SKU: BR.PB-5622-07

With his first String Quartet in D minor, op. 77, composed in 1855, the native Swiss composer Joachim Raff (1822-1882) bid a brilliant farewell to Weimar.

ISBN 9790004215197. 6.5 x 9 inches.

With his first String Quartet in D minor, op. 77, composed in 1855, the native Swiss composer Joachim Raff bid a brilliant farewell to Weimar. He had been there as Franz Liszt's assistant since 1850 and had made a name for himself in the city's art scene - now he embarked on new paths. He composed his second Quartet in A major, op. 90, already in 1857 in Wiesbaden, the spa town that was to become his home for 21 years. The two quartets are unequivocal works: orchestrally-conceived, full of energetic vigor, and at times uncompromisingly modern. They confidently continue the Beethoven tradition and attest at the same time to Raff's intensive confrontation with Richard Wagner's music during the Weimar years. In his chamber music, the composer wanted to achieve progress in an inherently historical way and to ground the individual substance in existing forms, as he told the Viennese violinist Josef Hellmesberger, who launched opus 77. The quartets, first published in 1860/62, found illustrious interpreters, among them, the Muller brothers' renowned ensemble, to which opus 90 was also dedicated, and Joseph Joachim.In collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen (CH)

Some eighteen years elapsed between Raff's first counted String Quartet op. 77 and his Quartets Nos. 6-8 op. 192, combined as one work. As such, Raff parted with the weighty single opus in quartet composition - without, however, sacrificing musical quality.

SKU: BR.EB-8939

ISBN 9790004186084.

With his first String Quartet in D minor, op. 77, composed in 1855, the native Swiss composer Joachim Raff bid a brilliant farewell to Weimar. He had been there as Franz Liszt's assistant since 1850 and had made a name for himself in the city's art scene - now he embarked on new paths. He composed his second Quartet in A major, op. 90, already in 1857 in Wiesbaden, the spa town that was to become his home for 21 years. The two quartets are unequivocal works: orchestrally-conceived, full of energetic vigor, and at times uncompromisingly modern. They confidently continue the Beethoven tradition and attest at the same time to Raff's intensive confrontation with Richard Wagner's music during the Weimar years. In his chamber music, the composer wanted to achieve progress in an inherently historical way and to ground the individual substance in existing forms, as he told the Viennese violinist Josef Hellmesberger, who launched opus 77. The quartets, first published in 1860/62, found illustrious interpreters, among them, the Muller brothers' renowned ensemble, to which opus 90 was also dedicated, and Joseph Joachim.In collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen (CH)

Some eighteen years elapsed between Raff's first counted String Quartet op. 77 and his Quartets Nos. 6-8 op. 192, combined as one work. As such, Raff parted with the weighty single opus in quartet composition - without, however, sacrificing musical quality.

SKU: BR.EB-9386

ISBN 9790004188569. 0 x 0 inches.

The Violin Sonata No. 1 in E minor, op. 73, a Grand Sonata for Violin and Piano, occupies an important position in Joachim Raff's oeuvre: it reflects numerous artistic, aesthetic, biographical, and reception-historical aspects characteristic of Raff. The work was composed in Weimar in 1854, when Raff was going through a process of artistic self-discovery. He increasingly distanced himself from his mentor Franz Liszt and intensively explored Wagner as well as the ideal of absolute music - this is also reflected in the music of the sonata. While Raff described the first two movements as objectified, he perceived the last two movements as a piece of him, that is, not free of extra-musical influences.The 1st movement, with its expansive main theme, is reminiscent of Mendelssohn; the 2nd movement reveals the refinement of classical-romantic work with musical material. The 3rd movement, with its partly rhythmic, virtuoso accompanying figures and harmonically advanced passages, allows a deeply romantic, almost tormented insight into a soul life a la Sturm und Drang. The partly irascible last movement revisits already familiar themes and thus creates a musical framework.In collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen (CH)

First Urtext Edition of the Grand Sonata for Violin and Piano.

