stuff when, as Alan points out, there are many more neglected (nay, unheard) compositions that are more deserving of their, and our, attention.

[Alan Howe]

Trouble is, Rott has become a 'name', and therefore a selling-point. The Symphony is no doubt of great interest - and (historical) significance - but there's precious little else. A triumph of marketing over substance, I'm afraid - and all summed up by that stupid cover artwork.

[Mark Thomas]

I can't say that the cover worries me one little bit - if someone's put off buying the CD by the cover then their interest is pretty shallow in the first place. As Alan says, Rott has become a "name", and isn't that mostly down to his connection with Mahler and the continuing worship of him? Rott's seen as a sort of proto-Mahler. The Symphony itself is pretty flimsy piece of work anyway, although I'll grant that it has it's moments, and moments which could have become "moments" if Rott had had the technique and, more importantly, inspiration to make more of them, but at best it's a curate's egg. It's more interesting for what it might have been than for what it actually is and, as Hurwitz points out in his inimitable way, it's the best of Rott.

[Alan Howe]

Like Gareth, I have never been put off buying a CD by its cover artwork; equally, though, some covers just make me wince. This one included. 

[terry martyn]

I have almost every nineteenth century symphony on vinyl or CD, but I draw the line at Rott.  I have, in the words of Charles II, tried his Symphony drunk, and I have tried it sober, and there is nothing, or nearly nothing, in it.  Moments like its start,yes, but the Emperor has no clothes.    Neither it, nor this new CD, will feature in my collection

[Alan Howe]

I'd say that was unduly harsh - it's hard not to be thrilled by its grandiloquence and amazed by its foretastes of Mahler, but we must remember that it's essentially an apprentice work of a never-to-be mature composer.

[eschiss1]

I find some of his chamber music worth hearing but haven't heard much of it. Not going to be found in this series, though.

[Ilja]

Rott (in particular the Gerhard Samuel recording of the symphony) was my gateway drug to the "unsungs" way back in the 1990s, so I have quite a bit of nostalgic fondness for it. In short: love the last movement, not stunned about the rest. Construction is its (and generally) Rott's main weakness, I'd say. He's got a good sense of melody but it is rather let down by form. On the basis of what we have, it's really difficult to guess whether we're dealing with a lost genius (often-claimed) or an overrated, second-tier composer (seen that too). Or something inbetween.