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John Boyer   31/1/2003	Subject: Raff and the Boston Symphony, or, Fun With Statistics Message: I have a commemorative book published in 1931, the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony. America was not so backward a place at the end of the 19th Century. Tchaikovsky's 1st and 2nd Piano Concertos both had their premieres in America (in Boston, 1875, and New York, 1882), as did Bruch's 3rd Symphony (New York, 1881), and, almost unbelievably, Brahms's 1st Piano Trio (New York, 1855). With tongue firmly in cheek, let me say that the final proof of America's cultural sophistication was the performances of Raff during this period. The commemorative book has an appendix listing every work played by the BSO during its first 50 years. How did Raff fair? We see the following: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (3 performances): 1884, 1892, 1895 La Fee d'Amour for Violin and Orchestra (1 performance): 1893 Overture 'Ein feste Berg' (1 performance): 1903 Suite Op. 101 (adagietto only, 1 performance): 1883 Symphony #1 (1 performance): 1890 Symphony #3 (7 performances): 1885, 1888, 1891, 1892, 1894, 1897, 1902 Symphony #5 (6 performances): 1883, 1886, 1888, 1891, 1896, 1903 Symphony #11 (1 performance): 1884 The BSO was formed only a year before Raff died, so we can't see how they would have treated him as a living composer. But if we look at the number of years that at least one Raff work was played (1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1888, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1902, 1903), we see that in 21 years Raff's music appeared in 15 of them. Right at the turn of the century, his music sputters (he's not heard for four years: 1898-1901), briefly reappears, then disappears forever. Although I have no data after the 1931 season, and although Toscanini programmed the 3rd Symphony in New York as late as the early 1930s, I doubt the BSO every performed Raff again. If we look at other composers only up to the year 1903, we see Raff holding his own against that also once-celebrated-but-now forgotten composer, Anton Rubinstein. Rubinstein's two most popular works, the 2nd Symphony and the 4th Piano Concerto, had 7 performances (tying Raff's 'Im Walde') and 10 performances each. Against heavy hitters Schumann and Brahms, though, Raff has greater difficulty maintaining a place. Of Brahms's and Schumann's four symphonies each, none has less than 10 performances, making the symphonic works of both composers far more popular than Raff. But if we are also not surprised to see Beethoven's symphonic supremacy over our guy, Raff's Piano Concerto manages, even with only 3 performances, to have more than a toe hold in the BSO repertory. Compare this with Beethoven's piano concertos: 1st (no performances) 2nd (no performances) 3rd (no performances) 4th (7 performances) 5th (9 performances) Raff beats three out of five! And of Brahms? 1st (1 performance) 2nd (5 performances) Raff beats the 1st, which, according to statistics from the American Symphony League, was in the year 2000 the most often performed piano concerto in America (which is hard to believe in itself!). Even Schumann's beloved concerto mustered only 6 performances, admittedly more than Raff but less than Rubinstein's D minor. If anyone has similar statistics at hand, please share them!