Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester, Hans Rosbaud - Mahler: Symphonie Nr. 5 (2013)

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, Gramophonehailed 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.