Raff symphonies from Chandos

[Mark Thomas]

True, but it's also true of most conducting appointments I believe. Once a rapport has been established between conductor, players and management these initial three year contracts are usually extended or renewed for another three or five years. It's rare for someone of Järvi's stature  to stay just for the initial contract period.

[Alan Howe]

Also true, but Järvi is actually one of three music directors of the OSR who have lasted only three years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestre_de_la_Suisse_Romande

Anyway, who knows what went on? Maybe someone else will take up the cause in his stead...

[eschiss1]

Perhaps too he might- if it is an interest of his sufficiently- continue these works with a later orchestra eventually once settled in...

[Jonathan]

It strikes me as odd that the reply came from someone who gives their job title as accountant - then again, maybe it doesn't...

[bulleid_pacific]

D'Avalos' Im Walde is superbly played and recorded, for a start; it also has a certain 'rightness' about its choice of tempi. In other words, it's an excellent, central performance which avoids extremes, but which brings out the full stature of the work.

Alan is spot-on here.  The D'Avalos recording was the first Raff I ever heard, and I was completely smitten.  It got me into the whole UC scene.  If you are a Raffian (or a UC fan) and have not heard it, I urge you to do so.  As Alan says, the engineering and virtuosity of the Philharmonia are both stunning.  D'Avalos may not have set the world on fire but I enjoy his Martucci too.

I'm much more upset at the loss of the opportunity to hear Järvi in Raff 4.  That's another fine work which rather sits in the shadow of 3 & 5 (which for me are the two greatest) but which is marvellous in its own right.

[Alan Howe]

Yes, that's a very good point. The real loss is Raff 4 in Järvi's hands.

[bulleid_pacific]

Also - Järvi's Atterberg recordings have surged ahead with the Gothenburg SO.  Are we still so hung up about nationalism that Järvi can only do a Swedish composer in Gothenburg and a Swiss - German composer in Geneva?  That smacks of "Elgar can only be performed by English orchestras and conductors - no-one else 'gets' the idiom".  Which is nonsense as several recent excellent Elgar recordings show.....

[Ilja]

I've found that this whole reasoning is bogus. Of course a Czech orchestra will play a solid (e.g.) Dvorak, not because of some esoteric ethnic quality but because they are part of a rich Dvorak performance tradition and have played his music hundreds if not thousands of times. Obviously, a Spanish performance is going to sound different because Dvorak is played far less often in Spain. The extremes will typically be much further apart when such a performance tradition is absent - it can lead to brilliant, "fresh" performances or (if, for instance, there is a lack of rehearsal time) very bad ones.

The internationalization of music has also led to far less distinctive 'idioms'. Virtually every professional orchestra nowadays is an international one, and the Mengelberg-Concertgebouw, Mravinsky-Leningrad or Neumann-Prague type of relationships are a thing of the past. There are still some national traditions, but even they are disappearing quickly. Just compare Russian brass playing from the 1980s to modern recordings.

[Alan Howe]

As far as I'm concerned, Järvi can conduct Raff anywhere he likes, provided that the orchestra is up to the job. Oh, and by the way, while Raff was born in Switzerland, he was actually a citizen of the German state of Württemberg.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Quite so. I'd just like to hear Jarvi conduct more Raff.

[raffite33]

I'd be hard pressed to be critical of Chandos.  When I visually scan my CD racks, there's a whole lot of great Chandos discs that I've collected over the last couple of decades, lots of 'em repertoire Sony, DG or Decca probably wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.  Nothing would make me happier than a complete cycle of Raff Symphonies on SACD by the likes of Honeck, Vanska, Oramo or Paavo Jarvi on a label like BIS, Ondine or Linn.  Maybe not likely, but BIS especially sometimes surprises me.

Anyway, a word of warning to any younger collectors planning on tracking down the D'Avalos Raff 3rd on ASV.  It has been out of print for a good while.  The first release, in 1993, was one of the many CDs pressed by PDO afflicted by "CD Rot" (aka "Bronzing").  It was repressed a couple of years later.  I still get burned a couple of times a year, ordering used CDs on labels including ASV, Collins, Albany, Hyperion, etc.  You might want to email any Amazon Marketplace or Ebay dealers before ordering.  If it's gold or brown instead of silver, take a pass.  Eventually, they start to put out what I'd describe as pulses of white noise along with the music.

[Alan Howe]

The solution, of course, is to make a copy ASAP - provided that the CD is still playable.

[bulleid_pacific]

My Raff 3 was afflicted by bronzing - along with several other ASV's, lots of Hyperions and also some Albany discs of George Lloyd.  All the companies replaced them then - but that was before ASV were taken over (by Sanctuary, I think).  All collectors who have a large library and who therefore play some discs rarely should check these labels in particular for problems.  But there are other companies who used PDO as a pressing plant too.

Since the problem appears to be acid in the booklet paper reacting with the lacquer, it would be sensible to store PDO pressed discs apart from their booklets if they cannot be replaced and are still playable.  Or, as suggested, burn them to CD-R and/or rip them to hard disc.  However, I think any discs which are going to be problematic will have shown symptoms by now.  I replaced mine around 10 years ago.

[Alan Howe]

Mine exhibits no problems at all.