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Dear Toni
Are you convinced that Raff's music is "hardly ever played" today??
Only look at the - at first slowly, but (since the coming up of CDs) rapidly constant increasing - quantity of recordings of his music since the 1980's!
See 
raff.org/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Klenau
Another excellent composer, whose personality and art, alas, remains strongly associated with National Socialism...
Some of his orchestral works are available on the CaDapo label.
His vocal cycle "Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Kornetts Christoph Rilke" (excellently conducted by Paul Mann) is a masterwork. In there you are confronted with the various aspects of his musical style, ranging from post-Romanticism to Impressionism - and even to quarter-tone music.
Swiss composer Frank Martin also wrote an impressing vocal cycle on the same poem cycle by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Incidentally: in 1923 Klenau conducted Schoenberg's "Gurrelieder" and Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis", and in 1924 Liszt's "Christus" at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
Unfortunately, CDs with his music have become very difficult to buy...
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/composers/7133/browse
(This composer has already been a theme in here in the past...)

Suppé's Requiem was written in 1855. Later on the composer "expanded" this work into a 2-hour Oratorio entitled "Extremum Judicium".
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/Franz-von-Suppe-1819-1895-Extremum-Judicium-Requiem-Oratorium/hnum/1734129

The Requiem was available on a beautiful Virgin Classics CD (2003), conducted by Michel Corboz. Other CDs exist, by the Eroland, Profil-Hänssler, Novalis (1995) and BNL labels. If I am not wrong, the Novalis was a world premiere; and it takes 2 instaed of 1 CD - supposedly due to the slower tempi taken by Edmond De Stoutz (a conductor I admired and whom I owe a lot - he was the chef of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra from 1951 to 1996. But already before he had founded a city chamber ensemble. He had in his programs many works by Swiss composers, some of their works he had even commissioned).

The Corboz Suppé Requiem recording can now be found in his "complete" Warner-Erato box:

https://www.amazon.de/Michel-Corboz-Compl-Erato-Recordings-Corboz/dp/B0BNCLZCLG/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=2MRIALU9U0RMB&keywords=corboz&qid=1679673901&sprefix=corbo%2Caps%2C121&sr=8-2

Incidentally, this Requiem will be performed in Lucerne on November 5th of this year.

The (live) recording of Saint-Saëns's "Henry VIII" from Rouen of 1991 (harmonia mundi/Le Chant du Monde - Radio-France) has some exellent singers and it is well conducted by Alain Guingal. The booklet contains an interesting article by Sabina Teller Ratner, mentioning a.o. that the composer was quite proud of his work - and that he could not explain why it could not find a way to the repertoire.

I have the cpo recording of Lachner's "Catharina Cornaro", which I find an excellent work - also thanks to Maestro Ralf Weikert's committed interpretation.
Yes, mikehopf, I too I am of your opinion: The Requiem is great; the 2006 Carus CD recording is very recommendable!

Hi Ilja :-)
Just to let you know that your download has three dropouts in the first half of the 3rd part.
I could mend the two first ones quite nicely (still not 100%) - but the third (at approx. 17:505) is very difficult to handle since is a bit longer.
By the way, on YouTube there is also a TV live recording of the 1993 performance of Benoit's same cantata from Antwerp.
There too I had to repair very small things, but successfully...
What a magnificent work! I am a great fan of this composer. I have two other cantantas (De Schelde and Rubens-Cantata) from LPs and a great double CD with Benoit's "Religious Tetralogy" (Label: Antwerp Symphony Orchestra) and the ealier "Discover" CD of Benoit's "Hugh Mass", conducted by Alexander Rahbari. Of course I also habe the Marco Polo-CD of the Flute and Piano Concertos by Benoit :-)

A very short appearance of Fritz Brun and Volkmar Andreae in a private 8mm film taken at the Swiss Music Festival of 1931 also turned up. I show it in my Brun documentary.
Who knows what more of this kind is still lying in private archives...

Hi Alan - thanks for enquiring :-)
I am still alive, suffering much more from nobody wanting me anymore as a conductor than from various usual "old age" health issues...
From time to time I am good enough to be commissioned to produce some chamber music arrangements. Mahler's "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" and 7 Schubert songs - both arranged for string sextet - will be premiered in July at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden - by Michael Volle. These are - besides an own "Short Symphony" for Orchestra, my latest exploits.

