Tadaaaa! Mark, take a bow!
Raff's Piano Quartets, two of his greatest works, have been announced for release by Divox...
http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/NR_July11/CDX209056.htm (http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/NR_July11/CDX209056.htm)
Expensive though....,
I just yesterday bought the quintets disc actually (which was apparently reissued to a much wider disribution earlier this year). Hopefully the new one will show up on Amazon in due time too, though.
Thanks, Alan. Whilst I had a hand in getting the new Piano Quartets recording made in the first place, I've had no technical or artistic input and so feel sufficiently objective to be able to review it at raff.org (http://www.raff.org/records/reviews/chamber/18.htm). If you don't want to spend five minutes reading a torrent of praise, suffice to say that not only are these tremendous works but they receive tremendous, award-worthy performances. The sound is excellent too, but I imagine that the higher cost of the CD is down to the fact that it's a hybrid SACD.
I'll be very interested to see what other people think of it when they get their hands on it.
We have to be patience for a month or so. But those audio extracts, inserted in your very informative review Mark, sound so promising. Sometimes it's difficult to wait, but Raffians are very patient music lovers.
BTW, I still wonder whether a person can really distinguish a hybrid SCAD from a normal recording if you are older than, let's say, 40 years. I've always understood that when you're getting older your ears cannot differentiate high frequency tones any more. We'll, that's a different question. For now it's time to give Raff's Piano Quintet another spin.
I have a rather silly question. Two such important Piano Quartets, each one lasting over half an hour. What could be the reason that Raff didn't give both quartets a separate opus number instead of Op. 202 No.1 and Op. 202 No.2? (I'm aware of the fact that this isn't the only example.)
Peter, I can't answer that question fully because, bottom, line, I just don't know. What I can say is that only a couple of years earlier he had published no less than three string quartets (Nos.6-8, including the famous Seventh - Die Schöne Müllerin) as his Op.192. So he'd done it before on an even bigger scale.
Quite why he did it, I can only guess at and my guess boils down to the fact that Raff was a very different sort of composer to Brahms. Brahms would worry away at a composition for years, sometimes decades. He'd destroy whole movements and every scrap of working material, so that all that survived was his final thoughts. Raff, on the other hand, would rather compose another piece in the same genre if the one which he was working on didn't answer fully whatever inner compulsion had triggered the urge to write a work. This is especially true in chamber music: there's an earlier set of three string quartets (opp.136-8) written one after another, as were the Third and Fourth Piano Trios, the Third and Fourth Violin Sonatas and the first three piano suites. One could even cite the two symphonies of 1876: the Spring and Winter Symphonies. Not that Raff was like Rubinstein and wrote in a stream of consciousness manner, moving quickly and uncritically right on to the next piece, never revisiting, refining or amending a work. No, he was just a very hard worker.
So it seems that if he was, say, in a Piano Trio frame of mind, he could well have too many ideas to fit in one work and would just carry on and write another to say something slightly different. In the case of the three string quartets op.192, they are all effectively suites and I suspect that for him they were the result of his competing conceptions of a suite for string quartet. Similarly, the two Piano Quartets are yin and yang: one basically light-hearted, the other much more troubled. Raff, it seems to me, had waited a long time to get around to writing them and, when the mood finally took him, he found that he had to write two to get all his conflicting ideas down on paper.
Why under the same opus number? Well, he was never at all commercially minded, in fact he was a financial innocent. Also, he never really understood how his reputation suffered if he flooded the market with compositions - something which Liszt warned him about as early as the 1840s. What he should have done was allow one of the Piano Quartets to be published, let it establish itself and then publish the other one a few years later and see it eagerly taken up by a public eager for more. Instead, he most likely let himself be persuaded by a greedy publisher to part with them both in one go for a song, giving them the same opus number because they were written at the same time. He was quite guileless and, although he was keen to see his works succeed, was otherwise uninterested in them once they were published. He never retained his manuscripts, didn't understand that they had both monetary and historical value
That doesn't fully answer the question I know, Peter, but it's the best I can do.
He's hardly the only composer to do these things -- maybe more rare by Raff's time, but just look at Beethoven's output -- or hell Reicha's, with three opera of six half hour plus wind quintets each.
Oh no, by no means unique and I don't think I claimed that. Unusual by the third quarter of the century though, and something which contributed to his reputation for un-selfcritical over-production.
