RAFF: Symphony No.

1, "An das Vaterland"

1 of 2

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About this Recording

8.223165 - RAFF: Symphony No. 1, "An das Vaterland"
English
Joachim Raff (1822-1882)
Symphony No. 1 in D major "An das Vaterland", Opus 96
Allegro
Scherzo: Allegro vivace
Larghetto
Allegro dramatico
Larghetto sostenuto
Musical reputations are fragile. Joachim Raff is now remembered principally as the composer of a Cavatina, a salon
piece, and as an assistant to Liszt in Weimar, little more than a foot-note in the history of the symphonic poem. In
his own time he enjoyed a very considerable renown, justified, it seemed, by a prolific talent and by his distinction
as a teacher.
Raff was born in Lachen, near Zurich, in 1822. His father had taken refuge in Switzerland, leaving Wuerttemberg
to avoid conscription into the French army. Raff's early education was at Wiesenstetten, in Wuerttemberg,
followed by a period of teacher training at the Jesuit Gymnasium in Schwyz, where he won prizes in Latin,
German, and Mathematics. Thereafter he took employment as a school-master, while working hard at his private
studies in music. Mendelssohn, whom he had approached, recommended him to the attention of the Leipzig
publishers Breitkopf and Haertel, who issued sets of his piano pieces in 1844, the year in which the young
composer resolved to try his luck in Zurich.
Raff's contact with Liszt began in 1845, when he walked to Basle to hear the latter play. He then accompanied
Liszt on his concert tour, and followed this, through the agency of Liszt, with work in Cologne, in part as a critic
and less significantly in a music shop. He then moved to Stuttgart, where he met Hans von Buelow, who remained
a close friend in the years that followed, and Mendelssohn, accepting the latter's offer to teach him in Leipzig. Von
Buelow, meanwhile, took Raff's Concertstueck for piano and orchestra into his repertoire, something that was of
material assistance in furthering his reputation. The death of Mendelssohn in 1847 allowed Liszt a further exercise
of patronage, in securing him work in Hamburg as arranger for a music publisher. In 1850 Raff moved to Weimar,
where Liszt was now installed as Music Director Extraordinary and occupied with the provision of music for the
orchestra, and above all with the remarkable series of symphonic poems in which he sought to combine the arts of
literature and music. At the Villa Altenburg, where he lodged, to be joined shortly by Hans von Buelow, Raff
served the master as secretary, copyist and factotum, and must, initially at least, have had a considerable hand in
the orchestration of Liszt's work. Whether he was as important as he made out to his correspondents is open to
question. "I have cleaned up Liszt's first Concerto symphonique for him", he claimed in an early letter from
Weimar, "and now I must score and copy Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne". He declared that the orchestration of
Prometheus was his, for the most part, and that he had performed the same service for the symphonic poem
Tasso. The violinist Joachim was later to repeat these claims on Raff's behalf. Clearly Liszt needed assistance, and
this Raff could provide. Tasso, for example, had been written in 1849 for the centenary of the birth of Goethe and
had been scored by August Conradi. Liszt was dissatisfied, and handed the music to Raff, who in 1851 produced a
new version, to which Liszt made various subsequent alterations. Raff's own opera Koenig Alfred was staged in
Weimar in the same year, without marked success, although it was given three performances, but the validity of
his assertions at the time and later on the composition of Liszt's orchestral works must remain doubtful. In 1856,
tired of a subordinate position in Weimar as one of the group of acolytes that attended on Liszt and unhappy in his
relationship with Liszt's blue-stocking mistress, the Princess Caroline Sayn-Wittgenstein, Raff left for Wiesbaden,
where Koenig Alfred was performed and where he was able to devote himself to composition, teaching and
marriage to Doris Genast, member of a well known Weimar theatre family. The period in Wiesbaden was a
productive one. It was followed, in 1877, by appointment as director of the Hoch Conservatorium in Frankfurt,
where he succeeded in engaging Clara Schumann as a piano teacher, when the institution opened in 1878, the
only woman so employed. Further women were to be appointed two years later, and there was a class for women
composers, the first of the kind in Germany. Raff remained in Frankfurt until his death in 1882.
Four of Raff's six operas remained unperformed, but he proved very much more successful with his orchestral
works, chamber music and with an exceptionally large number of piano pieces. The quantity of his work prompted
Wagner's cynical remark to a correspondent that now he was composing like Raff or Brahms, - in other words
copiously, since his views on the compositions of the latter, at least, were well known. Raff belongs in one way to
the Neo-German school of Wagner and Liszt, at least in the overt programmatic element in eight of his eleven
numbered symphonies. In other ways he may seem more academic in his approach, making full use of most
available forms and of a strong element of counterpoint in works that are admirably orchestrated for a body of less
than Wagnerian proportions. Charges of superficiality and eclecticism can now be rebutted by renewed attention
to music that has much to say and is remarkable, if in no other way, for the clear influence it exercised on
composers like Richard Strauss.
The Symphony No. 1 in D major, Opus 96, carries the title "An das Vaterland" and opens with an energetic sweep

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RAFF: Symphony No. 1, "An das Vaterland"

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of sound that is a foretaste of Strauss. The first movement develops in more formal terms, with a strongly
contrapuntal element in the sequences and thematic references to the Fatherland. The slow movement starts with
a strongly felt theme, moving to music that is more gently lyrical in feeling, developed contrapuntally and
dramatically, with due reference to material from the preceding movements. The declared drama of the fourth
movement leads to an emphatically patriotic statement and in the end to the sombre tread of the final Larghetto
sostenuto, that goes on to contrasting moods of patriotism and gentle lyricism before culminating in a spirit of
national triumph. In spite of its considerable length and apparent digressions, the symphony is, all in all,
remarkably unified in structure, in thematic material and in general intention.
The Rhenish Philharmonic Orchestra
The Rhenish Philharmonic Orchestra was established in 1945 as the symphony orchestra of Radio Coblenz, and the
following year became the orchestra of the newly re-opened Coblenz Opera. In 1973 it became the official
orchestra of the State of Rhineland-Pfalz. The orchestra has undertaken a number of tours in Germany, to
Salzburg, and to Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.
Some 25 records have been made and there have been frequent appearances on radio and television.
Musicians who have worked with the Rhenish Philharmonic Orchestra include Aram Khatchaturian, Eugen Jochum,
Gunther Wand, Carlo Zecchi, Salvatore Accardo, Christoph Eschenbach, Henryk Szeryng, Wanda Wilkomirska and
Alexis Weissenberg. Since 1981 the Principal Conductor has been the Scottish musician James Lockhart.
Samuel Friedman
The conductor Samuel Friedman was born in Kharkov in 1940 and graduated from the conservatory there as a
violinist in 1964, continuing his studies as a conductor at the Leningrad Conservatory. Between 1967 and 1973 he
held various conducting posts in the Soviet Union, serving as permanent conductor of the Irkutsk Philharmonic
Orchestra until 1970 and of the Kazakhstan Orchestra. After success in various conducting competitions and
performances throughout Russia, Friedman emigrated to Israel in 1973 and was appointed Principal Conductor of
the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for two years, before embarking on an international career with
a tour of the U.S.A. in 1975 with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, followed by tours of South Africa in subsequent
years and engagements throughout Europe with orchestras ranging from the New Philharmonia and the B.B.C.
Symphony Orchestras in London to the Italian Radio Orchestras of Rome, Turin, Florence and Naples.

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