Raff: complete violin sonatas from Naxos

[Mark Thomas]

This autumn Naxos will be issuing Raff's five violin sonatas, played by Laurence Kayaleh (violin) and Jean-Fabien Schneider (piano). See this announcement on YouTube - which includes an extract from the Violin Sonata No.3. It's a welcome surprise and it'll be interesting to see how their interpretations measure up to the two contrasting, but equally valid, ones of cpo's Turban and Nemtsov (full of nervous energy) and Tudor's Daskalakis and Ishay (lyrical and intense).

[Alan Howe]

Wonderful stuff. And great to have these forthcoming recordings.

Details of this fine violinist here:
http://www.laurencekayaleh.com/

[Mark Thomas]

[semloh]

How nice to have these recordings - I certainly hope to get them.

As a slight aside, I am prompted to think that the number of recordings of Raff's music now available might place his status as "Unsung" in doubt, but perhaps the relatively few appearances in the concert hall tells a different story.

Also, putting aside the sometimes bizarre order in which composers are listed, maybe the rather silly ABC 100 "favourite composer" competition is actually a good indicator of who is really "unsung", at least in Australia. Raff simply isn't named at all. 

[Alan Howe]

We should remember, of course, that we already have fine recordings from cpo and Tudor.

[Mark Thomas]

Vol.1 (Violin Sonatas Nos.1 & 2) is scheduled for release in the UK on 13 September. Meanwhile, here's the cover of Vol.2:

[Alan Howe]

Any opinions, yet, Mark?

[Mark Thomas]

No, not yet. I'll wait for them to be released I think. 

[Mark Thomas]

Volume 1, with the first two Violin Sonatas is now available. Audio excerpts here.

[Alan Howe]

..and very nice it is too. It's great to find Raff's music on Naxos because it'll mean wider appreciation of these wonderful scores.

[Mark Thomas]

For me these performances are disappointing, especially so given the calibre of the musicians. They just don't seem to understand Raff's idiom. The First Sonata is a very nervy and tumultuous piece but the interpretation here lacks the momentum and passion so necessary in Raff's music. The sound is lovely, but the reading itself is too languorous and it's not just a question of tempo either - the phrasing is often surpringly poorly shaped. The same is true of the Second Sonata, which is certainly a more relaxed affair, but not to the extent which Kayaleh and Schneider deliver. I'm afraid that I find Turban & Nemtsov and Daskalakis & Ishay much more satisfying, despite their very different approaches. I've heard the second CD of this set and, although the Sonata No.3 echoes these faults, the final two works are very much nearer what I'm sure Raff would have expected to hear. It's a shame.

[Alan Howe]

I quite enjoyed the performance of No.1, but comparisons are odious, I fear.

[Kevin]

Any word on the performances of Vol 2 which feature probably his best works in the genre?

[Alan Howe]

I think the same comments made about vol.1 will probaby apply to vol.2 as well. In other words, although fine taken on its own terms, the cpo and Tudor recordings are superior.

[Mark Thomas]

Any word on the performances of Vol 2 which feature probably his best works in the genre?

See my post above for comments on the second CD, but generally I agree with Alan. As for it containing the best works, I disagree. For me the First Sonata is the most original and satisfying of the five. Raff displays a consistent quality of invention in it which makes it amongst the best of his compositions in any genre. Nos.4 and 5 are very good pieces, to be sure, but don't quite equal it.