Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra & Leif Segerstam - Hans Rott: Symphony In E major (1993)

Hans Rott was a friend of Gustav Mahler's and Hugo Wolf's in their conservatory days, and his career was to end sadly, like Wolf's, in madness probably brought on by syphilis. While traveling by rail to take up a job as a choral director, his mind gave way and he claimed that Brahms had rigged the train to explode. He never reported for work, obviously. Mahler himself acknowledged that Rott's symphony was drawn from the same soil as his own early works, and while Rott had nothing like Mahler's skill as an orchestrator, this student piece has so many melodic and structural ideas in common with Mahler that the resemblance is sometimes scary. If you like Mahler, give it a listen. You're in for a shock! -- David Hurwitz