Raff was an in-between
composer. Although born Swiss, he is
considered a German, whereas in terms
of style, he might be described as a
Classical-Romantic. He was strongly
influenced by the music of Mendelssohn
and Liszt. The former recommended the
publication of early piano pieces. Liszt
also acted for Raff in a practical manner:
as a musical patron he arranged posts
for him first in Cologne and Stuttgart,
and then summoned him to Weimar to serve
as his assistant-cum-secretary for six
years from 1850. From 1877 he was Director
of the Hoch Conservatoire in Frankfurt,
where he composed and taught, MacDowell
being among his pupils. His output was
considerable with over two hundred published
works, among them eleven symphonies,
vast amounts of piano music and a considerable
number of chamber works. If any of Raff’s
music gets heard, it’s generally a couple
of symphonies: Im Walde and Lenore,
Nos. 3 and 5 respectively. Much of the
weakness in his music lies at the very
heart of this schizophrenic attempt
to fuse two such dissimilar styles (Mendelssohn
and Liszt). It tends to fall between
two stools, simply sinking into eclecticism,
nevertheless it is all tuneful and skilfully
crafted.
This disc is nothing
short of head-to-head rivalry between
Ingolf Turban and Jascha Netsov on CPO
and here Ariadne Daskalakis and Roglit
Ishay on Tudor. Although there is plenty
of Raff’s vast output which needs to
be recorded, it’s good to see a healthy
competitive supply of Raff’s music from
two German labels. Tudor have now produced
no less than seventeen discs (including
eleven symphonies recorded by the Bamberg
Symphony Orchestra under Hans Stadlmair),
string quartets, violin concertos, piano
concertos and one of pieces for violin
and piano. According to the box spine
of the one under review, this is Volume
1 of the violin sonatas with the second
due out later this year, presumably
consisting of Nos. 2 and 5. Here we
have three of the five all of which
were written mid-way through the composer’s
life, over the fifteen-year period between
1853 and 1868, and all edited by the
violinist Ferdinand David of Mendelssohn’s
violin concerto fame. Centrally sandwiched
between two charming sonatas Opp. 73
and 128, and therefore slightly out
of chronological order, lies the compactly
through-composed Chromatic Sonata Op.129,
written in response to the sudden death
by a stroke of his father-in-law in
Raff’s own home in August 1866. This
turbulent music may well have been the
product of turbulent times, Prussia
and Denmark had fought a war in 1864,
the Austro-Prussian War was about to
erupt, and the composer was much affected
by both as well as by the loss of his
relative. There’s a loosely argued booklet
note claiming that it may also have
been a prototype for his first concerto
for the violin, the sonata having a
symphonic outline and orchestral colours
filling the piano writing. It is a concentrated
work, reminiscent of Spohr’s 8th
concerto Gesangszene, and, with
its frequent use of recitativo
style, clearly influenced by the Sturm
und Drang Romanticism prevalent
in the mid-19th century. The earlier
first sonata Op.73 was dedicated to
Ferdinand Laub who, accompanied by Hans
von Bülow, played it in Berlin
after its premiere in Weimar. This was
high quality acknowledgement by two
such eminent artists, and did Raff’s
reputation a power of good.
Both American violinist
Ariadne Daskalakis and Israeli pianist
Roglit Ishay give intensely taut performances
of all three works, and are clearly
totally unfazed by any technical hurdles.
Ms Daskalakis responds to the music’s
sense of drama and, elsewhere, its lyricism.
She has a full-toned sound and phrases
with warmth and subtlety, while Ms Roglit
is more than a sympathetic accompanist.
There is some formidable piano writing
here to which she responds with admirable
confidence, while sound engineer Peter
Urban has struck a perfect balance between
the two performers in the recording
studio at Bavarian Radio. Raff’s music
has been accused on occasion of succumbing
to either triviality or vulgarity, at
times even both. No sign of any such
failings on this enjoyable disc, which
impresses to the last chord.
Christopher Fifield
see also review
by Jonathan Woolf
Ariadne Daskalakis (violin) 
