For his debut recording for SWR music/hänssler CLASSIC, the distinguished young conductor François-Xavier Roth has carefully selected a program that will serve as a foundation for his future work with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg. Creatively building on the romantic foundations laid by Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner and Brahms, both Gustav Mahler and the young Anton Webern shared a common vision to push the limits of Viennese symphonic tradition.

Conductor Roth is no stranger to contemporary music, having made his conducting debut at the famous Donaueschinger Musiktage as well as being a regular guest conductor with the Ensemble intercontemporain. Maestro Roth returns to the beginning of that journey with a pair of youthful works by Mahler and Webern. Mahler's First Symphony still has the power to raise audiences to the feet while Webern's hyper-romantic Im Sommerwind, was the last large-scale composition he completed before he met Arnold Schoenberg.