SKU: BR.EB-8993

ISBN 9790004187227. 9 x 12 inches.

The three piano sonatas by Joachim Raff (1822-1882), representing his three main creative phases, occupy a special position among his more than 100 piano pieces. They reflect a significant compositional aspiration whereas Raff otherwise frequently leans towards the salon-music genre in his piano music. Raff composed the early sonata op. 14 in 1844 after his first works were positively evaluated and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy had encouraged him to venture a career as a composer. The Fantasie-Sonate [Fantasy Sonata] in d minor op. 168, Raff wrote in 1871 at the height of his fame as one of Germany's then most-played composers. Its dedication to Camille Saint-Saens shows his opposition to the rampant German disapproval of France and its music representatives in the wake of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/71. The second version of the sonata op. 14, composed in the fall of 1881, had only the opus number in common with the earlier version. In this late work Raff had created an entirely new sonata. ,,Beautifully presented on cream paper, with exceptional clarity and generous spacing. The Fantasie-Sonate in D minor Op. 168, in particular, is a masterpiece which manifests both considerable power and exquisite craftsmanship. (www.pianodao.com).

SKU: 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).