Unsung Composers

It's beginning to look like Raff's operatic magnum opus, the music drama Samson, may be recorded in 2023. It would be a very big project if the piece is recorded in full: it lasts around two and a half hours and needs a large cast of top flight soloists (and therein lies a major worry). Still, great news if it comes off and I'll keep my ear to the ground.... Details of the opera itself here (https://www.raff.org/catalogue/catalogue_vocal.html#woo.20), by the way.

Which are the major roles - and for which types of voices?

Main roles: Samson (tenor); Abimelech of Gaza (baritone); Delilah, Abimelech's daughter (soprano); The High Priest of Dagon (bass); Micha, an Israelite deserter (tenor). Other roles:  The High Priestess of Astarte (mezzo-soprano); The Seran of Ascalon (bass); A Gaoler (tenor) A Woman of the People (soprano). Plus a number of tenor and bass soloists or solo groups from the chorus: The Serans (rulers) of Asdod, Ekron & Gath; Three Syrian Seamen; An Israelite Spokesman, Two Levites & Two Israelite Citizens.

The original Samson was to have been Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld, the tenor who created Tristan, which gives us an idea of the range and power of the part, and he was very enthusiastic about its challenges. Samson was to have been his next major role but he died shortly after the premiere of Tristan & Isolde and the planned staging of Samson was abandoned.

For Samson, I'd contact US tenor Andrew Richards: https://www.facebook.com/OperaRocksAndrewRichards/

I'm not involved in the recording in any way, but I'll pass that on to those moving and shaking this project. Thanks.

Or Joshua Kohl, again an American - who sings Eiolf in the forthcoming Naxos/Hulda set:
http://www.joshuakohltenor.com/about

Ta.

Dear Friends,

I'm in charge of this project. The recording session will take place in Basel with the Sinfonieorchester Basel under the baton of Ivor Bolton.
Sessions 'll be in August 2023 and I have two weeks to get everything in the box, which is something exceptional today!
Again for the Schweizer Fonogramm label.

Don't ask for the cast, I'll say nothing until the team is completed... :)

Cheers from Bern,

Frederic.

I am glad to hear that the recording will be done on a label with a high production quality!

Thank you Frederic, this is a tremendously exciting project and should prove to be a real revelation!

Yes, absolutely wonderful news! Great for us fans of Raff in general - and great for those (like me!) who want to find out where this opera fits in the history of the genre.

It's good to see a full-sized orchestra being used for this project. The instruments specified are: piccolo; 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; alto trombone; tenor trombone; bass trombone; tuba; timpani; triangle; cymbals; bass drum; snare drum; strings.

Plus English horn, bass clarinet and Harp.
There is also a stage music with trumpets, horns and trombones.

English horn = cor anglais (that's what we call it in the UK!!)

In other words: wow!

Sorry for the mistake, c'est donc comme en français. Merci Alan!

The Notes which Frederic has made available are from Edition Nordstern's modern edition of the score, and include the introductory comments from my own Book: The Music of Joachim Raff - an illustrated Catalogue. Samson is the nearest Raff got to Wagnerian music drama, and the work was at least begun when he was in thrall to Wagner, whom he'd encountered when working with and for Liszt in Weimar. By the time Samson was finished, Raff had become quite antipathetic to much of Wagner's musical philosophy, and so it'll be fascinating to hear how the opera turned out. It should certainly be spectacular on stage, something we're promised next year in a production in Weimar, although whether it'll be subjected to the awful German Regietheater aesthetic remains to be seen. 

With Samson's composition dates being 1853-7 (with various revisions following until 1865), the only three of Wagner's mature operas that had been performed by then were The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser (Dresden version) and Lohengrin, so these would have been the major Wagner works that Raff had heard (Tristan und Isolde was performed in 1865).

I wonder whether we'll hear any influences from, say, Weber, Mendelssohn or Liszt?

Remember, when Raff was part of Liszt's circle, he may have been made aware of Wagner's unperformed works in sketch that Wagner was discussing with Liszt and his family, if the dates work at all.

True. I wonder what it was about Wagner's aesthetic that Raff rejected...

His letters are surprisingly vague on that, or at least the letters which I've seen of his so far are, but a couple of things are clear: firstly that Raff's disenchantment with Wagner came at the same time as he began distancing himself from Liszt and his circle. He wrote a short book Die Wagnerfrage which analysed Lohengrin but which they took as criticism of their idol, which it only was in the sense that it wasn't a complete and uncritical paean of praise, and this led Raff to disapprove of the "cult of Wagner" and its worship of a man who was, after all, in many non-musical respects a deeply flawed and sometimes quite reprehensible human being. Secondly there's no doubt that he didn't agree with Wagner's stance that absolute music was a dead end and the way forward was a melding of all the arts into the sort of music drama he attempted in the Ring. Although it's not relevant to the genesis of Samson, there's an interesting passage in a book by the American composer William Mason, who knew Raff in Weimar in the 1850s, when he was an ardent Wagner enthusiast, and met him again towards the end of Raff's life. Talking of that later meeting he wrote: "A quarter of a century had elapsed since I had seen Raff, and naturally one of my first questions was, 'Raff, how is the Wagner cause?' 'Oh,' said he, 'the public have gone 'way over to the other extreme. You know how hard it was to force Wagner upon them twenty-five years ago, and now they go just as much too far the other way and are unreasonable in their excessive homage'". Raff made a virtue of his own eclecticism and disliked "isms" of any other sort.

