Joachim Raff - Thüringian Suite (1877)

Joachim Raff ( Joseph Joachim Raff)

Raff, 1878 (published in John Knowles Paine's Famous Composers, Vol. 2, 1891)

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

 Thüringian Suite (1877)    Joachim Raff - Thüringian Suite (1877)

I. Greetings to those who enter - Allegro - 00:00
II. Elizabeth's Hymn - Larghetto - 9:22
III. Round-Dance of the Gnomes and Sylphs - Vivace - 14:37
IV. Variations on a Folksong - 18:20
V. Country Festival. Larghetto - Allegro, quasi Marcia giojosa - 27:29

The scenic beauty of the Härz Mountains and the Thüringian Forest, the quaintness of its old towns, the cultural heritage of Goethe and Schiller and its historical importance in the lives of Martin Luther and Saint Elizabeth, combined to give the central German region of Thüringia a uniquely warm place in the hearts of 19th. century Germans. Raff had strong links with the region. He had spent five years working with Liszt in Weimar, one of its principal cities, and had married into a prominent familiy there, the Genasts. Being much closer to his wife's relatives than to his own, he made frequent visits to Weimar and holidayed in Thüringia's fine countryside and historic towns. His great friend Hans von Bülow was conductor of the acclaimed Grand Ducal orchestra in the Thüringian town of Meiningen and another close associate, Max Erdmannsdörfer, had a similar position in nearby Sondershausen. The premieres of many of his most import

works, including the Im Walde and Lenore Symphonies and the Welt-Ende Oratorio, took place in Thüringian concert halls.
It was natural, therefore, that Raff would think about commemorating Thüringia in a major composition. In the early 1870s he had intended to write a programme symphony about the Wartburg, the majestic castle which towers over the town of Eisenach and which figured prominently in German medieval history. Later in the decade, once he had moved to Frankfurt, he sketched out the plot of an opera based upon the castle's medieval history. By then, though, the putative Aus der Wartburg (From the Wartburg) Symphony had been transformed into his fourth orchestral suite, the Thüringer Suite (Thüringian Suite) in B flat WoO.45. There is some uncertainty about when the work was composed. Müller-Reuter contends that it was written in Wiesbaden in 1875 and cites as evidence the fact that Raff wrote "op.208" on the manuscript, clearly indicating that it was written before the work which was eventually published with that opus number, the Symphony No.9 Im Sommer. Schäfer says that the Suite was composed in 1877. Whilst Schäfer gives no evidence for any of the composition dates in his catalogue, his date seems more likely. By the mid 1870s most of Raff's major compositions were premiered soon after their completion. The Thüringian Suite was first heard at a concert on 27 March 1878 at the Ducal Court Theatre in Sondershausen, with Max Erdmannsdörfer conducting from the manuscript. This, and the fact that opp.206 (the Second Violin Concerto) and 207 (the Fantasy for Two Pianos or Piano Quintet) were both written in 1877 and published the next year, seems to indicate the later composition date.

Erdmannsdörfer's premiere performance was such a success that he prophesied that the piece would prove as popular as the Symphony No.3 Im Walde. Schäfer records that Raff "cleansed himself with the freshness of the work and its good 'structure'", after a difficult couple of years when he had endured harsh criticism and suffered the consequent self-doubt. Liszt urgently wanted to perform the Suite at an imminent music festival in Erfurt, another Thüringian city, but Raff demurred, preferring to withhold it until it could be performed at some more prestigious celebration of Thüringia's history. That opportunity never came and so, although he thought highly of the piece, it remained unpublished and unperformed at his death and had to wait until 1893 for its second airing. This was under the baton of the famous Danish/Belgian composer and conductor Eduard Lassen (1830-1904) at a concert on 17 April in the Grand Ducal Court Theatre in Weimar, where Lassen was the Court Music Director. Ries & Erler published the work later the same year, together with Raff's own reduction of it for piano four hands.

The opening Salus Intrantibus provides a vigourous start and is followed by Elisabethenhymne which celebrates the Thüringian medieval St Elizabeth. Raff returns to territory familiar from some of his symphonies in the Reigen der Gnomen & Sylphen movement which depicts a supernatural dance. The fourth movement Variationen über ein Volkslied lets Raff indulge in some humourous orchestral effects as he rings the changes on the unpreposessing folksong and this continues with concluding Ländliches Fest movement - a country fair.[유튜브]