String Symphony in A flat major - Hans Rott

Mainz Philharmonic State Orchestra conducted by Enrico Delamboye. I - Allegro con fuoco - Agitato e con brio: 0:00 II - Grave e largo: 4:23 III - Scherzo. Prestissimo - Trio: Innig und gemutsvoll: 10:09 Rott&Symphony for Strings was composed between 1874-5, being his earliest work that is known. It was composed while being a teenager of 16 in his first year in the Vienna Conservatory. It wasn&premiered until much later on January 2 of 2004 in Baden, Switzerland. Divided in three movements, sketches of an unfinished finale remain. The composition is the experimenting work of a student composer, who has not yet found his personal style. In many parts the symphony shows the clear traces of a composing class. Although, already in this early work, Rott surprises us not only with original thematic ideas, but particularly also with his strikingly blatant harmonic changes and unexpected structural developments. Rott also repeatedly breaks with his inherited structural traditions. With his eight-part string-writing Rott finds, particularly in slow sections, bewitchingly passionate, warm string colours. The first movement is structured in ternary form. It begins with a joyful main theme, soon being transformed through unprepared harmonies. The middle section consists of a fugue on a subject based on an ostinato bass line, which not only undergoes various contrapuntal developments, but is also finally coupled with and blended with the main theme. The main theme is recapitulated...