QuoteRaff made a virtue of his own eclecticism and disliked "isms" of any other sort

Yes, that must be it. Wagner's was a one-track answer to the problem that he saw post-Beethoven; but Raff's was multi-track. No wonder he fell through the cracks of musical history when the camps (New German vs. Classical) were so polarised. He didn't belong to either. The same was true of Draeseke.

Raff's case is complicated by being a protégé of, successively, Mendelssohn and Liszt. So the conservatives regarded him as a Lisztian revolutionary and the Liszt/Wagner school classed him as a traitor because he had distanced himself from them once he left Weimar in 1856. He compounded the problem by avoiding association with either camp and championing the one thing they both despised - eclecticism. He never made any attempt to found his own tradition, indeed he scorned the very idea when he was director of the very successful Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, and so it's no wonder that as soon as he was dead his music died with him.

Dear friends,

The cast is completed.
I still wait some few weeks more: we have the "yes" from the singers, but I know that when it's not yet signed by the agencies, it can change...
If they are all confirmed, it is a wonderful cast!

I can already write that we'll have the Balthasar Neumann Chor with 60 people: the choir is very much in demand in this production.

More to come.

Fred.

Thanks for the update, Fred. It all sounds very exciting.

Extremely exciting!

Hear, hear!
I should have added that the Balthasar Neumann Chor are superb in everything I have heard them sing.

Dear friends,

Due to organizational problems, the production has cancelled the project with Mr. Bolton and the Basel orchestra.
We shall record this production with the Berner symphonic orchestra under the baton of Mario Venzago (with whom I have already collaborated).
An incredible piece of luck is that the Bern orchestra is available for a two-week period almost at the same time as the one scheduled with Basel, which allows me to almost keep the original cast.

This opera was marked by fate during Raff's lifetime and he never had the opportunity to perform it... I hope that we will finally break this curse with this recording!

The Weimar theater will produce the opera for the first time in september 22, in a shorter version.
We shall record the all score and give a concert just after in Bern, already planned on 2023 September the 8th.

I shall reveal the cast soon.

Cheers from Bern,

Fred.

Thanks for the update, Fred. That sounds like a very lucky break! Let's hope that that Samson's premiere in Weimar in two weeks time will break the "curse".

Will you still be able to use the Balthasar Neumann Chor, Fred?

Thanks for the update, Fred. We trust that all will now go well as you record this important work.

Dear friends,

Here is an update on this production.

The recording is scheduled from the 29 of August to the 6 of September 2023.
The recording label is Schweizer Fonogramm.
The Berne Symphony Orchestra and Choir will be conducted by Philippe Bach.

Delilah : Olena Tokar
Oberpriesterin : Christel Loetzsch
Samson : Pavol Breslik
Micha : Michael Weinius
Abimelech : Thomas Bauer
Oberpriester : Christian Immler

I do hope everything 'll be alright until then, it's a lot of money and it already took a lot of time and energy in preproduction to find the casting I wanted and move from one orchestra and theater to another one...
I must thank Graziella at Schweizer Fonogramm and the Bern theater team for all the work they have already done to make this possible.

I keep my fingers crossed !

Salutations de Bern,

Fred.

This is absolutely fabulous news - especially about the casting of Pavel Breslik as Samson. He's a truly wonderful singer. Here he is in Rusalka:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KZaxGSlqu0

And here's Olena Tokar who will be singing Delilah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJidnjEBwRE

I would happily pre-order a set if it helps finance the recording costs. Some gaming companies do this. At GMT games, for example, they have a program called "P500". A new game is proposed and if a certain number of gamers subscribe to its production (500 in this case) they go ahead with the project.

So would I - and I'd a donation too...

Fred: how about setting up a crowdfunding appeal?

I'm all in favour of that too, and I'd certainly contribute. The new cast looks spectacular.

Thank you for your encouraging feedback.

I have already recorded a symphonic disc with Philippe Bach and we get along very well. In fact we became friends. He was conductor for years at the Meiningen Opera and has a great knowledge of the repertoire. Now he is back in Switzerland.
I have already recorded the Bern orchestra under Mario Venzago.
They enjoy working with Philippe, so on this side of the production I have a solid foundation.

I will be doing a CD with Olena in May 23, so we will get to know each other before the Samson recording.
There is also a project with Pavol but in '24.
I'm looking forward to Thomas Bauer: He is an exceptional singer of German Lied but also sings Wagner. I already know that this meeting will be a special moment for me. There is a 'Winterreise' on youtube, another Covid recording...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lws8tK798R4
I invite you to listen to "Auf dem Flusse" at 25'10". For me exceptional, no show, just music. I am sure he will tell us a great story in Samson.

I will talk with Graziella about this idea of subscription or crowdfunding but I can imagine that she has already considered this option.

I am used to work on symphonic productions and to manage singers. From an artistic point of view I have no stress, but it is extremely heavy to manage an opera in pre-production. Especially this production which has changed the theatre, the orchestra and the conductor along the way... and the dates!
With a difference of one week I lost 2 singers.
I am nevertheless very happy with this new cast and am convinced that everything is in place to make a great production.

Very long post from me, but now back to work: I have to finalize the last CD of the Bienne orchestra dedicated to Hans Huber before the Suisse Romande and Jonathan Nott for Dieter Ammann! Lots of Swiss composers in my mind at the moment!

