Just thought I'd kick off a separate thread on Raff's early opera König Alfred.
Here's the absolutely superb Overture (virtually a 14-minute tone poem) in Neeme Järvi's recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPAqVmK4XTc
(Currently my music of choice - what an earworm the opening theme is!)
Question: are there echoes of early Wagner (e.g. Tannhäuser) here?
Quote from: Alan Howe on Tuesday 07 October 2025, 14:31Question: are there echoes of early Wagner (e.g. Tannhäuser) here?
Once Raff arrived in Weimar in January 1850 he revised great chunks of
König Alfred in preparation for it's premiere. IIRC, the Overture was completely rewritten. Throughout the year, he was closely involved assisting Liszt's preparations for the premiere of
Lohengrin in Weimar in August 1850, so he was undoubtedly exposed to a lot of Wagner for the first time whilst he was polishing
König Alfred for it's own premier a few months later, in March 1851. So, some influence is inevitable but I'm told, by those clever enough to assess the opera just by reading the score, that Meyerbeer's grand operas were likely Raff's model. Wagner's impact on Raff is most evident in
Samson, written a few years later.
I've been listening to the Overture, of course, and it was the heroic sound of Tannhäuser that came readily to mind, rather than Meyerbeer.
However, here's the Overture to Les Huguenots, so perhaps I'm not seeing the whole picture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oP9SCLrLxI.
Maybe Weber was also an influence....
My main take-away is how sophisticated Raff's Overture is in comparison with the relative crudity of Meyerbeer. As I suggested it's virtually a tone poem which could stand on its own.
And then Raff went and wrote and had published "The Wagner Question" :) (Has that been translated into English?)
I don't believe so, Eric, but German friends tell me that it's pretty impenetrable, dense stuff.
Quote from: Alan Howe on Tuesday 07 October 2025, 16:40I've been listening to the Overture, of course, and it was the heroic sound of Tannhäuser that came readily to mind
I completely agree, Alan, and of course the sound of
Tannhäuser will have been very much in the musical "air" when Raff wrote the opera's replacement Overture in 1850.
The Overture proves what a supreme melodist Raff was.
btw, the book in German is even on British Google Books here (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1ilcAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false), but yeah, I can't find an English translation (not digitized, even published or as a dissertation- there's one dissertation that may be related "An edition of the writing Die Wagnerfrage in the online portal of the Joachim Raff Archive", but I'm not sure what that -is-).
Apologies for that. Back to Ethelre... er, König Alfred!
Quote from: Mark Thomas on Tuesday 07 October 2025, 18:52I don't believe so, Eric, but German friends tell me that it's pretty impenetrable, dense stuff.
Sounds like a German dissertation to me!
But I agree with Alan that the overture makes a fine stand-alone concert piece.