George Putnam Upton (1834-1919) was the music critic of the Chicago Tribune between 1862 and 1881. Whilst there he doubled as the paper's war correspondent in the Civil War and witnessed the Great Fire of Chicago, about which co-wrote a famous account. A highly respected and influential man, he pioneered musical journalism in the United States and his national influence was greatly enhanced once he left the Chicago Tribune and began producing his series of handbooks on the popular concert repertoire of the day. The Standard Operas was published in 1885 and it was quickly followed by two companion volumes on oratorios and cantatas; the series concluded with The Standard Symphonies of 1888.
Upton thought highly of Raff, who had died just six years before The Standard Symphonies was published. He writes that Raff "has left the world eleven important symphonies, which are among the finest illustrations of programme-music that the modern German school has yet given us". He devotes several pages to describing in detail the Im Walde, Lenore and Frühlingsklänge Symphonies and gives a brief review of the rest of Raff's symphonic oeuvre - the Symphony No.7, for instance, is credited with an opening movement which is "a remarkable piece of tone-painting".
In his description of the Symphony No.3 In the Forest , Upton describes the "ingenious modulations" and "beautiful" second theme of the first movement which he characterises as a "charming picture of the quiet surprises of woodland in an autumn day". He treats the second and third movements as one, although strictly speaking they constitute the second part of the work. The Largo is credited with a "beautiful and suggestive melody", the repetition of which is "admirable from an artistic point of view". The finale "attempts actual description with remarkable success" and Upton writes approvingly of Raff's skill in depicting the various incidents which the movement illustrates.
Upton was amongst those who founded the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and he became close to its first conductor Theodore Thomas, whose biography he was later to write. Thomas was another Raff enthusiast and the composer's works appeared regularly in his programmes. From these performances Upton would have become familiar with the Symphony No.5 Lenore. This he calls "confessedly the best of Raff's symphonic works", although the description of the first movement's principal themes as "simply expressions of happy, passionate scenes between the two lovers" is perhaps rather underselling the music.
The slow movement (as in the 3rd. Symphony, Upton confuses movement and part and calls it the second part of the first movement) is "a delightful representation of the discourse of the lovers" and the third movement is a "fascinating march [which] is so familiar by its frequent performance that it hardly needs more than mere reference". His enthusiasm for the finale is manifest throughout his description of each episode as a "plaintive theme", "the tramp of the steed", "the terrible ride" and "a gloomy dirge" until "one after another the constantly intensified and impetuous music pictures the scenes of the ride" leading to Lenore's doom played out to a "sad and tender accompaniment".
Upton's third selection from Raff is the Symphony No.8 "Sounds of Spring" about which he says "Though very pleasing by its variety in effects and realistic color, it has not made such an impression as the Lenore or Im Walde, - his earlier works; but of the series to which it belongs it is unquestionably the most popular". The work had also had the longest time of the four seasons pieces to get itself established - it was published in Germany 11 years before Upton was writing.
He praises the "bright and cheerful color", "charming pastoral episode" and "jubilant outburst suggestive of a chorus of praise" to be found in the first movement. The second movement "brings us into Mendelssohn's world of fancy, but not his light and airy step. It is weird and grotesque, instead of fanciful". The lovely slow movement "opens with a suave and tender melody, most poetically orchestrated, and treated with unusual refinement". The second theme is "equally pretty and sentimental, and enhances the graceful and spring-like effect of the movement". Upton is evidently less enthusiastic about the fourth movement which he says is "characterized by a resumption of the clamour and noisy resonance of the first two".
[The Standard Symphonies, their history, their music and their composers by George P Upton was published by A C McClurg & Co. of Chicago in 1888 and reprinted and revised many times]