Salutations à tous, Fred.

I hope the Huber CD contains the symphony in A premiered in 1889 (or if not, eventually some will maybe...)

Do consider the crowdfunding or subscription idea, Fred. Even if only a few contributed, it would surely help to finance this great Samson project.

Dear friends,

I must say that managing an opera production is much more complicated than managing a symphony production! It's a bit like a bad TV series, when everything seems to be ok there are problems again.
I will finally be happy behind my microphones when we shall all be on stage with the red light!

Pavol Breslik is not in the cast anymore, his management is really too complicated.
I'm happy to announce Magnus Vigilius as Samson.
Philippe Bach, our conductor, has already worked with him and he'll be a wonderful tenor for this recording.

I'll have the pleasure to produce a recording with Olena before this Samson, so we'll have worked together already.

Yesterday we had a meeting at the theater with the technical team, Philippe, Graziella and the orchestra management. I must say that everything is done to have a real "à l'ancienne" production. There will be an acoustic shell installed on the stage to optimise the sound quality: it's an opera theater, not a concert hall.

You can see how it looks here:
https://www.hoac.de/projekte/konzertzimmer/#buehnen-bern

To be continued...  ;)

Salutations de Bern,
Fred.

Thanks for the update, Fred.

The crowdfunding effort is now underway for this recording, which is scheduled to take place in September this year:

https://wemakeit.com/projects/opera-samson-by-joachim-raff (https://wemakeit.com/projects/opera-samson-by-joachim-raff)

You can choose different donation amounts which give you different kinds of rewards, from signed CD copies to invitations to the concert or recording sessions in Bern.

And I reading that right, that the lowest tier to get the CD is equivalent to $163?

That is to receive a signed CD box, TerraEpon. My guess is that most of the value comes behind it behind signed, with it possibly being released to you sooner. The general release of the album should be less than that on the label.

You don't have to participate in the crowd funding to "buy" a CD set. Just wait until the set is released and I imagine that the price will be in line with normal CD pricing. Crowd funding is essentially asking for gifts beforehand to help pay for the recording, and as an enticement to give larger amounts we are offered a tiered set of rewards. I'm certainly participating and I do hope that other friends in our community will do so. There's no fixed or minimum amount and it's difficult to think of a more important or ground-breaking project which would aid the cause of not just Raff but unsungs generally. Dig deep!!

I've contributed to many crowd funding campaigns. I know how they work. But I've never seen a one where the lowest tier to get the product is such an investment compared to the eventual probable retail price of it.

My apologies, I (and I'm sure Justin) didn't mean to be patronising.

I was definitely patronizing.  ;D

But seriously, I'm sure there are factors we don't know about, such as cost margins for the label and expenses for the length of the recording sessions.

Looking forward to it nonetheless. I'll be contributing $150 to support the project. If I lived in Switzerland and was able to attend the concert, it would certainly be more. Very glad they are bringing Raff's lesser-known works to light with professional quality.

Quote from: TerraEpon on Wednesday 29 March 2023, 13:12[...] I've never seen a one where the lowest tier to get the product is such an investment compared to the eventual probable retail price of it.

It's meant to be a contribution.

Good news! The Wemakeit campaign has reached it goal with still a day to go, so it looks like the recording is going to go forward.

Excellent news!

Quote from: John Boyer on Thursday 03 November 2022, 11:53I would happily pre-order a set if it helps finance the recording costs. Some gaming companies do this. At GMT games, for example, they have a program called "P500". A new game is proposed and if a certain number of gamers subscribe to its production (500 in this case) they go ahead with the project.

It's nothing recent really. Opera Rara has functionned on this economic scheme from the start, with a subscription model to finance upcoming projects.... Now, of course, they have diversified their funding and have acquired a larger visibility, but...

I received Schweizer Fonogramm's newsletter today and the studio recording of the opera took place from August 29 to September 4. The album will contain 3 discs and be released "next winter," so I presume that means late 2024/early 2025. Our fellow forum member Frédéric Angleraux will be doing the mixing and editing!

Very much looking forward to this release.

It's great news that the recording's in the can. Thanks.

'Im kommenden Winter' (=  lit. 'in the coming winter') is somewhat ambiguous as it might also be translated 'next winter'. It would be interesting to know what our friend Fred at Schweizer Fonogramm says about a possible release date - if he is permitted to do so, that is.

Dear Fred,

Have you any firm news about a release date for Samson? We're all very much looking forward to this important release!

Having heard the performance in Bern I can say that it was superior to the Weimar performance last year in every respect. The singers were first rate, even in the smaller roles, and everyone sang the text perfectly, the native German speakers as well as the singers of other mother tongues. As I heard in the theatre the recording is scheduled to be released in December.

The performance was not complete, but the recording, which was made during the week before, will contain the unperformed music, too.

Quotethe recording is scheduled to be released in December.

Aha! Not next winter, but this coming winter. A great Christmas gift...

Great to hear. Schweizer Fonogramm is doing a tremendous service to Swiss Romantic music, let alone Unsung Composers in general.

Indeed they are, Justin. Samson for Christmas is a great prospect!

Dear friends,

It's been a long time since my last post. I had to finish another Swiss production for Schweizer Fonogramm dedicated to Othmar Schoeck just after the recording of Samson...

