Raff String Quartets 5 & 7

[Alan Howe]

...forthcoming from MDG:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/streichquartett-5-7/hnum/10937037

[Mark Thomas]

It'll be the Fifth Quartet's recording premiere, but the third recording of No.7.

[Alan Howe]

Aha! A Raff premiere! Mouthwatering...

[Gareth Vaughan]

Yes. It will be worth hearing. But I hope CPO will not be long in completing their cycle.

[eschiss1]

Whenever the cpo recording is released, it was recorded earlier (2019? 2020?) than this one, so "recording premiere" depends on definition.  (There is meanwhile a more than serviceable rendition of the 5th quartet @ https://imslp.org/wiki/String_Quartet_No.5%2C_Op.138_(Raff%2C_Joachim), but I wouldn't disagree that the MDG and cpo recordings are likely to be better.)

[Alan Howe]

'Premiere CD release', then. OK, Eric? 

[matesic]

Aw Eric, you are kind. I'm delighted to see the first movement of my hack-through has had all of 456 downloads in a decade. More than half of them listened to the other three movements as well! A few hundred more have found it on youtube, not put there by me but by a wicked algorithm.

By the way, IMSLP's "Play" button doesn't work for me any more but "Download" initiates streaming and it takes a couple more clicks to actually download the file. Does everyone have the same experience with audio files on IMSLP?

[Mark Thomas]

Steve, your rendition of the Fifth Quartet has stood me in good stead over quite a few years now - but I'm pleased that I can now allow it to enjoy a very well earned retirement

[matesic]

Mark, thanks for giving me the prompt way back then. My favourite of Raff's quartets that you directed me to is No.8, his ingenious "Suite in Canon Form", which has emerged on CPO and can be streamed by subscribers to the Naxos Music Library or IMSLP. The Mannheimer Streichquartett are absolutely the real deal.

[John Boyer]

Well, it's here!  Never thought I'd see the day that I'd have all Raff's quartets on CD. (Truth be told, 25 years ago I never thought I'd see the day I'd have any of Raff's quartets on CD.)  So now I'm getting used to #5, which makes a tip of the hat to classical models, just as 6 & 8 look back to the baroque.

[Mark Thomas]

Amazon keep putting back my delivery estimate - it's slipped three weeks to 22 July...

[Alan Howe]

Same problem for me too, Presto tells me.

[John Boyer]

I pre-ordered mine on JPC some time ago, though clearly I did my share of waiting past the availability date, too.

[Alan Howe]

You must have got an early copy. Jpc say that the CD was released on 3rd June (a likely story!), but that there's now a waiting time of 4 weeks for delivery (plus postage time from Germany, of course). Hmmm....

[Mark Thomas]

My delivery has slipped a further week until 29 July.