Raff symphonies from Chandos

[Peter1953]

I do realise he has written a lot of rambling music!!

Did he?

[Alan Howe]

I wouldn't right Rubinstein off - his symphonies could do withe some first-class recordings. Nevertheless, a fair assessment does not reveal him as a particularly strong symphonist overall. With Rubinstein, more is definitely less...

[Peter1953]

How to react on all those opinions about Rubinstein? As I've said before, I'm not a musicologist, but just a listener. A critical listener who has heard a lot of new, unsung and wonderful music over the past years, thanks to our Forum. Anton Rubinstein is still my number one favourite. I love his piano music, symphonies, concerto's and chamber music. So much of his music still grabs me, no matter how often I listen to it. Of course, like almost all other composers he has written some less convincing music, but that has never changed my opinion. I simply love Rubinstein like no other unsung composer. You can imagine how much I would like to see his symphonies in new and better performances (including The Ocean in 7 movements) than those old MP/Naxos releases.

Raff is my number two. Maybe I have a strange taste, because his An das Vaterland is my favourite symphony (those wonderful melodies), although I think that he has shown more craftmanship in later symphonies, like the fascinating 5th. 
I am very pleased with the Stadlmaier versions. However, Alan has given some good arguments why those performances could be improved, so that makes a new release of the series by Chandos interesting. But I'm not sure if I will put the new recordings on my priority wantlist, because Stadlmaier isn't that bad at all to my ears. Important is that the Chandos releases can contribute to more awareness of Raff's music by the classical music listeners and hopefully lead to more broadcasts.

[eschiss1]

... are any of us here musicologists? .. *confused*

[giles.enders]

We seem to have drifted on to Rubinstein about whom I would say, his ego far outstripped his talent as far as his compositional skills were concerned.  Try his Fantasia for piano and orchestra or his Caprice for the same, YUK!

[JimL]

Giles, you're going to run into a lot of resistance on that Fantasy, if it's the one in C you're talking about.  It's a great work.

[TerraEpon]

The Eroica Fantasia? I like that piece enough I DLed it from eMusic at least.

[JimL]

No, I think he's talking about the Fantasie for Piano and Orchestra in C Major, Op. 84.  A grand work in 4 movements, which shows Rubinstein was no slouch when it came to Lisztian thematic transformation.

[Ilja]

My general feeling is that Rubinstein was far too talented for his own good: most of his compositions seem to have been mainly first thoughts that sometimes could have used second ones. But then, Rubinstein was a busy man, which makes his enormous output even more incredible. However, you need not only a talented composer but also a disciplined one to make a truly satisfying creation: Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky are cases in point. To me, much of Rubinstein is hit-and-miss, although there is a lot of great music there - and even not-so-great music which I still love, such as the delightful A flat Konzerstück.

[Alan Howe]

Excerpts from a couple of recent interviews with Neeme Järvi...

<<and I like to start to record now a little bit of Swiss music [probably with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, where he has recently taken up the post as artistic and musical director]...You know Raff was in the middle of all these good composers, and wrote all this very good music, but he's been somewhat forgotten now; you have Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann and you had Raff, he was there also; so beautiful, a highly professional musician.>>

<<Joseph Joachim Raff, par exemple. Ses symphonies sont très belles, particulièrement la 5e.>>
[Joseph Joachim Raff, for example. His symphonies are very beautiful, particularly the 5th.]

[Mark Thomas]

If I had a hat with me, I'd be throwing it in the air!

[Alan Howe]

...and if it were out, I'd be over it. The moon, that is 

[adriano]

I only wonder why on earth Chandos got to the Suisse Romande, which is no good orchestra anymore since ages!
And why Järvi goes to Geneva, that is another mystery, could't he find a better ensemble?
I think the TUdor CD set is great; about tempi one can discuss for ever.
Greetings from Switzerland
Adriano
Conductor/Composer

[Mark Thomas]

I understood that the Suisse Romande have become a greatly improved orchestra in the last few years. Certainly their reviews seem to bear this out.

[Alan Howe]

The Suisse Romande Orchestra is unrecognisable as the same band from previous decades. The proof? Try any of Janowski's ongoing Bruckner cycle on Pentatone...