Joseph Joachim Raff: Cello Concerto 전곡(1,2번)

 

Joachim Raff

• May 27, 1822 – June 24 or June 25, 1882) 
•  German-Swiss composer, teacher and pianist.

 

Cello Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 193

        

I. Allegro
II. Larghetto 9:32
III: Finale: Vivace 16:40

Daniel Müller-Schott, cello
Bamberger Symphoniker
Hans Stadlmaier, conductor

 

It was not until comparatively late in his career that Raff began composing concertos. Beginning with the Violin Concerto No.1 in 1871, he went on to complete the Piano Concerto in 1873 and the first of his two Cello Concertos in 1874. All three were written when his creativity and reputation were at their highest and all were extremely successful. Because of the dearth of repertoire for cellists, the Cello Concerto No.1 in D minor, Op. 193 was particularly welcomed by soloists.

It was composed in Spring and Summer 1874 for the great cello virtuoso Friedrich Grützmacher, to whom it was also dedicated. He was the soloist for its premiere which took place on 4 November 1874 in the Hôtel de Saxe in Dresden under the baton of the city's Hofkappellmeister, the famous Julius Rietz. The work was immediately taken up by other cellists and was published in April 1875 by Siegel of Leipzig.

Raff's friend from their Weimar days, the cellist Bernhard Coßmann whom Raff later appointed to a senior post in his Conservatory, wrote a cadenza for the first movement. Helene Raff, in her biography of her father, records that Raff chose to have this cadenza played whenever he conducted the work himself.

Grützmacher wrote to Raff shortly after the first performance "At the many performances which your Violoncello Concerto has already experienced at different places and from various players, which will still increase significantly, they probably must have great pleasure. I myself feel the same as the success predicted by me is confirmed so brilliantly." He recalls how he had asked Raff to "pacify us poor cellists in our truly unbearable circumstances through a concerto for our instrument" and goes on to record that it "plays frequently and with much felicity".

The concerto departs from Raff's norm. At just over 20 minutes it is unusually compact. It is in the normal three movements but they are played without a break - not unusual for Cello Concertos of the time. - Raff.org.

 

 

                               Cello Concerto No. 2 in G Major, WoO. 45

 

           

 

I. Allegro
II. Andante 10:08
III. Allegro vivace 19:35

Daniel Müller-Schott, cello
Bamberger Symphoniker
Hans Stadlmaier, conductor

Once he had completed the manuscript of his Cello Concerto No.2 in G, Raff seems to have made no effort to get the work performed. It remained unplayed and unpublished until 1997 when it was both published and premiered. Raff's indifference is extraordinary when one remembers that it was written when he was at the height of his fame and had been preceded by a very successful First Concerto, but the reason for its neglect may well have been a rift between the composer and the cellist for whom he wrote the work.

David Popper (1843-1913) was a Bohemian virtuoso who became the foremost cellist of his day. As early as 1865 he had written to Raff describing the thought of the composer writing a concerto for his instrument as "belonging to my most ideal dreams" and wishing that it could be "transform[ed] into beautiful reality". Nothing came of Popper's youthful wishful thinking and it was over a decade later in 1876, when both men were at the height of their fame, before Raff started to create his "beautiful reality".

Letters between the two men make it clear that Raff did compose the G major concerto expressly

for Popper, although who or what prompted the move has yet to be discovered. In September 1876 Popper wrote, "I have already worked in detail on your Concerto, dearest master ... [and it] offers no substantial difficulties". A month later, he wrote impatiently "with longing I look forward 14 days for the score. What is the reason for the non-appearance?". No more correspondence between them has come to light and one wonders what happened once the score arrived. Clearly some problem developed between the two men, the memory of which was sufficiently painful for Raff to put the manuscript quietly to one side. Unfortunately he had a similar experience with his Second Violin Concerto only a year later. It was written for Pablo Sarasate who also suddenly and inexplicably lost all interest in the piece.