The Composer or Wie man ein Genie tötet by Ingvar Hellsing Lundqvist

Hans Rott is an Austrian composer of little fame. He was born in 1858 and died in 1884 in a mental hospital, at the age of 25. His life was a sad one. Music his passion, his legacy?  One Symphony and a few 'Lieders'.

One evening, Ingvar Hellsing Lundqvist, heard Rott's symphony and was hooked. He had to find out more about the composer. The more he found out, the more he realised he had a book to write. It became the historical fiction, Wie man ein Genie tötet (How to Kill a Genius; my translation).

Rott lived a life of poverty. He received a scholarship to study music. His efforts went into his symphony, which he forwarded to a competition. Sure of winning, he was devastated when being ignored by the jury. He blamed his adversary, Brahms, also part of the jury. Rott goes into a depression. He imagines he sees Brahms everywhere, and that he is there to ruin his life. While on a train, he threatens another passenger with a revolver, claiming that Brahms has filled the train with dynamite. That is the beginning of the end, and shortly afterwords he ends up in a mental institution, with the diagnosis of persecutory delusions. He died a few years later.

The story of Rott's life is one of those stories where life exceeds fiction. Lundqvist has written a wonderful novel that captures Rott's sad life. We see the world from Rott's perspective. His inner thoughts, crazy as they are from time to time, give us a glimpse of a man who only wanted to create music, but reality knocks on the door. Rott's delusions and thoughts are so well described. You suffer with him. I found myself wishing for him to succeed, and at the same time, realising how crazy many of his thoughts are, knowing he will not. It almost reads like a thriller sometimes. Lundqvist slowly builds up Rott's life from early teens until his death. You are there with him through the different parts of his life. The dialogues are also well written and adds to the character of Rott.

I was really captured by Rott's story. Still today, I doubt many people have heard about him. I had not. His only symphony, Symphony in E major was finally performed for the first time in 1989(!) by Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra. I  have listened to part of it. Mixing beautiful melodious music with powerful parts. Below from Youtube.

Ingvar Hellsing Lundqvist is a Swedish writer and this is his first novel. Unfortunately, it was not accepted for publication in Sweden, but a translation into German, by Jürgen Vater, generated publication in Austria. It is definitely worth a read. A different story, very well told.

I received a copy of the book from the author, for a fair and impartial review.