Raff: Volker op.203

[Mark Thomas]

Sudwest Rundfunk has released a premiere recording of Raff's Volker op.203 as an mp3 set (there's no CD as far as I know). Details here. Volker is Raff's idiosyncratic take on the same Nibelung legends mined by Wagner. Written for violin and piano, at 51 minutes it's Raff's largest chamber work and, like most of his major chamber compositions, a remarkably fine one. The nine pieces tell the story of the traditional Nibelung story, rather different from Wagner's more familiar conflation of German and Norse myths. I've had a private copy of Turban and Nemtsov's recording for a few years. It was originally meant to be part of cpo's excellent cycle of Raff's music for violin & piano, but for some reason never made it to CD, so it's especially good to see it surface at last, albeit only as mp3s.  The performance exhibits all the qualities which the cpo series has, and I thoroughly recommend it. I'm away from home at present but, as there is no CD booklet, when I get back I'll add an explanatory note about this programmatic piece, which might help someone.

[TerraEpon]

So I don't get it.
Was it recorded but they only wanted to release four volumes? Were they going to release this by itself as volume 5 but never did? Or perhaps along with the Suite, Op. 210 and/or the Duo, WoO 55?

Whatever the case, would love to have this in FLAC. If it ever shows up on eClassical I'd buy it there...

[mjkFendrich]

Fantastic news!

Whatever the case, would love to have this in FLAC. If it ever shows up on eClassical I'd buy it there...

I suppose Qobuz will soon release this album in CD quality FLAC (they are offering a lot - if not all? - of the previous SWR albums).

[Mark Thomas]

So I don't get it.

No, neither do I. As far as I know cpo recorded neither the Suite nor the Duo ( which was to have been the finale of a sixth violin sonata, by the way) with Turban and Nemtsov. Maybe cpo intended to recorded one or both as a coupling and for some reason were prevented from doing so? Maybe sales of vol.1-4 were disappointing and so they decided against a fifth volume?  Who knows the mysterious ways of cpo?

I haven't seen any other of these SWR mp3 - only releases elsewhere, or as FLACs,  so probably this is your only chance.

[Mark Thomas]

As promised, for anyone considering downloading Turban and Nemtsov's recording of Volker (and I do recommend that you do), to mitigate the lack of booklet notes on this important piece, you can also download here a PDF with some detailed information about the work.

[jerfilm]

Sadly, Qobuz is not available to us colonists at the moment......
but Classics Online has it.

J

[mjkFendrich]

For those with access to Qobuz, the new Raff album will be available - as correctly assumed - in CD quality FLAC by the end of October

http://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/album/raff-volker-jascha-nemtsov/0747313017881

                       

[Mark Thomas]

Oh, that's very good news. Thanks.

[mjkFendrich]

This recording is now available in a lossless format from Qobuz and (even cheaper) from eClassical

             http://www.eclassical.com/raff-volker.html

[jerfilm]

I'm definitely a Raff fan, but this piece is LLOONNGG and seems to ramble to nowhere.  Perrhaps I should sit down and concentrate for another listen.  Maybe I was too casual the first time.

[mjkFendrich]

I'll get a chance listening to it for the first time after work this evening - so I am still quite curious!

[Mark Thomas]

Jerry: yes, Volker is a long piece and it does take some getting into. If you haven't already done so, do download the pdf I made (here) which explain's what the work is all about.

[TerraEpon]

Nice to see it at eClassical then, will have to get it some time...

[TerraEpon]

Ok so I finally bought, and it's indeed wonderful. It feels more like a collection of pieces than an individual one, but I can kinda see why someone might call it 'rambling'. It's very....Raff. No other way to describe it.