Raff box from Tudor

[Mark Thomas]

Tudor have packaged all nine of the CDs comprising Stadlmair's symphony cycle into one box, complete with the four orchestral suites and a smattering of overtures and other orchestral works. It's already in stock at jpc for €69.99.

[Peter1953]

That's a whole lot cheaper than all the seperate CDs, but the many hours of listening pleasure we Raffians already had so far is priceless...

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, it's certainly bargain price, although I'm not sure how it stacks up against downloads. That said, it offers nothing new, as far as I can see, if you already have the separate CDs - the coupling on each CD is the same as the single issues and the booklet, which I have only looked at very briefly, seems to be a conflaion of those which came with each CD.

[TerraEpon]

Does this include the "Shakespear Overtures" CD? There's also no indication if it's mearly the CDs in a slipcase (unliky with 9 I'll grant) or a real box set that saves space...

I may have to get this, though at over $100 it's a bit hefty....
I don't see it at MDT either, so it wouldn't be  yet...

[Alan Howe]

This is the best set of Raff symphonies by far. It is blessed with disciplined orchestral playing and an acute sense of Raffian style on the part of Stadlmair - lean textures, sprung rythms and authentic tempi. A classic - if only the critics would take the music seriously as one of the great 19thC symphonic cycles.

[Mark Thomas]

As ever, Alan has said it. If you want the Raff symphonies then Stadlmair's cycle is the one to go for overall. Have a look at the reviews on the Raff web site. No, TerraEpon, no Shakespeare Preludes. The full list of contents is on the Tudor site link I gave at the start of this thread.

[Amphissa]

Well, as usual, I do not see this actually available anywhere in the U.S.   

[Alan Howe]

Why not contact Tudor about a US release date?

[TerraEpon]

Huh, weird spam indeed.

Anyway, to answer my own question (though implied by Mark's first post), it's obviously a thinner box than just 9 fullsize CDs -- picture here: http://www.tudor.ch/produktinfo.php?id=785&sid=xXlQ3Ra@bxpY32kOd9wA00acdN
(I'd guess perhaps 4 2-fers and a single? Or Nine thin cases?). I ended up buying the Shakesphere CD (and like it more than the reviewer on Raff.org seemed to) and I figure I simply MUST get this set, though at the moment the only two buying options I've found are JPC and Tudor itself...I do hope it goes elsewhere, as the price is right now a bit high, especially for a reissue...

[Mark Thomas]

I've dealt with the spam, and the poster...

No, the box really is nine CDs - go to the Tudor web site to see the full contents of each of the CDs. They're in cardboard sleeves, which is why the box is thin.

The reason I was sniffy in my review about some, not all, of the music on the overtures CD is that I've heard the performancs of the same works recorded by Werner Andreas Albert and broadcast on German rdaio, but never published by cpo. Quite simply, they are better in some cases. That said, these aren't at all bad performances and of course I welcome them.

[TerraEpon]

No, the box really is nine CDs - go to the Tudor web site to see the full contents of each of the CDs. They're in cardboard sleeves, which is why the box is thin.

Well yeah of course, I was just wondering how it was "set up" is all.

[Yavar Moradi]

Mark, is there any chance of CPO issuing the rest of the Albert Raff recordings? I've heard he did all the symphonies and you just confirmed that he recorded at least the Shakespeare Overtures as well...

I for one think his performances of the last five symphonies are just as good and sometimes better than Stadlmair's.

Yavar

[TerraEpon]

This finally appeared on MDT
http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//TUDOR1600.htm

Doesn't seem to be any cheaper there though, alas.

[Mark Thomas]

It's still little more per CD than you'd pay for Naxos CDs and around half the price of buying the CDs individually. Still, "you pays your money and you takes your choice".

Yavar wrote:
Mark, is there any chance of CPO issuing the rest of the Albert Raff recordings?

Sorry Yavar, I missed your post. The short answer is there there seems to be no prospect of it. Apparently, they recorded almost all of Raff's purely orchestral music in the late 1990s, pretty much mirroring the nine Tudor CDs in the box plus the Shakespeare Preludes and the Elegie. Unfortunately, it was the first co-production which cpo had undertaken with one of Germany's regional radio stations. The story as I've heard it is that there was a flaw in the contract, at least from cpo's point of view, which meant that they could not afford to produce the CDs. So, the recordings were broadcast (which is how I come to have some of them) but were never issued by cpo. Quite how the five final symphonies escaped into the open I don't know.

[albion]

I strongly endorse the recommendations for the newly-repackaged nine-disc set of Raff's symphonies, suites and overtures from Tudor. When they were new, I collected the individual releases, but then (for reasons of space and economics, and not having had a chance to listen to them) I had a cull a couple of years ago and sold a large number of CDs including the Raff. Subsequently I regretted the decision! Now I have re-invested in the more compact presentation and am enormously impressed with what I have heard so far: truly first-class performances of a large swathe of a very significant composer's output.

Each disc comes in a cardboard sleeve which, thankfully, reproduces the attractive Arnold Bocklin artwork from the initial release. It is currently £78.99 on Amazon, but the best deal around seems to be with MDT (£57.50) which has an offer on all Tudor releases until 27th July 2010:

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//TUDOR1600.htm

Also, postage by 2nd class within the UK is free for any order over £50 - any member unfamiliar with Raff shouldn't hesitate at this price.