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Piano Quintets from Il Trittico The trio Il Trittico, whose two-disc review of the Piano Trios for Arte Nova (review) was widely praised, will be playing Raff's Piano Quintet and the Fantasy for Piano Quintet op.207b on a new CD which will be available next month from Swiss label Divox. The Fantasy is a single movement work lasting around 17 minutes and this will be its premiere recording. The Goetz Piano Quintet rounds out the disc. |
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Sterling announce violin/orchestra premieres Swedish boutique label Sterling have announced the release of what is probably the most important Raff CD to be published in the last three years. It has premiere recordings of three large scale works for violin and orchestra: the early Konzertstück La Fée d'amour, the five movement Suite for Violin & Orchestra and, most exciting of all, Raff's Violin Concerto No.1 in it's original version. Acclaimed soloist Tobias Ringborg is accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra of Norrlands Opera under the baton of Andrea Quinn. Sterling CDS 1075. Review. |
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Cameo Classics reissue piano works British rare repertoire specialist label Cameo Classics have reissued Valentina Seferinova's performances of the Fantasie-Sonate, Piano Sonata and Trois Morceaux. They were previously available on boutique label Cahoot. CC9024CD. Review. |
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New Violin Sonatas CD from cpo German label cpo are in the process of completing their survey of Raff's music for violin & piano with the announcement of the fourth CD in the series. This became available on 26 June and will complete Ingolf Turban and Jascha Nemtsov's cycle of the Violin Sonatas with performances of No.4 and No.5. Rounding out the CD will be the remaining Sonatillen op.99 (Nos.1-3 and 8-10). The cyclic tone poem Volker has already been recorded and presumably will form the basis of the fifth and concluding disk in the series. cpo 777 006. Review. |
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Naxos release Raff's Duo on Wagner's Lohengrin Budget CD label Naxos have issued a new recording of one of Raff's Duos on motifs from Wagner's operas. Violinist Livia Sohn and Benjamin Loeb, piano play the third piece in the set, which is based on the bridal march from Lohengrin. It's part of an interesting programme which also includes opera fantasies by such diverse composers as Paganini, Hubay and Stravinsky. Naxos 8.570202. Review. |
| More String Quartets from cpo in prospect The Mannheim String Quartet have now recorded the String Quartets Nos.4 & 8, and will record No.2 & No.3 this Summer, with the remaining pairing of No.1 & No.5 following later in the year. No release dates have been announced. |
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| No Violin & Orchestra recordings from Tudor Contrary to expectations, Tudor have confirmed that they did not record the Suite for Violin & Orchestra and La Fée d'amour. |
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Early Raff work issued on CD Acclaimed South African pianist Petronel Malan plays Raff's Reminiscences of Mozart's Don Juan op.45 on a new Hänssler Classics CD issued in April. As well as Raff's 10 minute work, the disc is entitled "Transfigured Mozart" and includes piano transcriptions by Alkan, Friedman and Thalberg, together with fantasias and variations by Hummel, Glinka and Reger (his monumental Mozart Variations). Written in 1848, whilst Raff was living in Stuttgart, op.45 is the earliest Raff work to be available in a commercial recording. Hänssler Classic CD 98.231. Review. |
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Tudor complete their Symphony cycle... The acclaimed cycle of Raff's symphonies from the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under Hans Stadlmair has been completed with the November 2005 release of the final two CDs. Swiss label Tudor has coupled the Symphonies No.8 Frühlingsklänge and No.10 Zur Herbstzeit on Tudor 7127. Stadlmair seems to have shaved a whopping five minutes off the timing of cpo's rival performance of No.8 under Werner Andreas Albert, and his No.10 is almost three minutes quicker than Albert's - most of the speed up coming in the Elegie slow movement. Review. |
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...with the Seasons Symphonies No.9 Im Sommer and No.11 Der Winter are coupled together on Tudor 7120. Whilst the Winter Symphony under Stadlmair is slightly longer than Albert's interpretation, the Summer Symphony is again substantially shorter; the outer movements being almost three minutes faster between them. Review. These CDs replace the veteran 1980s recordings which featured the Basle Radio Symphony Orchestra under various conductors. Unfortunately that also means that some of their couplings - the Sinfonietta and the Ein feste Burg Overture - also disappear. The Piano Concerto and Ode to Spring are still available on Tudor 7035. |
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Cello Concertos Daniel Müller-Schott is the soloist in the much anticipated Tudor recording of Raff's two Cello Concertos, which was released on 3 December 2004. The CD marks the recording premiere not only of the Second Concerto, but also of the two works for cello and piano which round out the programme. Müller-Schott's accompanist in the Duo op.59 (already available from cpo in the version for violin and piano) and the Phantasie-Stück op.86 No.1 Begegnung is Robert Kulek, whilst Hans Stadlmair and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra play in the concertos. Tudor 7121. Review. |
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Mannheim Quartet begin cpo String Quartet series The acclaimed Mannheim Quartet start their survey of Raff's String Quartets for German label cpo with two of the three works from Raff's op.192 - the Sixth String Quartet "Suite in Vintage Form" and the Seventh "The beautiful Maid of the Mill". Competing with two earlier releases from the Quartetto di Milano for Tudor (7079 - review, and 7116 - review), this CD was released on 17 December 2004. Review. |
