We have thousands of human-written stories, discussions, interviews and reviews from today through the past 20+ years. Find them here:

Search the site Search

Joseph Joachim Raff (1822-1882)

July 22, 2011 at 8:52 PM

Joseph Joachim is relative well known specially his cadenza's of well knwon concerto's, but the composer with this 2 first names and Raff as surename is unknown Here his 1st violin concerto:
RAFF, Joseph Joachim (1822-1882)

Tweet

Raff  is a composer who was properly forgotten.

Not so sure about that. Raff's Cavatina is an encore piece still played. There's an incredible recording of it by David Nadien, and it is a wonderful piece of music. I'm not familiar with anything else Raff wrote; maybe none of it is noteworthy (pardon the pun). But Cavatina is a gem. Check it out.

 If it were not for the Cavatina he would have been so totally forgotten that no one would have tried to resurrect him. The Cavatina is okay.

I don't know how much of his oeuvre you know to make such a statement.

Btw - the cavatina is only one of six pieces op. 85 that are all wonderful. They are not very difficult to play and are very useful for vernissages etc.

 I have heard several symphonies and other works. Nothing compelled me to listen to more. It was usually served up to me not sought. Raff makes bad Mendelssohn sound excellent.

I'm for the defense. Mi client is innocent of those charges. His string quartets are very fine works, and his string octet is one of the best of the 19Th,century. His violin concerti are also fine romantic pieces. I ask the jury for an absolution.