Unsung Composers

I note that Grand Piano will be releasing (in the UK) Volume 3 of Raff's piano works performed by Tra Nguyen on 29 October, and subject to postie doing her job, I shall be rejoicing on that day. One member of the Forum will no more need to be told of the release date than he needs to be reminded that night follows day, but for others of us it forms a red letter day in the diary.

It seems to me that Grand Piano has established itself very quickly as an especially welcome and valued label. Whether it is Raff or Weinberg I especially like the idea of a series devoted to a composer (and usually where other labels haven't ventured) performed by the same pianist. Not only interesting repertory, but top drawer performances and recordings - and in the case of Raff (someone blushes) accompanied with detailed and illuminating notes in the booklet.

My only regret about the Raff series is that I gather Vol 3 will be the last in the series? That's a great pity, since there must be enough Raff piano music to fill up 20 or so CDs!

I think that, in an idle half hour, I calculated that 45+ CDs would be needed and that would include Raff's piano reductions of his own music in other genres.

Here's a taster of vol.III's cover:


Yes, it's the final volume I'm afraid but there are Sterling's two upcoming CDs to look forward too and, who knows, cpo may even get around to continuing their String Quartet series as they've had them all "in the can" for several years now.

To be fair to Naxos, they would have been happy to have produced more in the Grand Piano series and indeed at one time intended to badge it "Raff complete piano music" but like most CDs of music by unsungs, making the recordings at all depended upon private sponsorship and, unless one is lucky enough to gain the enthusiasm of a Peter Moores, pockets aren't bottomless.

In many ways, this volume is the most characteristic of Raff's piano music output as a whole. Unlike the first CD, these works are all mature Raff and there is nothing on the scale of the second CD's Fantasie-Sonate or Variations on an Original Theme. For me, the Cinq Eglogues are the highlight: five delightful, delicately drawn miniatures, worthy of being the only work which Raff dedicated to his wife. The Album Lyrique is a big 40 minute set of nine pieces, aptly named as most of them find him at his most seductively lyrical. The Fantaisie-Polonaise is a bravura genre piece of fearsome difficulty and the Impromptu-Valse a thoroughly ingratiating confection. I think that Tra's selection here intelligently rounds out her portrait of Raff at the piano and, of course, she brings to them both her technique and her unique understanding of what made Raff tick.

As for the booklet notes, they're written by the same old hack...  ;)

I'm guessing the Lyric Album is the second version, yes?


Arkiv doesn't list this disc, but does list Vol. 3 in the Saint-Saens series which is the other I'm looking forward to...

It is indeed the second Album Lyrique, published 1874-77, but it isn't so much a "version" as a total recomposition. Despite it being published (in 1846) no copies of the original set seem to have survived. According to Schäfer's catalogue of Raff's compositions the second set was written in 1849 but I have my doubts whether that's true for all of the pieces and I did mention in my booklet notes that the final pair at least, a Scherzo and an Introduction & Fugue bear all the stylistic hallmarks of being written in the mid 1870s.  Because I can't prove it I refrained from going on to say that, although Raff probably did write a couple of the second set's numbers in 1849, I strongly suspect that he wrote most of them in the 1860s or early 1870s and put the replacement Album Lyrique together from these pairs of works which he had by him, adding the final two numbers immediately prior to their publication in 1876 and 1877 respectively. Quite why the new set was published (by the same publisher as the original, Schuberth) as a replacement and not as Album Lyrique No.2 I don't know but it obviously gave Raff the idea to follow the same practice soon after with the eight recompositions of his earliest piano works, including the Piano Sonata, which he made for Breitkopf & Härtel.

Wow, what a great forum - and lots of nice things about Raff!

Thank you Mark for devoting much of your time and resource for all the Raff's projects. It has been a tremendous journey with Raff for the last few years!! I would just like to add that I hope this is not the last Raff's CD from Grand Piano - there's much more to offer and you never know, as much as I adore his music, the Raff vol.3  might not be my last Raff's venture!!

What a great forum, so much to explore!!

Welcome Tra, what a nice surprise.

Indeed, Tra. It's good to have you looking in...

I'd love to hear you commit the Raff PC to disc, Tra, if not with Sterling, with somebody!

Well, of course I wouldn't even dream of disagreeing with that! But then there is such a wealth of unrecorded (and to most of us quite unknown) solo piano music - and that to me would be first priority.

A heartfelt 'thank you', Tra, for the three discs in the Grand Piano series .....and if, by any chance, there might possibly be more to come then (despite my age!) I do a little hop and skip of joy.

I was enormously glad to read Mark's earlier comment that the series had sold quite well - just shows the world isn't wholly made up of dull people!