I'm now editing the opera and it sounds fantastic. We did it in 5 days, one day per act.
The Bern Symphony Orchestra is really excellent. They only had two rehearsals before (including my soundcheck). The choir was very well prepared and contributed to the quality of the takes, as did the stage orchestra.
In order to optimise time (2 services per day) I opted to work in sections with a reading, work on that section and then the takes.
As for the soloists, they all gave their best (as did the whole team) and I have to say that this opera has really taken an artistic and emotional way that I didn't find when it was broadcast from Weimar... Sorry.
So I'm very happy with the takes I have.

I'm working on it and it's my main job for the incoming weeks. I have no idea when will be the release, but under the Christmas tree this year seems a bit short... It's a lot of work and it'll take as long as it takes, I have no pressure to finish, my goal is to do it the best I can with what I have.
I think the label also needs more time than usual to manage the booklet, the packaging and finally the production. End of january or february looks more serious to me.

On verra!

Some few pictures and one small handy video.
http://www.adcsound.ch/VideosPhotosDocuments/UnsungComposer/Samson00.jpg
http://www.adcsound.ch/VideosPhotosDocuments/UnsungComposer/Samson01.jpg
http://www.adcsound.ch/VideosPhotosDocuments/UnsungComposer/Samson02.jpg
http://www.adcsound.ch/VideosPhotosDocuments/UnsungComposer/Samson03.jpg
http://www.adcsound.ch/VideosPhotosDocuments/UnsungComposer/Samson04.jpg
http://www.adcsound.ch/VideosPhotosDocuments/UnsungComposer/Samson05.jpg
http://www.adcsound.ch/VideosPhotosDocuments/UnsungComposer/Samson06.jpg
http://www.adcsound.ch/VideosPhotosDocuments/UnsungComposer/Samson07.jpg
http://www.adcsound.ch/VideosPhotosDocuments/UnsungComposer/Samson08.jpg
http://www.adcsound.ch/VideosPhotosDocuments/UnsungComposer/Christian_Magnus_Olena.mp4

Salutations de Bern,

Fred.

This is wonderful news, Fred - thanks for all the information and links. We greatly look forward to the release of Samson, perhaps in New Year 2024. But do take your time!

I can only echo what Alan has written. It's great news.

I am very impressed by the widescreen monitor used for the sound mixing. Alan and Mark probably have one just like it for managing this forum. ;D

Also looking forward to the Schoeck release!

QuoteI am very impressed by the widescreen monitor used for the sound mixing. Alan and Mark probably have one just like it for managing this forum. ;D

Mark's the tech guy. Everything's steam-driven at this end.  ;)

Oh yes, all 1990s equipment here!

Dear Friends,

Graziella from Schweizer Fonogramm asked me to prepare a short extract from Samson.
I'm allowed to post it here before she does on her social media.
Here is the end of Act1.
http://www.adcsound.ch/VideosPhotosDocuments/Samson_Acte1_765FIN.mp3

Enjoy!

Fred.

Terrific! Raff in full Lohengrin/Tannhäuser mode (only joking). I can't wait for the release of the set. Thanks Fred.

All I can say is 'wow!' This is going to be a major recording event!

I heartily agree - most impressive.

The release is coming soon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGAgVg-pmHY

Merry Christmas.

Danke sehr! Und frohe Weihnachten!

We are sooooo looking forward to this release!

Release date: Frühjahr 2024, i.e. Spring next year.

Quote from: Alan Howe on Sunday 24 December 2023, 09:47Release date: Frühjahr 2024, i.e. Spring next year.

Probably begining of March. The audio is already finished but I think the booklet is taking longer than expected...

Graziella will also be working with a new marketing team in Berlin and it's a great idea. Schweizer Fonogramm productions should have more visibility and a greater marketing return than at present. That's important for the development of the label.
This new team needs the final product 8 weeks before the official release.

"Samson" was a very big budget and if the label doesn't get more financial returns than usual, there won't be any more opera productions because they are much more expensive than symphony productions.

Raff's 'Dame Kobold' is already in discussion but 'Samson' has to be a success first.
It's better to release a few weeks later but in better marketing conditions, which is in everyone's interest.

Fred.

I agree - and I quite understand the need for a suitable period of preparation before the release of Samson. It is likely to be one of the most important operatic releases of 2024, especially as large-scale studio productions are becoming increasingly rare these days, so it needs to be launched with as loud a trumpet-blast (if one may put it like that) as possible. I'm sure, therefore, that we all wish your team every success over the coming months.

Frohe Weihnachten - und prosit Neujahr!

Dear friends,

Next Saturday (February the 3rd) at 10am (Swiss local time), there'll be an interview with Philippe Bach, the Samson's "baton".
Tittle of the interview: "Kaffee mit dem Dirigenten Philippe Bach - alles Raff?".

You should have the opportunity to listen to some few extracts of the opera, the radio asked me for some audio material.

Thanks for this important notification. Much appreciated!

Central European Time/Swiss local time is currently one hour ahead of UK time, so this programme will be broadcast at 9am our time.

Excitement is mounting for this release. Must be imminent - Spring is just about here...

Hint, hint:
https://www.facebook.com/schweizerfonogramm/

Is there any news about a possible release date for this important project?

I'm sure that Fred can be more specific but the last I heard it was scheduled for late April or during May. So, within the next few weeks unless it's been delayed.

Thanks. Can't wait!

Here's a trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuQTZlRxRSo) for the recording.

It's wonderful to catch even a morsel of this lovely music. Thanks, Mark.