SKU: BR.PB-5708-07

ISBN 9790004216453. 6.5 x 9 inches.

When his musical triad op. 192 was created in the winter of 1873/74, Raff was one of Germany's most successful composers and the central artistic authority in the Hessian spa, royal residence and imperial city of Wiesbaden. With op. 192, Raff cultivated his reputation as an erudite composer who was a master of contrapuntal forms. By the time the string quartets were composed, he had already established himself as one of the most prolific and versatile suite composers of the 19th century, as is evident here in the various suite conceptions: Opus 192 No. 1 (in C minor), as Suite in the ancient style, has with Baroque labels stylized dance movements follow one another. Die schone Mullerin [The Fair Maid of the Mill] op. 192 No. 2 (in D major), on the other hand, interprets the suite as a sequence of chapters in a musical narrative and thus becomes probably the first tone poem in string quartet scoring. In the third quartet (in C major), of which Raff the artist was proudest, other genre designations mix in among the dance movements, and with its free succession of different movement types, not usual for a sonata, it preserves structural openness. In collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen (CH)

Some eighteen years elapsed between Raff's first counted String Quartet op. 77 and his Quartets Nos. 6-8 op. 192, combined as one work. As such, Raff parted with the weighty single opus in quartet composition - without, however, sacrificing musical quality.

SKU: BR.EB-9406

ISBN 9790004188804. 9 x 12 inches.

Raff's Cello Sonata op. 183 appeared in print in late 1873; at a time when Raff's success was at its zenith with Symphonies Nos. 3 and 5 as well as many chamber works. Little is known about the circumstances of its genesis and possible performances. Since Raff did not dedicate this sonata to any distinguished artist, unlike most of his other chamber works, it apparently lacked a drawing card for distribution. While Raff composed several well-known works for violin and piano, the present cello sonata is one of his few outstanding works for cello and piano. Incidentally, in the first edition, the score is headed for piano and cello, as was quite often the case in the 19th century, for instance also with Brahms's sonatas. This is also evident in the music: Cello and piano are equal partners that develop the musical material and are challenged both technically and artistically. This current edition contains an Urtext cello part as well as a part with markings by Claus Kanngiesser. In collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen (CH)

With a preface by Severin Kolb. Contains 2 cello parts.

SKU: BR.EB-9412

ISBN 9790004188866. 9 x 12 inches.

Joachim Raff's 12 piano pieces Fruhlingsboten op. 55, originating in 1852/53, mark a new creative start in his compositional oeuvre, in which the composer left behind his previously written and published piano works. The title of the work, translated as Heralds of Spring, is multilayered: It refers not only to spring in nature as expressed in the headings of the first two pieces, Winterruhe [Hibernation] and Fruhlingsnahen [Spring's Approach], but the words Heralds of Spring also indicate love's spring, the blossoming of love for his future wife, the actress Doris Genast. This appears in the headings of the pieces as of no. 3, sketching the path of an imaginary couple approaching union via various annoyances. And ultimately, Raff saw in his new piano work the harbingers of his future works, created under happy circumstances. In Fruhlingsboten Raff repeatedly demonstrates his ability to adapt idioms and compositional techniques from works by Liszt, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and others. The pieces do nonetheless possess their own thoroughly original diction with a character spectrum just as diverse as their stylistic piano design. Mahlert's new edition, as beautifully presented as ever from this publisher, is exemplary, and can easily be recommended to advanced pianists with a love of nineteenth-century repertoire. Superb.(Andrew Eales, Pianodao).

SKU: BR.EB-9462

ISBN 9790004189405. 9 x 12 inches.

Some eighteen years elapsed between Raff's first counted String Quartet op. 77 and his Quartets Nos. 6-8 op. 192, combined as one work. As such, Raff parted with the weighty single opus in quartet composition - without, however, sacrificing musical quality.