Yes, we Swiss should be proud for having such a great choral work like "Le Laudi" in our repertoire - besides Raff's "Weltende" and Hegar's "Manasse"...

Hi all :-)

https://www.mediafire.com/view/bkop363oqmg4lvu/HERMANN_SUTER_-_Le_Laudi.jpg/file

The great choral work will celebrate this year its 100th birthday!

A great virtuoso! His interpretations were pioneering, magnificent and diabolic.
He could play the most difficutlt concertos and had, apparently, Clara Schumann's  handspan.
And he was the first pianist recording complete piano solo works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Scriabin!
Unfortunately, some of his VOX-Turnabout recordings were abridged, in order to get some more music on an LP.
And the orchestras hired were sometimes questionable, not to speak about the bad original LP pressings - but some of them were, fortunately, licensed to Decca - and, of course, reissued on CDs.
And that was the start of "The Romantic Piano Concerto" series, later imitated by Hyperion and Naxos.
In my personal opinion, his Henselt (which he recorded twice; in 1968 and in1997), Raff and Moszkowski Concertos remain the best still today!

Good to remind us, giles.enders :-)

Since 2011 there are quite a few threads or mentionings of Henri Rabaud in here :-)
His two scores for silent films have been recorded in connection with video restaurations for DVDs and his opera "Marouf" is still available on CD re-issues.
His 2nd Symphony and "Procession nocturne" are available on the Timpani label and other orchestral pieces have been recorded by Pierre Dervaux for EMI in 1979 and by Leif Segerstam for Naxos-Marco Polo in 2002. His "Solo de Concours" (Contest Piece) for clarinet and piano has also been recorded by EMI in the 1970s...

Yes, Alan! A real, robust (and good) Wagner tenor would have been appropriate!
In the meantime I could find another recording of the 3rd act, which had landed on a different chapter of my Sound Card. In other words, my sound files should be mint now. Those who want to burn CDRs from all this, a break during the first act is necessary, since it goes for 82 minutes...

Listening to yesterday's Weimar broadcast of "Samson" was a pleasure. I do not bother to criticise the singers, but the conducting and overall playing was quite excellent.

This will be a great pleasure for all Raff fans - and you will discuss all this more in detail. It's an over 3-hour's, immensly rich and felicitous score!

Disturbing extra stage noises, including, groaning, weeping, coughing, vomiting - and particularly a heavy panting after the opera's very last chords (so the audience has to wait for the final applause) belong, of course, to Mr. Bieito's usual scenic effect's catalogue. Hope the CD recording will take out at least this last rubbish.

As usual, recording from the Radio was an adventure. I have three sources at disposal, two of them were cut out already at 35 minutes and the third was OK, except for a second's fraction break during the final ballet (which I could tentatively repair). Suppose they will produce a podcast or somebody else in here was more lucky.

Deutschlandfunk's online player (with programming and recording facilities) is totally unrealiable, as well as internet Radio and digital cable radio - after all we are in the 21st century!

So let's wait until another download appears... Mine is, except as far as that little "repair" is concerned) excellent, with extra editing, as fade ins and -outs and without all the blablah's in-between the acts.

Incidentally, Mr. Bieito is rehearsing here in Zurich a production of Cavalli's opera "Eliogabalo". No better subject for him, I already imagine what all kind of perverse things are going to happen on stage!

I certainly will be, but won't uploading it in here.
But suppose other members will too.
To members I have already corresponded privately or know me, I will send a download link - in case no one else will upload.

Don't forget tonight on Deutschlandfunk Kultur:

19:05 Uhr
Oper
Nationaltheater Weimar
Aufzeichnung vom 11.09.2022

Uraufführung nach 170 Jahren

Joachim Raff
,,Samson"
Musikdrama in drei Abteilungen auf ein Libretto des Komponisten

Samson – Peter Sonn, Tenor
Oberpriester des Dagon – Avtandil Kaspeli, Bass
Abimelech – Uwe Schenker-Primus, Bariton
Delilah – Emma Moore, Sopran
Gefangenenwärter – Jörn Eichler, Tenor
Micha – Taejun Sun, Tenor
Oberpriesterin der Astarte – Sayaka Shigeshima, Mezzosopran
Frau aus dem Volke – Franziska Löber, Sopran

Opernchor des Deutschen Nationaltheaters
Extrachor aus Studierenden der Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt
Staatskapelle Weimar
Leitung: Dominik Beykirch