Thanks very much, Mark, for your extensive and interesting post. Although the reason why is not known, you have given some plausible possibilities. BTW, how consequent was Raff giving opus numbers to his completed works? Was he the only person who gave opus numbers to his works or were others involved as well (publishers, family, colleague composers). What fascinates me is that Raff created wonderful music but didn't commercialize his works. A true artist, someone who isn't constantly thinking of money making. That makes him sympathetic to me.
I'll leave Mark to answer Peter's question; all I want to add here is that this CD ought to be a mandatory purchase for Raffians. IMHO the two Piano Quartets are as good as anything Raff ever wrote and really must rank as two of the peaks of the 19th century chamber music repertoire. Their neglect is simply a scandal. What's more they are works on a large scale, with both clocking in at just under forty minutes, so there's much to enjoy - and a very well filled CD!
Thanks Alan. I can only agree with all you say!
Peter, once again no one now knows the answer to your question definitely, but I'm fairly sure that it was Raff who decided upon a work's opus number, at least initially. Although the number of surviving Raff manuscripts is few, most have opus numbers written in his hand. There are a couple where the number written by Raff on the manuscript differs from that with which it was finally published (the Second Symphony, for example), or where a work was left unpublished by Raff (e.g. the Thüringian Suite) but had an opus number written by him on the score. So I think, but cannot prove, that Raff was generally responsible but no doubt there are instances where a publisher prevailed upon him to change them.
The CD is now available, see here (http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Joachim-Raff-1822-1882-Klavierquartette-op-202-Nr-1-2/hnum/1155751). Immediately ordered...
What a wonderful Piano Quartets, and so vividly performed. A lot of "Allegro's" in the in total 8 movements, of which the 2nd movement of the first Quartet, an Allegro molto, "puts a lot of music into every minute". This is great chamber music and again evidence that Raff was a very, very fine composer.
Is it Raff's best chamber music for piano and strings? I cannot say that (yet), simply because I also like his Piano Quintet so much, just like his Piano Trios.
If you like this genre, I strongly recommend this disc. Really a must-buy.
I'm delighted that you like these two big works, Peter. Personally, on the grounds of the consistency of inspiration, the quality of the material and their sheer inventiveness, I put them both up there with the Piano Quintet, the First String Quartet and the first two Piano Trios as amongst his best chamber music.
Is it really a fact that Raff wasn't such a virtuoso at the piano? I listened again to both Piano Quartets op. 202 this evening and paid special attention to the piano part. It's just amazing. What a brilliance, and it's all functional. I suppose Raff played the piano part himself while composing or during a performance of the quartet. Hats off!
Even Rubinstein and Henselt could have learned something from Raff's magical piano scores. ;D
Yes, it's a fact Peter. Although he played a couple of piano recitals when he was in his early 20s in Switzerland, Raff was an indifferent pianist. He was a better violinist, taking after his father in that respect. His brother Kaspar, who styled himself Professor Joseph Raff once he'd emigrated to the US, was just the same. As for Raff's facility as a composer for the piano, it's all the more remarkable when you consider that, according to his daughter, he never composed at the piano: music went direct from his head to the page (on which he wrote with a quill pen!), although he did occasionally check a chord or a short passage on the piano, just to check its suitability.
When you count von Bülow and Liszt amongst your friends, you can be a pretty darn good pianist and still not be considered a virtuoso -- the touring type.
hrm- don't recall if Tausig was among their number when Raff was there, but if so, don't forget him either :)
Quotea pretty darn good pianist
I can't lay my hand on the source now, but IIRC Raff did some damage to a hand whist practising and so I really do doubt that he was any better than an adequate pianist. He wasn't a modest man and I'm sure that he wouldn't have hid
that light under a bushel.
A short but perceptive review of this CD is now at Records International (http://www.recordsinternational.com/cd.php?cd=08N007).
I got my copy from RI a few days ago. I've played the disk a half dozen times. I simply love this music! Raff's real strength wasn't symphonies at all: it was the chamber music. Every time I get to hear more of Raff's I appreciate him more and more. It may not be "deep" and profound, but who cares? The music is just wonderful. Raff's mastery of counterpoint is astonishing, really. Thanks Mark for your participation and helping to bring yet another superb discovery to our ears!
Off subject: I hope all of you who live in London or anywhere else being assaulted by hooligans are safe and sound. Just terrible what's happening. I watch Sky News and am so saddened about it.
Thanks for your kind words about the Piano Quartets, Martin. They are amongst Raff's best chamber music I think and are superbly played in these recordings. Yes, you are right, IMHO Raff is at his consistent best in chamber music.