It does sound truly splendid. I am looking forward very much to this release.

Release date is May 20th.

Facebook confirms the date: Bis zum offiziellen Release am 20. Mai...

Nothing on the label's website, though.

Dear Friends,
The records should be here, in Switzerland, tomorrow!  ;)

Thanks, Fred. Wir freuen uns darauf!

Fantastic. Thanks, Fred.

It's here!

That's very good news, Fred. Could you please let us know when the CDs can be ordered? Thanks!

Quote from: Alan Howe on Friday 10 May 2024, 08:21That's very good news, Fred. Could you please let us know when the CDs can be ordered? Thanks!

Dear Alan,

I asked Graziella and it should be around the 20 of May...
Fred.

Great. It's a date!

The sight of that consignment of CDs is almost too much to bear...

The set's now being advertised by jpc at EUR39.99 for the three CDs:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/joachim-raff-samson/hnum/11860991

Quote from: Alan Howe on Friday 10 May 2024, 11:24Great. It's a date!

The sight of that consignment of CDs is almost too much to bear...

O-ho the Wells Fargo Wagon is a-comin' down the street,
Oh please let it be for me!

O-ho the Wells Fargo Wagon is a-comin' down the street,
I wish, I wish I knew what it could be!

I'm a-hopin' for an opry by a guy named Raff
That's the music that I really want to hear

Though the singing to my standards may be far far off
Still I want that Schweizer package to be near!

Well done, John-Boy! A poet - and don't 'e know it...

Is "The Music Man" as much a staple of the English musical theatre as it is here in the colonies, or does its nostalgic Americana not survive translation?  Meredith Wilson composed two symphonies, recorded for Naxos, but I've never taken to them, despite my best efforts. 

Meanwhile, I'll keep an eye out for that delivery wagon.  I'm confident it will be worth the wait. 

I sang in a choral medley from The Music Man a few years ago and really enjoyed the songs but, apart from 76 Trombones from time to time, I can't remember hearing any of the other numbers, let alone the whole musical, getting an airing over here. Willson's two symphonies were a disappointment, I agree. None of the spark and colour of the musical, just rather academic and tedious as I recall. Anyway, as we moderators say, back to Raff's Samson,

Audio samples are now available at Schweizer Fonogrammm:
https://www.schweizerfonogramm.com/cd/die-schweizer-opernsensation-samson-von-joachim-raff-1822-1882/

My order's in!

Orders can be placed here:
https://www.schweizerfonogramm.com/produit/joachim-raff-1822-1882-samson-oper/

Has anyone who donated to the fund received any updates yet as to their copies?

No, I've heard nothing, but if the CDs have only been received in Bern this week it's going to be a few days at least, I imagine.

I figured. Just double checking.

The eleven excerpts at Schweizer Fonogramm give a good idea of the general 'feel' of this large-scale opera which, had it been performed in the late 1850s, would surely have sounded very modern in the age of Meyerbeerian grand opera, rivalling even early Wagner.

I must give Cornelius' Der Cid (1865) another listen, for comparison purposes.

The selections do indeed give an excellent survey of what Samson has to offer, and also a good idea of the quality of the performance and recording. Buy with confidence!

Even more excerpts are now available at jpc:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/joachim-raff-samson/hnum/11860991

So: the 'Swiss Lohengrin' is here! And a most welcome arrival on the operatic scene it is too. Samson was completed in 1857, some seven years after Wagner's Lohengrin (1850); other important operas written in roughly the same period include those of Verdi's early maturity (Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and La Traviata) and his grand opera The Sicilian Vespers (1855), Meyerbeer's Le Prophète (1849), Schumann's Genoveva (1850) and Berlioz's Les Troyens (1856-8); Gounod's Faust (1859) lay two years in the future. Raff's opera, however, was never staged in the composer's lifetime.
   How, then, does Samson stack up? In a word: excellently. It's simply amazing that music of such quality should have remained unperformed and unrecorded for so long. In common with Wagner's operas up to this point, Samson would surely have seemed very modern: although it has some of the trappings of Grand Opera, it sacrifices mere crowd-pleasing to the dictates of music drama just as seriously conceived as Lohengrin. This is no Meyerbeerian spectacle; neither, however, is it a mere imitation of Wagner, although Raff does employ musical motifs - such as, for example, Samson's triumphant fanfare. In terms of structure, Raff is actually more consistent than Wagner in creating a continuous musical narrative. A CD of highlights might be tricky to devise!
   As in so much of his compositional oeuvre Raff is the consummate synthesizer of musical opposites – in this case, Grand Opera and Wagnerian music drama. The result is something typically Raff, albeit in a synthesis he was soon to abandon altogether.
   The performance does this fine work proud. Philippe Bach conducts the Bern Symphony Orchestra with a sure sense of the need in Raff for taut rhythms and clarity of expression. The cast is good, although not of the very highest class, I think. The best singing comes from the powerful, gleaming soprano of Olena Tokar as Delilah and the firm bass-baritone of Christian Immler as the High Priest. As Samson, Magnus Vigilius is better in lyrical passages than in the strenuous sections where his tenor is sometimes sorely taxed, but he certainly doesn't let the side down. The best of him is probably to be heard in his ardent singing in Act 2 scene 2. The chorus give an excellent account of themselves (and they have a lot to do!)
   I don't imagine that this release will ever have a commercial competitor. It is the reference recording that Samson so urgently needed – and deserved.

