SKU: BR.PB-5622

ISBN 9790004215197. 6.5 x 9 inches.

With his first String Quartet in D minor, op. 77, composed in 1855, the native Swiss composer Joachim Raff bid a brilliant farewell to Weimar. He had been there as Franz Liszt's assistant since 1850 and had made a name for himself in the city's art scene - now he embarked on new paths. He composed his second Quartet in A major, op. 90, already in 1857 in Wiesbaden, the spa town that was to become his home for 21 years. The two quartets are unequivocal works: orchestrally-conceived, full of energetic vigor, and at times uncompromisingly modern. They confidently continue the Beethoven tradition and attest at the same time to Raff's intensive confrontation with Richard Wagner's music during the Weimar years. In his chamber music, the composer wanted to achieve progress in an inherently historical way and to ground the individual substance in existing forms, as he told the Viennese violinist Josef Hellmesberger, who launched opus 77. The quartets, first published in 1860/62, found illustrious interpreters, among them, the Muller brothers' renowned ensemble, to which opus 90 was also dedicated, and Joseph Joachim.In collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen (CH)

Some eighteen years elapsed between Raff's first counted String Quartet op. 77 and his Quartets Nos. 6-8 op. 192, combined as one work. As such, Raff parted with the weighty single opus in quartet composition - without, however, sacrificing musical quality.

SKU: BR.PB-5708

ISBN 9790004216453. 6.5 x 9 inches.

When his musical triad op. 192 was created in the winter of 1873/74, Raff was one of Germany's most successful composers and the central artistic authority in the Hessian spa, royal residence and imperial city of Wiesbaden. With op. 192, Raff cultivated his reputation as an erudite composer who was a master of contrapuntal forms. By the time the string quartets were composed, he had already established himself as one of the most prolific and versatile suite composers of the 19th century, as is evident here in the various suite conceptions: Opus 192 No. 1 (in C minor), as Suite in the ancient style, has with Baroque labels stylized dance movements follow one another. Die schone Mullerin [The Fair Maid of the Mill] op. 192 No. 2 (in D major), on the other hand, interprets the suite as a sequence of chapters in a musical narrative and thus becomes probably the first tone poem in string quartet scoring. In the third quartet (in C major), of which Raff the artist was proudest, other genre designations mix in among the dance movements, and with its free succession of different movement types, not usual for a sonata, it preserves structural openness. In collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen (CH)

Some eighteen years elapsed between Raff's first counted String Quartet op. 77 and his Quartets Nos. 6-8 op. 192, combined as one work. As such, Raff parted with the weighty single opus in quartet composition - without, however, sacrificing musical quality.