Joachim Raff (1822-1882) - biography & catalogue

[Alan Howe]

Now if only someone would start releasing the operas .. [CPO?]

cpo only release opera recordings made in conjunction with public performances, so...

[TerraEpon]

It seems a pity as many of Grand Piano's series seem to be exploring complete Œuvres eg - Saint-Saens, Godard to name a few.

Sure, but Raff's would have tripled the CD count -- I'm sure one can see why they didn't.

[Mark Thomas]

Sure, but Raff's would have tripled the CD count

As you might expect, sad soul that I am, I once did the calculation. Assuming an average of 75 minutes running time per CD, it would require 24 CDs to cover all of Raff's music for solo piano, with another four needed for the music for piano four hands or two pianos. That excludes all the arrangements for piano or piano four hands he made of his own compositions (the symphonies, most of the other orchestral music, string quartets etc.), which would add another 16 CDs.  Still, that's quite modest compared with the 99 needed for Liszt's canon!

[Jonathan]

And that was just the piano music! I calculate a further 12 - 16 for Liszt's 2 piano and 4 hand piano music, 14 for the orchestral works, 6 for the oratorios and countless cds of the lieder and sacred vocal music...

Sorry, back to Raff now!

[FBerwald]

Can anyone guide me to where I can purchase the score for the Four Marian Antiphones, WoO. 27. I'm asking here because I've tried searching online with no success.

[Mark Thomas]

Edition Nordstern.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Mark, I have just followed your link to Edition Nordstern and am very concerned that the site does not appear to have been updated for YEARS! It is riddled with out of date information and misinformation: e.g. it is still announcing that Chandos is going to release Symphonies 3&4 with Jarvi. Someone needs to look at this urgently.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks. I'll PM you about this, Gareth.

[FBerwald]

I'm not sure if anyone has seen this but there's a video of the exquisite cello Concerto No. 1 played by Christoph Croisé on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IFx3BKxZzc

[Alan Howe]

Very nice indeed. Can anyone capture the audio and upload it, please?

[Alan Howe]

Thanks to Ilja, this performance can now be found in our Downloads section.

[Mark Thomas]

Thank you, Ilja.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Much appreciated. Thank you.

[Pyramus]

I tuned into Radio 3 in the car this lunchtime (Georgia Mann's "Essential Classics"), in the middle of an orchestral piece, described on my screen just as "Prelude to Romeo and Juliet", which turned out to be by Raff. This programme has no detailed listing in Radio Times. I didn't make a note of the orchestra. Evidently this is one of the Four Shakespeare Preludes and I've just listened to it all on Youtube, played by the Jakarta Concert Orchestra. The producers of Radio 3 do therefore feature our unsung composers occasionally - does the BBC, or Classic FM for that matter, respond to requests from forum members?   

[Mark Thomas]

The recording played was the Chandos one with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Neeme Järvi. It was preceded by the briefest of introductions by Georgia Mann describing Raff as "a man who assisted Liszt in Weimar for a while" (sic transit gloria mundi, eh?). No, I've not found Radio 3 very responsive to requests over the years.