Prosit Raff! Prosit Schweizer Fonogramm!

Thank you Alan. FWIW, having had the privilege of already getting to know the recording for a month, I agree with everything Alan has written, so much so that I'm not going to post the review I'd already written as it would mostly be repetition.

This is as good a recording as we've any right to expect and it really does Raff proud. Schweizer Fonogramm deserve to have Samson sell by the shed load.

It has been a privilege to receive my copy of this landmark recording and a pleasure writing about it this afternoon. The weather outside may be dreary, but I have a wide smile on my face!

By the way, for those curious to know, Samson plays for just over three hours - longer than The Flying Dutchman, but shorter than Lohengrin; about the same length as The Sicilian Vespers. In other words, it's a 'big listen'.

Dear friends,

Please don't forget Robin Adams as Abimelech!
2 days before the first rehearsal with orchestra (unique, by the way...) the singer scheduled for Abimelech let us down!
Robin was in Bern and available, almost sight reading the score and literally saving the production.
Not only is he extremely likeable, but I'll always be grateful to him for his incredible performance in these circumstances.

As I've already written, producing an opera is a total adventure, much more complicated than a symphony production.

Like all producers, I am a great admirer of what John Culshaw was able to do in his day.
I must say, in all modesty of course, that I remember the anecdotes he quotes in his book 'Putting the record straight', sometimes describing the recording of operas as a mad world...
He was right.

But it's also extremely exhilarating and exciting.

Salutations suisses,

Fred.

Thanks for this, Fred, and thanks for such an amazing overall production!

You and the whole team should be really proud of what you've achieved, I don't think it could have been bettered. Congratulations!

It's here!  126 pages of notes and an equally long libretto!  Well worth the wait!

This has just been released in Switzerland. A super and luxuriantly presented production.
It includes also a libretto with French and English translations!

We have it too - thanks, Adriano. We'd very much like to read your assessment of this release...

Absolutely. Do tell us what you think of it.

Dear Friends,

Here is one of the first reviews (in German):

https://klassik-begeistert.de/cd-rezension-joachim-raff-samson-klassik-begeistert-de-8-juni-2024/

Salutations de Bern,

Fred

There's no sign yet of a UK release date, Fred. Do you know when the set might be available to order from, say, Amazon over here?

Quote from: Alan Howe on Thursday 13 June 2024, 13:28There's no sign yet of a UK release date, Fred. Do you know when the set might be available to order from, say, Amazon over here?

Can't you UK chaps just order from JPC? 

Yes, of course, but ordering from Germany is time-consuming and expensive - hardly ideal.

I bought the set direct from Schweizer Fonogramm, but I was wondering when potential purchasers here in Britain will be able to order it from Amazon, Presto, Europadisc, etc. After all, an important international release ought to be available internationally. As far as I know the label has no distribution arrangements with any retailers over here and so it is my hope that such a groundbreaking release will be advertised and stocked as widely as possible.

I know that Graziella tried to find a distributor in the UK but received a negative response from several who didn't think the label was big enough... or interesting enough.

She is in contact with Naxos to find a wider international distribution but nothing is done yet.
Unfortunately, at the moment, only JPC is distributing.

Quote from: Alan Howe on Thursday 13 June 2024, 16:18Yes, of course, but ordering from Germany is time-consuming and expensive - hardly ideal.

Hmm.  Not to turn this into a JPC vs the others thread, but I'm curious about how JPC treats the UK market.  I've found JPC prices, if not the least expensive, at least competitive, and my last three orders (3 or 4 items each) had a flat shipping fee of €3.82 to the US, which is better than what I can get domestically.

Are the shipping fees higher to your area?

I'm glad that you're working on this, Fred, because Samson is too important to be restricted to, say, German-speaking Europe. The danger is that, in current circumstances, the recording is never reviewed by the major publications or online reviewers in the English-speaking world.

All I'm saying, John, is that Samson is too important not to be advertised and made available more widely. I can think of a shedload of inferior operatic recordings that have had international distribution. As far as postage is concerned, I usually try to avoid the costs involved by putting in orders where postage is free. I would expect, for example, to be able to order Samson from Amazon postage-free and have it delivered within a day or two.

Another review can be found here:
https://www.pizzicato.lu/lohnende-wiederentdeckung-von-raffs-samson/  (in German and English)

Quote from: Alan Howe on Tuesday 21 May 2024, 16:15his ardent singing in Act 2 scene 2.

I believe you meant Act 3 scene 2, Alan?

Just finished listening to the work and I think the recording is spectacular. Not much to add to Alan's review regarding the cast, but just want to praise Raff's orchestral passages, particularly in Act 5 with the prelude and cello solo in the "Symbolic Dance of the Kedeshot."

It's undeniably him with the characteristic woodwinds and this sentiment of the work being sprightly without losing textural depth. Describing it is difficult, but there is a heavy-handedness in Lohengrin that isn't present here, and I think the work benefits from that as it doesn't get dragged down in its leitmotifs.

Special shoutout to Fred for his excellent balancing work. You have done a great job with the forwardness of the harp, and I feel many opera recordings have it being drowned out; the harp helps fit that atmosphere of pastoral life.

How many completed operas are there left to be recorded? Also, I am curious as to what people think of the libretto and Raff's ability to create drama in the work.

Quote from: Justin on Sunday 16 June 2024, 05:00How many completed operas are there left to be recorded?