The CD's now being advertised as a 29th October release by MDT:
http://www.mdt.co.uk/raff-piano-works-3-tra-nguyen-grand-piano.html (http://www.mdt.co.uk/raff-piano-works-3-tra-nguyen-grand-piano.html)

Yes, I've had an email from Amazon saying my pre-order has been delayed  ???

Many thanks for your kind words!

Raff's PC is a very fine work (my first Raff's piece in concert!) and I think we do have Ponti's wonderful rendition recorded somewhere. The unrecorded piano solo are varied - but some of his miniatures and the opera transcriptions (Meyebeer pops up a lot there) are quite appealing. We shall see what future brings!

I reviewed Tra's performance of the Piano Concerto here (http://www.raff.org/news/reviews/2007/saigon.htm). As for the opera arrangements, there are a couple of CDs worth at least. Some (particularly the several Wagner works) are transcriptions, whereas perhaps those which are more interesting these days are the freely-composed fantasias based upon themes from operas such as Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots and Halèvy's La Juive.

Quote from: TraNguyen on Wednesday 03 October 2012, 09:33
Many thanks for your kind words!

Raff's PC is a very fine work (my first Raff's piece in concert!) and I think we do have Ponti's wonderful rendition recorded somewhere.

I sure wish that Genesis would re-release Frank Cooper's pioneer LP performance of the PC on CD.  Dr. Cooper must have some sort of legal injunction against them doing so.  Bob Commagère has re-released almost everything they put out on LP with Gerald Robbins, Adrian Ruiz and Jorge Bolet (in the Sgambati PC).  But the Raff and Brüll PC 2 with Cooper remain mysteriously absent...

Quote from: Mark Thomas on Wednesday 03 October 2012, 10:05
As for the opera arrangements, there are a couple of CDs worth at least. Some (particularly the several Wagner works) are transcriptions, whereas perhaps those which are more interesting these days are the freely-composed fantasias based upon themes from operas such as Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots and Halèvy's La Juive.

I enjoy many of Liszt's (and Thalberg's and others) pieces of this type and would love to hear Raff's.

QuoteBut the Raff and Brüll PC 2 with Cooper remain mysteriously absent...

As does, sadly, the Dreyschock Concert Piece. (But this is not meant to be a signpost to go off topic!)

I understand from Robert Commagère that he has not been in contact with Frank Cooper for many years.

I wonder why not.  My understanding is that he is still on the piano faculty at the University of Miami (FL) and has been for years.  He also still runs a Romantic Music Festival annually, and is still actively digging up unsungs.

I know no more.

Some more details about volume 3: www.naxos.com/ecard/grandpiano/gp634/ (http://www.naxos.com/ecard/grandpiano/gp634/)

Very lovely sample.

It's the first of the Cinq Eglogues op.105.

Amazing. Very different Raff indeed.

This short audio sample makes me very anxious to hear all other pieces. Indeed, so different. Just thrilling. And, like the music in Vol. 1 & 2, Tra Nguyen is so convincing in her gorgeous playing. Hats off!
I still keep wondering what the artist of the sleeve design had in mind. Most strange.

With the exception of the Album Lyrique's final two pieces and the Fantaisie-Polonaise, all the works on this CD find Raff at his most ingratiatingly beautiful, I think. Not that those three works aren't vintage Raff, but they are rather more driven than most of the music here. The covers of all the Grand Piano releases so far are paintings by the Norwegian artist Gro Thorsen (http://www.grothorsen.com), Peter. Personally, I think that they give Grand Piano covers a very distinctive and modern look but it's a matter of taste and the music's the thing, isn't it?

I like the covers. They give the label a very distinct personality, aren't ugly and don't look generic.  I think as a whole the endevor has been fantastic, though perhaps my bias in loving both Raff and Saint-Saens (and Grainger...who of course isn't technically on topic here) helps there...

Agreed! I'm utterly unable to articulate any explanation or reason for it, but I find the covers very appealing. As soon as I saw the covers on the first Grand Piano releases I thought here is something where those who are marketing the discs aren't trying to sell them by making them look like any other piano recital disc but rather announcing a new and quite distinctive series.

And, whether we are talking Raff or Weinberg, the Grand Piano series has got off to a great start. And thus whenever the eye catches an image of a future release with the same style, you just know this is going to be a disc of really interesting (and probably not previously recorded) items, wonderfully performed, with high production standards, an absence of gimmicks, and engaging, well-written, and authoritative notes in the booklet.

I'd guess much careful thought has gone into the series, and along with the Toccata label, I can't think of any other series or label that has established itself as a reliable, high class product in so short a time. My sincere congratulations to Grand Piano!

But apart from all that gush, as Mark remarks, it is the music that matters!

Here is Tra's promotional video for vol.3: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVdjZ3gnZJ0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVdjZ3gnZJ0).