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New Symphony No.4 recording adds Overture premieres Hans Stadlmair conducts the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in a continuation of his symphonic cycle for Swiss Raff specialists Tudor, who released two more CDs of Raff's orchestral music at the end of October 2004. The first disk couples the Symphony No.4 with the overtures which Raff wrote for three of his operas - Dame Kobold, Die Parole and Benedetto Marcello and the Concert Overture. The Symphony, Concert Overture and Dame Kobold Overture have already been available, but the other two overtures are welcome recording premieres. Tudor 7113. Review. |
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Tudor announce CD of orchestral works Six shorter orchestral works feature in Tudor's second issue in October 2004. The four Shakespeare Preludes, the Elegie and the Festival Overture comprise the programme. Of these, only Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet from the Shakespeare set have been available before commercially. With the issue of these performances, all of Raff's purely orchestral music is now available in recordings made over the last 15 years or so. Once again, Hans Stadlmair and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra are the performers. Tudor 7128. Review. |
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Two more String Quartets... One of the first CDs to signal the renaissance of Raff on CD came from the Swiss label Tudor in the form of a pairing of String Quartets, played superbly by the Quartetto di Milano. Now, several years on, Tudor have announced a second disk in the series - this time featuring Raff's String Quartet's No.2 and No.6. These two works are highly contrasted in style. The former a full-blooded romantic work, the latter sub-titled "Suite in Vintage form", redolent of the baroque era which Raff so treasured. Tudor 7116. Review. |
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First of two Violin Sonata CDs from Tudor Tudor have also announced the first in their promised pair of CDs covering the five Violin Sonatas. Violinist Ariadne Daskalakis and pianist Roglit Ishay are the artists in this project which is a co-production with Bavarian Radio. The first CD features the Violin Sonats Nos.1, 3 and 4 and the set will compete directly with cpo's already announced complete cycle of Raff's music for Violin and Piano. Three CDs of this series, played by Ingolf Turban and Yascha Nemtsov, have already been issued. Tudor 7122. Review. |
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AK Coburg's final Raff Piano Suites CD AK Coburg has released the final CD in their acclaimed series which presents all seven of Raff's Piano Suites, together with his piano arrangements of the six J.S. Bach Cello Suites WoO.31. Alexander Zolotarev has been the pianist on all four disks This issue features perhaps the most monumental of the Raff Suites, op.91 in D minor. The couplings are the third and sixth of the Bach Cello arrangements . This important issue can be ordered direct from AK Coburg. AK Coburg DR 0009. Review. |
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New Piano Suite CD - this time fom Italy Italian recording label Phoenix Classics has released an interesting coupling of Raff's magnificent Piano Suite op.91 and the Piano Sonata of Julius Reubke. Recorded in 94KHz 24-bit processed sound, these two monumental works are played by newcomer Andrea Carnevali in his début recording. Phoenix PH99508. Review. |
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cpo Symphony No.7 released German label cpo have released the second CD featuring Werner Andreas Albert and the Philharmonia Hungarica recorded during the early 1990s. This CD features Raff's tribute to his Swiss homeland - the Symphony No.7 In den Alpen, coupled with the Jubel Overture. It's only a month since Tudor released their own new recording of the Alpine Symphony and it will be interesting to see how this performance, recorded in early 1990s, compares. cpo 999 289. Review. |
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AK Coburg's third Raff Piano Suites CD The AK Coburg series, in which Alexander Zolotarev will play all seven of Raff's Piano Suites, together with his piano arrangements of the six J.S. Bach Cello Suites WoO.31, maintains its speedy release schedule with the summer issue of the third CD. This disk features two of the early Raff Suites, op.69 in A minor and op.72 in E minor, together with the fourth and fifth of the Bach Cello arrangements . This important issue can be ordered direct from AK Coburg. AK Coburg DR 0008. Review. |
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cpo Symphony recordings issued at last German label cpo released on 19 April 2004 their promised double CD of the four Seasons symphonies Nos.8-11. These are some of the recordings made by Werner Andreas Albert and the Philharmonia Hungarica during the early 1990s. The project was a co-production with German Radio Station NDR and encompassed much of Raff's orchestral music. Although many of the performances were broadcast, contractual problems have prevented their issue on CD until now. It is not known whether any more of these important recordings will be issued later. cpo 999 536. Review. |
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AK Coburg's second Raff Piano Suites CD Barely a month after the first in the series was released, American label AK Coburg has announced the second in its series of four disks featuring all seven of Raff's Piano Suites, together with his piano arrangements of the six J.S. Bach Cello Suites WoO.31. Alexander Zolotarev this time plays the second Bach Suite arrangement together with Raff's final pair of Suites - those in G major op 163 and in B flat major op.204. This important issue can be ordered direct from AK Coburg. AK Coburg DR 0007. Review. |
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Third cpo Violin Sonata CD on release It has been over a year since the previous issue in German label cpo's complete survey of Raff's music for violin and piano. Now it passes the halfway mark with the release on 24 March 2004 of the third CD in the series. The main work is the Violin Sonata No.3 in D op.128, which is coupled with the Fantastic Eglogue "Aus der Schweiz" op.57, the Sonatillen op.99 Nos.4-7 and the first of the Three Duos on Motifs from Wagner's Operas op.63 No.1 "The Flying Dutchman". Once again, acclaimed Stuttgart virtuoso Ingolf Turban is paired with pianist Jascha Nemtsov. CPO 999 769. Review. |
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