The composer Francis Poulenc said in 1954, ‘Music buffs believe that the greatest living conductor is Toscanini: musicians know that it is Hans Rosbaud.’ Similarly, Gramophone hailed Rosbaud as ‘one of the unsung heroes of mid-20th-century music’. Hans Rosbaud (1895–1962), a native of Graz, was a champion of contemporary works while strongly advocating Mahler’s music after the Second World War. From 1948 to 1962, Rosbaud was associated with the South West German Radio Orchestra, Baden-Baden, which he built into one of the finest orchestras in Germany.

He was linked to the Donaueschingen Festival, where he performed the post-War modernist school, and to the Aix-en Provence Festival. He also became a regular guest conductor from 1959 with the Chicago Symphony and made frequent appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic and Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

Rosbaud regarded Mahler as the key figure in the birth of twentieth-century music.

This ‘live’ studio recording from 1951 is a new addition to the Rosbaud discography, released for the first time on ICA Classics. It has been regarded by a number of German musicologists as a truly legendary performance.

Rosbaud is captured here at the height of his powers with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, one of his favourite orchestras.

The 50th anniversary of Rosbaud’s death was in December 2012 so this release is a belated tribute to this great conductor.