Audio samples from each track can now be heard at jpc here (http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Joachim-Raff-1822-1882-Klavierwerke-Vol-3/hnum/3195912). The first nine are the Album Lyrique, followed by the Cinq Eglogues and finishing up with the Impromptu-Valse and the Fantaisie-Polonaise.

Now available for download from ClassicsOnline here (http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue/product.aspx?pid=1684872). Physical CDs are also shipping to retailers now, I understand.

Can't wait...

HMV posted my copy two days ago. I'll be awaiting the arrival of Royal Mail's little red van in the morning. The Raff CD should be in the company of 12 others in the same order, and since HMV have the crazy practice of sending each CD in its own individual stout cardboard box it is going to be quite a challenge getting them from front door to music room unobserved. Doubtless I shall be in the doghouse once more!

Move the music room to the doghouse perhaps?

Tra Nguyen is giving a recital in the Wigmore Hall, London on Sunday evening 16 December. Unusually for her these days there is no Raff on the programme but apparently International Piano Magazine are running a promotion: if you email competitions@rhinegold.co.uk with Tra Nguyen giveaway in the subject line then you are entered into a prize draw to win this latest Raff CD plus a ticket to the recital.

Quote from: petershott@btinternet.com on Thursday 01 November 2012, 23:45

Doubtless I shall be in the doghouse once more!

Peter, I am very lucky in that my wife never questions the boxes that arrive weekly at our door, but I have already determined that when we build our final home I shall have a doghouse just for me. I was going to call it the 'shed' but I think you have just given a me a new nickname to try!

well, make sure the speakers have large woofers.

And install a birdcage for the tweeters!

I like to add a few words to what already has been said. In fact, I second all the positive comments. What another wonderful disc this Vol. 3 is. All short pieces are delightful character pieces with a great variety and individual depth. And believe me, I like Raff's piano music more than Liszt. Much more.
It's amazing how Tra Nguyen really gets under the skin of Raff, as if Raff plays the piano through Tra's fingers. Maybe this is my bad English, but I mean it as a great compliment. She has a perfect toucher.

Totally agree with you, Peter. These three volumes have constituted a wonderful voyage of discovery of what, for me, was hitherto quite unknown music. As you say, Tra Nguyen really seems to get right under the skin of Raff: there's something that seems just absolutely right about her performances (though I suppose, strictly, that is a silly remark since I haven't heard any other pianist tackling Raff).

In addition the recordings are superb in quality, and actually the detailed and enlightening notes in the booklets accompanying all three CDs are also pretty good!

Ah, if only Tra Nguyen, Grand Piano (and the writer of the notes!) could be persuaded to give us further volumes. What a treat that would be!

One footnote: celebrating this disc of Raff, young Peter, doesn't provide you with any excuse for adverse comments on Liszt!

Apparently the US release date of this is today....and I just happened to make an order of it (ImportCDs.com's already pretty low price on top of a 10% discount, ordered 9 discs total actually...)

I have been listening to volume 3 now for the past week or so and I too must say that this latest issue in the Grand Piano series of Raff piano works is truly superb and every bit as great as the two previous volumes. Tra Nguyen really does understand what Raff is trying to convey to the listener and every piece on the latest CD is wonderfully played. There is a depth of feeling, combined with great delicacy or, as required, more forceful playing, which is simply beautiful. My favourite piece is Cing Eglogues (but the Album Lyrique is a very close second!). The sheer beauty of this work has me rapt in attention as I listen to it and its 18:24 minutes pass by all too quickly! Indeed the whole album lasting some 76:33 likewise passes by all too quickly. As has already be stated, the liner notes, excellently written by Mark are highly informative. The only downside that I can think of is that this CD is the last in the series. I live however in the hope that maybe there might one day be a fourth, even though this is unlikely.

In my opinion this is a must-buy and not just for Raff lovers but for all lovers of wonderful piano writing, superbly interpreted by a world class pianist!

I have not the authority to do so, but quite independently of that, have no hesitation in awarding a honorary prize to one Byzantion for his review of Volume 3 of the Grand Piano series of Tra Nguyen recordings of Raff on Music Web tonight. A spot on right review of the latest (and I very much hope not the last) volume in this utterly splendid series. (Not quite sure, though, who this Thomas fellow might be who is mentioned in the review!)

Yes, I'm reduced to just "Thomas" now. Clearly my 15 minutes of fame is exhausted! Actually, Byzantion's reviews on MusicWeb International of all three CDs in the series have been uniformly positive and that's hugely encouraging.

You may like to know that Tra gave her first Wigmore Hall recital last Sunday -  something of a milestone for any pianist. It went wonderfully well and I've never heard her play better. Here's a review from The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/oleg-marshev--and-tra-nguyen-wigmore-hall-london-8421975.html). She was also interviewed and played Clementi and Raff on BBC Radio3's In Tune earlier in the week.