Piano
SKU:
BR.EB-9412
12
Piano Pieces -
Urtext. Composed by
Joachim Raff. Edited by
Ulrich Mahlert. Solo
instruments; stapled.
Edition Breitkopf.
Sonata; Romantic. Score.
56 pages. Duration 30'.
Breitkopf and Haertel #EB
9412. Published by
Breitkopf and Haertel
(BR.EB-9412).
ISBN
9790004188866. 9 x 12
inches.
Joachim
Raff's 12 piano pieces
Fruhlingsboten op. 55,
originating in 1852/53,
mark a new creative start
in his compositional
oeuvre, in which the
composer left behind his
previously written and
published piano works.
The title of the work,
translated as Heralds of
Spring, is multilayered:
It refers not only to
spring in nature as
expressed in the headings
of the first two pieces,
Winterruhe [Hibernation]
and Fruhlingsnahen
[Spring's Approach], but
the words Heralds of
Spring also indicate
love's spring, the
blossoming of love for
his future wife, the
actress Doris Genast.
This appears in the
headings of the pieces as
of no. 3, sketching the
path of an imaginary
couple approaching union
via various annoyances.
And ultimately, Raff saw
in his new piano work the
harbingers of his future
works, created under
happy circumstances. In
Fruhlingsboten Raff
repeatedly demonstrates
his ability to adapt
idioms and compositional
techniques from works by
Liszt, Chopin,
Mendelssohn, Schumann,
and others. The pieces do
nonetheless possess their
own thoroughly original
diction with a character
spectrum just as diverse
as their stylistic piano
design. Mahlert's new
edition, as beautifully
presented as ever from
this publisher, is
exemplary, and can easily
be recommended to
advanced pianists with a
love of
nineteenth-century
repertoire.
Superb.(Andrew Eales,
Pianodao).
