Raff: Violin Concerto No.1

[Mark Thomas]

I've uploaded to our Downloads Board here a recording broadcast by Swiss radio a couple of days ago of a concert performance last year of Raff's First Violin Concerto. The soloist, Anatol Toth, was only 19 at the time, which maybe accounts for the very short break between the second and third movements - the work is intended to be played attacca.

[Double-A]

Thank you!

[Alan Howe]

Indeed, thanks very much. Mark. How good it is to hear another fine performance of this lovely, repertoire-worthy concerto. It's also good to hear a full-throated, but tasteful vibrato from the young soloist. No teeth-on-edge HIP reticence here!

[Mark Thomas]

Yea, a thoroughly romantic interpretation. I thought he did very well.

[eschiss1]

Whose orchestration was used?

[John Boyer]

Whose orchestration was used?

It's Raff's original.

[Mark Thomas]

Once the the autograph was discovered at the Eastman School of Music and a modern edition published by Edition Nordstern, there really is no reason for anyone to use Wilhelmj's awful Wagnerian rewrite.

[Alan Howe]

Absolutely, Mark. Well said.

[eschiss1]

so long as they knew about it (presumably) and were willing to pay Nordstern the rental fees (dunno.)

[Mark Thomas]

Only the partitur exists in autograph, there are no manuscript parts, so they'll have to have used the Nordstern edition partitur and parts.

[eschiss1]

ah, ok. I was confused in part because I'd read that the Sterling recording was based on Wilhelmj's edition (perhaps they used his violin part from the 1892? reduction and made their own parts from the score...)

[eschiss1]

actually, someone unaware of the original (now Nordstern) edition and wanting to perform the "neue ausg." as it's described which is to say the Wilhelmj could borrow the performance materials from Fleisher.

[Mark Thomas]

That's true, unfortunately. Actually, though, it's the Sterling recording which uses Raff's original score, then newly available from Nordstern. It's the earlier Tudor recording which had to use Wilhelmj's rewrite, because at the time the whereabouts of Raff's autograph was unknown.

[eschiss1]

Ah! Apologies to Sterling, I completely misremembered...

[Mark Thomas]

Fret not, Eric!