The Joachim Raff Society site is updated regularly with news and more features. To receive email notification of updates to the site, get our free newsletter.

Latest update: 2 May 2008
Alan Howe reviews the latest CD of Raff's music to be issued, which has been released on the Sterling label. Swedish virtuoso Thomas Ringborg plays three previously unrecorded major works for violin and orchestra. Illustrated with streaming mp3 extracts from each work.
The Recommended concerto recordings page has been updated.
Even in Raff's day, the two Piano Quartets were less well known than the Piano Quintet or the Piano Trios, but they are just as worthy or revival. A report on the performance by Il Trittico of both fine works in one concert in Basel has been added to the News section.
The Suite for Violin & Orchestra was once a favourite with audiences looking for virtuoso fireworks. A short description of the five movement work has been added to the Music section, illustrated with a streaming mp3 extract.
There's news of an upcoming CD featuring the premier of a Raff's Fantasy for Piano Quintet.

Previous updates:
17 March 2008
The Octet is one of Raff's freshest and most energetic creations. A new page in the Music section looks at the work's background in detail and describes each movement. Illustrated with four streaming mp3 examples.
The detailed biography of Raff's continues with a new page in the Life section which reviews his last years as part of Liszt's circle in Weimar, leading up to his departure for Wiesbaden.
Il Trittico will play both Piano Quartets at a recital in Basel, Switzerland this April.
There's news of more concerts featuring Raff's music. The Octet is being played in Colorado Springs, USA in June, and the Overture Ein feste Burg is being played at various European venues in February and March 2009.

31 January 2008
A new page in the Critics section looks at the writings about Raff and his music by Philip H Goepp. His series of books, Symphonies And Their Meanings, includes detailed descriptions and critiques of three of the symphonies.
Goepps' analyses of the three symphonies are available in full as PDF downloads which preserve the original's copious examples from the score of each work: Symphony No.3 Im Walde, Symphony No.5 Lenore and Symphony No.11 Der Winter.
Cameo Classics have reissued Valentina Seferinova's recordings of two of Raff's piano sonatas and the Trois Morceaux which were formerly available from Cahoots. The review of the original CD has been updated.
There's exciting news of a performance of the Suite for Piano and Orchestra in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam this August. Tra Nguyen is the soloist.
Nguyen will also play the large-scale Variations on an Original Theme at a recital in Cheltenham, UK in June.
An excerpt from a performance of the Sinfonietta has been added to the YouTube page in the Resources section.