Die Eifersüchtigen is due out on Naxos in a few months (see this thread (https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,9349.0.html)), which will make three operas available commercially, joining Samson and Benedetto Marcello. That leaves another three unrecorded: König Alfred [King Alfred], a grand Meyerbeerian four act drama from 1851, and two three-act comedies from 1869 and 1871 respectively, Dame Kobold [Phantom Lady] and Die Parole (The Password]. Dame Kobold was the most successful of them with a decent run of performances. König Alfred had maybe half a dozen in Weimar and Wiesbaden in the early 1850s but Die Parole has never been staged.

There is a chance that one of them will be recorded soon, but I can say no more at this stage.

QuoteAlso, I am curious as to what people think of the libretto and Raff's ability to create drama in the work.

Raff wrote the librettos of Samson, Die Parole and Die Eifersüchtigen. I'm far from being a man of the theatre but most German speakers I've spoken to regard Samson's libretto as being a pretty fair effort. Having seen the work staged in Weimar, the drama never flagged and I can attest that its portraits of Samson, Delilah and Abimelech in particular are convincing portrayals of three conflicted individuals. Their reactions to the dilemmas they face are believable. I'll be very interested to read Adriano's view. Die Eifersüchtigen is undoubtedly a dramatic dud. The first of the three acts is twice the length of each of the other two and is given over to an endless exposition of the ridiculous and inconsequential plot. The characters are cardboard cut-outs and there's precious little humour. Best to ignore the words and enjoy the music, which is late Raff at his sweetest and most lyrical. I've always been intrigued by Die Parole. The plot (https://www.raff.org/catalogue/catalogue_vocal.html#woo.29) has a lot of comic potential and the work was written when Raff was at the height of his powers. Whether the libretto itself, which Raff modelled on a play by a friend, lives up to the plot's potential I can't say.

Quote from: Justin on Sunday 16 June 2024, 05:00I believe you meant Act 3 scene 2, Alan?

Quite so. Never could follow librettos...

I would really love to hear the even earlier König Alfred. Here's the fabulous Overture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZcd82TL24c

Do complete parts/performing materials of some kind exist for all the operas?

Yes the do. The autograph full scores of Die Parole and König Alfred remain unpublished but that of Die Parole has been digitised; it's available at IMSLP (https://imslp.org/wiki/Die_Parole%2C_WoO.29_(Raff%2C_Joachim)). There is also a full set of handwritten parts for König Alfred but, as they're 175 or so years old, I guess they're too flimsy to use. Dame Kobold is available from Edition Nordstern in a modern edition.

Well, at least they're not lost as some of his works still are, which was more my question, I guess. (Though April Fools jokes (ehrm) aside, long-thought-lost works continue to get discovered. :) )

It continues to be a matter of some regret that this fine recording is only available through jpc in Germany.

It's a British problem. The distributors contacted did not reply, or were not interested. By the way, there have been no English reviews since the opera's release, even though it has been sent to Musicweb, BBC Music, the Arts desk, etc.

And it's not a question of "time", because the same people were sent Schoeck's CD with Nachhall months ago and... nothing.

Maybe only this forum is interested in Swiss music.

I should also mention that Graziella is working for the first time with a German agency to try to "open up" the Schweizer fonogramm market, and that this agency has made it clear that England is very special...

The German-language reviews are virtually unanimous, and we even received top marks in "das Opernglass" for the July/August issue.

We're trying, as hard as we can and with the obvious aim of making our work known, but it's not working.

How about Fanfare for a review in English? I remember they had an enthusiastic review of the piano music disc by Beer-Walbrunn. That came out on Bayer Records and to the best of my knowledge they currently do not even have a website.

By the way our Samson is Nominiert für den preis der Deutschen SchallplattenKritik, we know that since yesterday...

https://www.schallplattenkritik.de/bestenlisten/longlist/longlist-3-2024

Wish you all a nice weekend.

Salutations de Bern, Fred.

Is it that the music is Swiss? What is musicweb's usual track record on reviewing other music published outside UK and only distributed in Britain by jpc?

The problem seems to be that distributors aren't interested in 'small' labels. As for, say, MusicWeb, they only publish a few reviews Monday to Friday, so let's wait and see...

It's a matter of real concern that an inferior opera release such as Le Prophète gets international distribution while the first recording of Samson remains confined to distribution by Schweizer Fonogramm and jpc. It's a scandal - and it's not the label's fault. The other distributors don't know what they're missing...

"Fanfare" and "American Record Guide" are primarily print magazines, so there can be a long lead time between the magazine receiving the disc and the appearance of the written review.  With ARG I recall the lead time was at least three months. 

Yes, quite. Gramophone's not all that quick either, although they miss an awful lot of stuff anyway.

Gramophone are completely useless. I tried repeatedly to get them to review the disk I released of Valentina Seferinova playing the Grand Sonata (2nd version), the Trois Pieces, Op. 2 and Fantaise-Sonate by Raff, which Mark very generously helped sponsor. After much badgering they listed it (late) on their new releases page  but as a re-release (!!!!) not a completely new recording. And they never reviewed it. They were phenomenally incompetent and unhelpful. They have an absurdly high opinion of themselves and are terrible snobs.

Slightly off topic, so apologies but Gareth, did you ever try contacting International Piano?  They might have been a better bet?