As for the "riots" in London and elsewhere, thanks again for your good wishes. Personally, I'm safely in the country. I don't know how the world media is reporting these events, but they're certainly not riots: the bottom line is that this is sheer criminality. There's no cause being fought for, no wrong which is being brought to our attention, no sense of injustice which arises from discrimination. These are mostly teenagers (some even younger) who have gone out on a series of copycat sprees of destruction and theft for the fun/thrill of it. I'm ashamed that it's happened here in a normally tolerant and liberal society but maybe that's why it's happened here. Anyway, I hope that the worst is over and we'll surely have learned some lessons about policing and about how the combination of the current economic conditions, youth unemployment, absentee fathers in the Afro-Caribbean community, inadequate parenting, poor social housing, a hot spell of weather, a routine incident involving a youthful black suspect and the use of social networking media and smart phones produced this toxic mix.
For now, communities have pulled together to resist this menace and are clearing it all up. There have been hundreds of arrests etc. etc.
But back to Raff....
Mark is right, I am sure, about Raff. His consistently best work is to be found in his chamber music.
As for the riots, my daughter lives in north-west London. Just 5 minutes walk from her flat, a small Tesco supermarket was trashed the other night and police were knocking on doors along her road telling residents to lock their doors and stay inside. Good job she's pretty smart about personal safety (you have to be as a woman working in a big city)...
Yes, my son lives in Finchley Park and said that the local shopkeepers there had formed a vigilante group, armed with baseball bats, to deter any looters. It was an effective but nonetheless worrying development.
I'm concerned to hear about your son, Mark. I trust he is doing everything he can to stay safe...
All best wishes, erf...!
Very kind, Eric. Thank you.
Thanks, Alan (and Eric). My son is fine and a big strapping 26 year old who can take care of himself. His concern is that a group of vigilantes doesn't do much more for a community than a group of looters...
Yes, Mark. There are some very nasty individuals parading themselves as defenders of their communities. That job belongs to the police.
Meanwhile, back at the Raff...
Thanks for your support, Jim. :(
You my take my support for granted. Hopefully, things are getting locked down over there. There has been no mention of it on the Net unless you search.
Thanks for your support, Jim :)
It's all over the international press...
Well, the last couple of days I've been rekindling an old flame who flew out from Texas to see me over at the Wingate LAX. So I haven't exactly been poring over the newspapers. :-* ;)
...while flames of a completely different kind have been devouring buildings and cars and threatening police, fire fighters and residents here.
Anyway, we're off into the battle zone (now thoroughly under police control) this evening to see our daughter...
Yes, I gathered what was going on from the papers, well after the fact. No thanks to Yahoo, which seems to be avoiding the topic altogether.
The mayor of London is named Boris Johnson? Wasn't that the name of the protagonist of Norman Spinrad's Agent of Chaos?
He was in the news around the time he was up for election, as I recall- well, maybe just in the news sources I tend to listen to.
A shame this thread was derailed like that....
But man, people weren't kidding. This disc is truly wonderful, just tunes everywhere, and great music all around. And the liner notes are very thorough....
Raff's piano writing - always graciously pianistic - is frequently ferociously virtuosic and difficult. There can be no doubt that he possessed a prodigious technique. But this should not be cause for surprise when we remember that he admired and worked closely with Liszt for many years.
... and yet he only played in public a couple of times in his youth in Switzerland and didn't even compose at the piano.
I wonder if he suffered from the same nervous disorder that afflicted Adolphe von Henselt, reputedly a brilliant pianist (and certainly his compositions are not only thoroughly pianistic but thoroughly challenging) but quite unable to play in public!
There's no record of that and he certainly played in private performances of his chamber works. Also, not only did he address large gatherings as Director of the Frankfurt Conservatory, he also conducted quite frequently (and was good at it according to von Bülow, who should know), so I doubt that it was any variety of stage fright. IIRC (but I can't find the reference right now), he had a stiffness between a couple of fingers which he at least felt inhibited his playing, but I may be confusing him with someone else. I'll have to find that reference, now!
Schumann (Robert) messed up his hand (I believe the right one) with one of those contraptions (probably something along the lines of Kalkbrenner's guide des mains) which scuttled his hoped-for career as a soloist (and probably soured him on the likes of Herz et al!)
Yes, I know about Schumann, of course, and it wasn't him I was thinking of....