Hans Rott (1858-1884)

[monafam]

That's really interesting.  My knowledge was pretty much based just on things I read about his thoughts on Bruckner, but it sounds like Mahler wasn't always so accepting of others!

[Peter1953]

Martin, I have read Stuart Feder's Mahler. A life in crises (Yale University, 2005). Mahler had a very tough life and there was a lot of sadness. For me this explains why his symphonies are so emotional. And because he had such a difficult life full of grief, he was hard on others, like some fellow composers.
But after Rott passed away, Mahler said: We cannot comprehend what music has lost in him: his genius rises to such a flight even in his first symphony he wrote as a youth of 20 years of age and which – this is not saying too much – makes him the founder of the new symphony as I understand it. Mahler gave Rott all the credits.