Raff piano music vol.1

[Mark Thomas]

Promised by Naxos for mid-March release is the first of three CDs of Raff's piano music. The soloist is British-Vietnamese pianist Tra Nguyen, who made such an impression a couple of years ago with her performances for Sterling of Raff's Concertante Die Tageszeiten and his Suite for Piano and Orchestra. The works which will be on this CD are the Fantaisie WoO.15A, the set of twelve Frühlingsboten op.55 and the Drei Kalvier-soli op.74. Having heard a preview of the recording I can say that her interpretations and technique are all that one could wish for in these première recordings, but don't take my word for it - here's a YouTube promotional video with Tra playing the seventh of the Frühlingsboten set.

[Peter1953]

Wow, this is something to look forward to.

[Alan Howe]

Indeed. Great stuff...

[TerraEpon]

Nice indeed.

[Mark Thomas]

A little more information...

[Peter1953]

Remarkable sleeve design but definitely a must-buy.

[Mark Thomas]

I think the packaging is rather striking myself. I see that the other three CDs which launch this new label from Naxos are piano music by Saint-Saëns, Schulhoff and Weinberg.

[Gareth Vaughan]

The sleeve design is indeed quite striking - but I really couldn't care less about it. It's the MUSIC that's important - and for me the CD is a definite MUST BUY.

[Josh]

I really can't wait to get this!  I'm a bit amazed that this hasn't been done before.  What I've heard of Raff's solo piano music - and his writing for the piano in songs - is some of the most sublime keyboard music I've ever come across.  Just listening to the piano part for Op.172#9 Nach der Geburt ihres Sohnes, for instance, or the opening minute and five seconds or so of his Op.14 Piano Sonata... and that's to say nothing of how he handles the piano with orchestra.

By the way, has his Suite for Piano & Orchestra, Op.200 ever hit commercial recording?  The 2nd movement of that also contains some of the most gorgeous piano-involved passages known to me.

Sorry to get a bit off-topic, but what I meant to say was that I'm tremendously excited.  I've yet to hear a piece by Raff that I thought was less than good, and I know there will be works on these discs that I've never heard.  Let's see if his perfect record with my ears continues!  Based on past experience, I'm optimistic!

[Mark Thomas]

Josh, the Suite for Piano & Orchestra was issued by Sterling in 2009 with Tra as soloist, as she is in Die Tageszeiten, a piano concerto - cum - choral symphony which Sterling issued in 2010.

[Jonathan]

This is also a must buy for me. 

The Saint-saens sounds good too - wonder if it will be complete (unlike the so called complete set on Vox which annoyingly misses out all of the self transcriptions which I would really like to hear, as well as various other odds and ends).

[erato]

Well, 5 years after the launch of Taneyev's complet quartets vol 1 on Naxos, we're still on vol 2, so don't get too exited.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Not quite as bleak as that, Erato! I recall Vol 1 of the Carpe Dieum recordings came out in January 2008, and Vol 2 in Feb 2011. But I agree that's quite a gap between Vols 1 and 2........and at such a rate we'll all be white-haired toothless old men by the time we get to Vol 5.

(In the meantime there is the very good series - on five CDs - of the Taneyev Quartet performances on Northern Flowers).

I've still got rather a smile on my face that has persisted ever since Mark's post about Vol 1 of Raff being released in March. Whatever the world might happen to think, here we have a major composer. And, as far as I know, these piano works have never before received recordings. And, to make it even more of an event to truly celebrate, these premiere recordings are being released on an easily accessible budget priced label. What could be better than that?!!!!!!

[erato]

All four initial releases looks like purchases to me.

[TerraEpon]

The Saint-saens sounds good too - wonder if it will be complete (unlike the so called complete set on Vox which annoyingly misses out all of the self transcriptions which I would really like to hear, as well as various other odds and ends).

That set on Vox is hidious. Some of the tracks are in mono -- recorded in the 1970s. The four hand pieces are all mixed in, and it has easily the worst version of Carnival of the Animals I've ever heard.

It's really about time someone corrects the lack of Saint-Saens piano music, as there's only one actually good disc of it in existence, the etudes on Hyperion...and disappointingly the first disc will be that too. Yeesh.

Back to Raff, I hope the sound quality is better than that video....there's something really off about it.