That said, 20 years ago I offered them my discography of works by Tausig and a general review of all the recordings of his music and they refused.

I think I did (can't absolutely remember, to be honest) - but I don't think I got any joy. BBC Music Magazine also ignored the CD.

Well, let's hope to read a review soon.

Jonathan Woolf has now posted a very positive and helpful review at MusicWeb:
https://musicwebinternational.com/2024/09/raff-samson-schweizer-fonogramm/

Let's hope this generates more widespread interest in this important release.

That's a very thorough and fair review.

Woolf mixes up the third and fourth acts in his description of the opera, but otherwise this is as fair and objective a review of both the music and the recording as one could hope for.

Is this the first English-language review?

As far as I know.

Schande.

The set's now (already) being discounted at jpc:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/joachim-raff-samson/hnum/11860991

Wonder what this means..?

Probably that the Swiss haven't got the worldwide distribution they really need to sell enough copies to make the project a financial success. A shame, but predictable I'm afraid.

Nothing unusual, I think. Full-price is for hardcore enthusiasts, and after a few months the price is reduced somewhat to make the set more attractive to more opportunistic buyers. Which in practice means that the first group pays a surplus on top of the "real" price. It happens in other sectors as well; compare it to hardcover and paperback book releases.

Yes, that's true, but it is such a shame that the recording isn't available domestically in the UK or US, for example. That has to impact sales.

Yes, that's a shame. From their web site it seems that Schweizer Fonogramm (mostly a two-person side project from what I can gather) focuses mainly on the internal Swiss market, which seems to make international sales a secondary consideration. Which, if true, seems somewhat short-sighted.

JPC ships to America at a nominal cost.   That should cover the distribution problem, especially in the absence of brick-and-mortar stores.

Graziella and Fred have been great in keeping us updated on their projects and the customer service is great. They deserve success for that quality too.

I wonder how many US orders jpc actually ships? I'm afraid I think that discounting (by 25%) after only a matter of months means the set isn't selling. If that's true, it's a real shame. The recording deserves better.

With the passing of physical stores, the need for distributors in target nations has passed as well. If you're ordering everything on Internet websites, it doesn't matter where the websites are hosted.

And just as stores have disappeared, so have mainstream websites like Amazon stopped serving the needs of record collectors. If you're into classical music at any depth, where you know who Raff was and take chances on him, you are going to know about sources like Presto or JPC.  You will know about Musicweb International or Fanfare; you'll know about how to obtain music in the current world.

So not to worry.  As Ilja pointed out, rapid discounting is common enough at JPC. 

...and I was about to write, "Perhaps they'll read about it in 'Opera News'," but I see that went the way of so many monthlies a year ago.  Oh, dear.

The problem, though, is the relatively low 'profile' of the recording which appears only to have garnered one English-language review (outside of this website), is available through only one international retailer (jpc) and is now being heavily discounted. I wonder whether Dave Hurwitz knows about it, for example?

I wonder if he has been sent a review copy.

That's a very good point. After all, he has a YouTube audience of 45,500 (subscribers), plus (presumably) many further casual viewers.

A second review at MusicWeb:
https://musicwebinternational.com/2024/11/raff-samson-schweizer-fonogramm-2/

The reviewer clearly has a high regard for the opera, but is less enthusiastic about most of the soloists in the recording. Do you agree with his assessment of them, Alan?

Broadly, yes. I think that Tokar (Delilah) and Immler (the High Priest) are the stand-out singers myself and that the others are adequate. I agree fully with the reviewer about the quality of the opera and the excellent work of conductor, orchestra and chorus. As I look back on the release, though, I am most disappointed by Vigilius (Samson), whose voice has little of the allure required by the role.

However, the biggest drawback remains the lack of exposure that the recording is receiving. It deserves far better. Nevertheless, two reviews at MusicWeb are better than none (AFAIK) elsewhere in the English-speaking world...

Dear friends,
I can only agree with what is written above.
We all had been a bit disappointed by Magnus but that's life, he was not our choice but Philippe's who had already worked with him on opera productions in Germany.
Sometimes the stage performance, made up of acting and singing, is no longer enough when the acting is removed...

I dream of one day doing an opera again and having control over all the choices, including having the time! Can you imagine that we recorded one act a day?
It's all so expensive and time is really a lot of money. This means that sometimes it's not possible to dwell too much on one section or another. As an artistic producer, I had to make decisions due to lack of time and I always tried to find the best compromise between quality/time and money.
The budget for this production was already half a million Swiss francs...
Magnus really prepared his role and did the best he could, and that's  what we have.

I think the whole team made progress during this production, everyone gave their best and also learnt a lot.
Myself included!

Salutations de Bern, Fred.

Quote from: adcsound on Sunday 17 November 2024, 07:24half a million Swiss francs

By my calculation, that's almost £450,000. Wow!

It's still a very fine achievement, Fred. You are rightly proud of the result.

When is this production launched digitally?

No mention so far.

It seems that the marketing strategy is to avoid exposure at all costs.
A pity for this very interesting release...

I'm sure it's not deliberate. It's just the problem of how to break into a tough and niche international market.

Quote from: Alan Howe on Sunday 17 November 2024, 09:44It's still a very fine achievement, Fred. You are rightly proud of the result.

For a partly crowd-funded premiere recording of a 3-hour grand opera with a wonderful chorus and orchestra, we should be grateful for it. Chances of this ever getting recorded let alone performed again are probably slim to none.