Joachim Raff - Piano Quartet No. 1 (1876) /Piano Quartet No. 2

 

Joachim Raff

 

(May 27, 1822 – June 24 or June 25, 1882)

was a German-Swiss composer, teacher and pianist

 

 

 Piano Quartet No. 1 (1876)

The Piano Quartet No.1 in G Major Op.202 No.1 dates from 1876 and is Raff's penultimate piece of chamber music.

 

I. Allegro - 00:00
II. Allegro Molto - 12:52
III. Andante Quasi Adagio - 18:39
IV. Allegro - 30:23

 

 It is a substantial work in four movements. The huge opening Allegro has for its main subject a joyous, rhythmic dance full of energy. It is followed by a gentler and more lyrical second melody, full of yearning. Raff places a scherzo, Allegro molto, next. It begins with the piano growling through a rushing theme in its lower registers. The strings join in and take part in an extended moto perpetuo section. It is sometime before a longer-lined melody finally is introduced by the lower strings. This serves as the trio section though it is hardly distinguishable from the main section, so seamlessly is it woven together. The slow movement, Andante quasi adagio, arguably is the quartet's center of gravity. Though not so marked, it is in essence a theme and set of variations. It begins with a very lengthy piano solo in which the dignified main theme is stated in full and actually developed When the strings enter, many measures later, the piano falls silent. After the strings elaborate on the theme in a highly romantic setting, the piano rejoins them as the music slowly builds to a dramatic climax. The celebratory finale, a triumphant Allegro, is full of good spirits.

 

 

During the last ten years of his life and for the three decades following it, Joachim Raff (1822-1882) was regularly mentioned in the same breath as Wagner, Liszt, and Brahms as one of Germany's leading composers. The experts and the public judged him to be the equal to such past masters as Mendelssohn, Schumann and Tchaikovsky. Incredibly, by the 1920's his music had all but disappeared from the concert stage. It seems virtually unimaginable that a composer whose talent was recognized and whose music was admired by Mendelssohn and Liszt, could become a mere footnote, yet this is what became of Raff and his music for most of the 20th century. only now is he being rediscovered to the delight of those fortunate enough to hear his music.

 

 

                    Piano Quartet No. 2 (1876)

 The Piano Quartet in C minor op.202 No.2 was published by the Leipzig firm of Siegel in March 1877 (Schäfer. Müller-Reuter says August) and premiered on 5 August the following year in Sondershausen, a small city in Thuringia. This was the home of Prince Schwarzenburg, whose private orchestra had a very high reputation. Since 1871 its directorship, previously held by Max Bruch, had been in the hands of Raff's friend Max Erdmannsdörfer (1848-1905). In 1870 Raff had dedicated his G minor Piano Suite to Erdmannsdörfer's future wife, the renowned virtuoso Pauline Fichtner (1847-1916) and during 1877 he dedicated a second work to the couple, the Fantasy for Two Pianos op.207.

 

This they premiered only a month after the Piano Quartet's own first performance which was at one of a series of Sunday matinées organised by the Erdmannsdörfers. Pauline Fichtner-Erdmannsdörfer was partnered by a trio of prominent players in her husband's orchestra, two of whom, the young Dutch violinist Henri Wilhelm Petri (1856-1914) and the Czech cellist Hanuš Wihan (1855--1920) went on to have prominent solo careers. The viola was played by Herr Kämmerer. There is no record of how the Quartet was received but it gained a second performance the next month in nearby Chemnitz on 26 September.

 

The C minor Piano Quartet is Raff's last major chamber work, being followed only by a Suite and a Duo for violin and piano. It is a substantial work in four movements lasting almost almost 40 minutes, throughout which Raff's melodic gift is amply demonstrated. Although far from being a concertante work, the Quartet is nonetheless dominated by the brilliant writing for the piano, which starts all four movements and often drives forward the musical argument. Although overshadowed by the early Piano Quintet and first two piano trios, his op.202 pieces are fine works and the C minor Quartet in particular is a worthy addition to his catalogue.

 

I. Allegro - 00:00
II. Allegro - 14:25
III. Larghetto - 20:30
IV. Allegor - 30:58
It is a substantial work in four movements. The huge opening Allegro begins somberly with an ominous short motif on the piano. The mood is one of foreboding which is hardly relieved by a second and more lyrical, but no less anxious, melody which has little time to establish itself before a final forceful and more confident idea, a series of stepwise descending jumps, asserts itself.

 

The hard-driving second movement, also an Allegro, is much shorter than the preceding one. Strongly rhythmic, Raff squeezes five delightful melodies into this tiny gem.

 

Next comes a slow movement, Larghetto. It is the emotional center of the work. The piano begins it with a haunting melody played straightforwardly. Later the violin takes up this melody which is now revealed in all its wistful beauty. The pace speeds up as the piano introduces a second subject.

 

The finale, a third Allegro, is a happy affair beginning in C Major. The piano begins in declamatory fashion, answered by violin and cello before they launch straight into the first of three joyous themes upon which the movement is based.

 

 

It was not unusual for Raff to compose several works in the same genre sequentially. Unlike Brahms, who would worry away at a work for many years until he got it right, destroying many drafts in the process, Raff was more inclined to see a composition through and write another if the first didn't say all he wanted to say at the time. This should not be taken as implying that Raff was as unself-critical a composer as Anton Rubinstein, but rather that he was unusually industrious and hard working and was prepared to devote the time and intellectual energy in short order to a further composition in the same genre.

 

Other examples of this tendency are the two sets of three String Quartets opp.136-8 and op.192, the two symphonies of 1876 (the second being No.8 Frühlingsklänge), the Third and Fourth Piano Trios, the Third and Fourth Violin Sonatas and the first three piano suites. With the exception of 1876's two symphonies illustrating the seasons, these sets of works in the same genre were not intended to be regarded as linked and dependent pieces.

 

Quite the opposite; for Raff they represented different solutions to the technical problems presented by their medium, illustrating the wide span of emotions or styles which it could encompass. So it is with the two piano quartets in op.202. No.1 is a sunny work in the open-hearted, relaxed key of G major, whereas No.2 is in the lovelorn key of C minor and has a much more troubled and complicated character..