# SS 11.05.19 - Rott #1



## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening!

For your listening pleasure this weekend:

Hans Rott (1858 -1884)

Symphony No. 1
I. Alla Breve
II. Sehr Langsam
III. Frisch Und Lebhaft
IV. Sehr Langsam - Belebt
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Post what recording you are going to listen to giving details of Orchestra / Conductor / Chorus / Soloists etc - Enjoy!


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## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

Another weekend and another symphony. Realdeal is away so I post this requested symphony. I am not familiar with this, yet. There seems to be some recordings of this. I picked this one from spotify:


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

It'll be this one for me, the only one I have heard.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

For me this one, a works one listen once a year I guess.


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## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

I'll be going with this disc later this morning:


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

This one for me too. I really enjoy this proto-Mahler work.



Enthusiast said:


> It'll be this one for me, the only one I have heard.
> 
> View attachment 118060


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

I've got Segerstam and Samuel. It'll be the latter for my listening.

D


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

A symphony I greatly enjoy and have quite a few recordings of so I'll go with this one.


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## cougarjuno (Jul 1, 2012)

I'll also try this one from Spotify. I haven't listened to Rott's music much. I've read he was a friend of Mahler's and at some point around 1880 lost his sanity.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Amazing is it not that this symphony had to wait so long for recognition and then finally some 30 years ago a performing edition was made and then followed so many recordings - they're all good, I think. And yet --- has anyone heard it live in concert? You'd think given the immense popularity of Mahler and Bruckner that orchestras would be lining up to rent the parts to perform. Anyway, I'll listen to Jarvi and Samuel. (I have to find a way to get this music performed locally...)


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

mbhaub said:


> Amazing is it not that this symphony had to wait so long for recognition and then finally some 30 years ago a performing edition was made and then followed so many recordings...


Surprised to read that. I'm sure I bought an LP of the symphony much more than 30 years ago. It was recommended by a clerk at Tower Records when I lived in Seattle.

Added: Perhaps my memory is failing me. It looks like the 1989 Samuel recording was the first, and it was on CD.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I have heard more than one version of the symphony starting when the Samuel version was released on Hyperion but the Samuel remains the only one I return to, the main reason being that *&%^ triangle, or more specifically, a preference to hear less of it!


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I shall be listening to this version


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Giving my only recording a spin as I type:


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Listened to my old iPod copy, Samuel I think.

Well, it’s nothing if not grandiose. After a while, you just want to call out, “Enough with the heavens opening and the angels pouring forth already!” Like another member said, once a year is quite sufficient. But at that frequency, it never wears out its welcome.

I do have to say that there’s not another symphony like it – except for the scherzo, of course; there’s certainly another like that.

Too bad about Brahms and that train…what a scoundrel he must have been!


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

I've always loved this life-enhancing work since the first time, it's like a mix between Bruckner and a kind of early Mahler (obviously Mahler took several ideas from Rott, not to say _plagiarized_). The Järvi/Frankfurt Radio SO rendition is absolutely overwhelming, like a punch on your face, displaying the work in all its glory!


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I enjoyed this symphony and would agree with the positive comments above
Would also agree that it seems like a Bruckner and Mahler cross but never with the depth of either composer
Definitely worth a listen


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

It is indeed an enjoyable symphony. 

That said, while it is of great interest, and probably a work of importance, I would struggle to describe it as a masterpiece as such. The structure is either interesting or ambitious, but it could also be described as unwieldy and clumsy. I don't think there's enough interesting material in the later movements to carry the longer span of each.

I also don't think it is fair to use the word "plagiarise" when it comes to the similarities with Mahler's earlier symphonies. Mahler was a great friend of Rott, and admirer of his work. Why would he shamelessly steal material, while promoting this specific work's merits? Surely then, he would have done all in his power to ensure the work never saw the light of day? It is no more passing it off as his own than using the sounds of bands from his youth, the snatches of popular tunes and military stuff, that are there to hear in so many of his symphonies. "Referencing" might be a better term?! :tiphat: 

Tom Lehrer had the right idea:

"In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics: Plagiarize!
Plagiarize
Let no one else's work evade your eyes
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes
So don't shade your eyes
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize - Only be sure always to call it please 'research'"


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