Joachim Raff - Hungarian Suite (1874)

Joachim Raff

 

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

was a German-Swiss composer, teacher and pianist

 Hungarian Suite (1874)

 

I. Adagio - Allegro - At the border - 00:00
II. Larghetto - on the Puszta - 7:27
III. Quasi Marcia - Amongst a parade of the Honvéd - 15:29
IV. Folksong and Variations - 20:05
V. Larghetto - Vivace - At the Czárda - 27:01

There isn't any record of Raff ever visiting Hungary and so, unlike his Italian Suite of three years earlier, the inspiration for the Suite No.2 in F In Ungarische Weise (In Hungarian Style) for large orchestra op.194 appears to be rather more second hand. The idea for such a work had been triggered as far back as the mid 1850s when Liszt had planned for Raff to accompany him to the Hungarian city of Esztergom for the premiere of his "Gran" mass. Liszt himself had been instrumental in popularising the art music variants of Magyar verbunkos folk music and its formalised successor, the czárdas, through his Hungarian Rhapsodies and other works associated with his homeland. The characteristic harmonies and melodic quirks became all the rage throughout Europe and many Hungarian genre pieces were written by umpteen composers.

Raff himself was no exception. Before this Suite he had already written a Hungarian Rhapsody for piano (op.113 of 1863) and one of the 12 fantasy Dances for piano (op.172 of 1872) is an "Ungrischer". There is also a Hungarian movement in his "Volker" cyclic tone poem for violin and piano of 1876 which Raff arranged for violin and orchestra as another Ungrischer two years later.

The Suite was completed in the Summer of 1874 and premiered in Wiesbaden on 5 March 1875 under Louis Lüstner's baton. It was published in June 1876 as the Orchestral Suite No.2 - the "Italian" Suite went unpublished until after Raff's death. In layout it follows its predecessor. The five movements begin with an Overture (in both suites the piece with the least local colour) and end with a dance movement. The second movement of each is a slow, dreamy piece which precedes a must faster one. only in their fourth movements do the two "travelogue" suites differ in character. The last of the series, From Thüringia again follows the pattern and although the opening movement is not explicitly titled "Overture", the rest of them are closely modelled on the Hungarian Suite's pattern - the fourth movement is even a folksong with variations.

As became his normal practice, Raff also made his own arrangement of the op.194 for piano 4 hands.

The new work was well thought of in Raff's lifetime. Hans von Bülow, the composer's tireless friend and advocate, praised "Raff's genius for colour" in the work but he was disappointed as it made little headway in Hungary itself. This shouldn't really have been a surprise - delightful though it is, this is a highly coloured and romanticised 45 minute picture of the country, rather than a portrait taken from life.

The five movements begin with a spirited and very lyrical Overture, subtitled "At the border". The next movement is a Reverie on the Puszta" (the Hungarian steppe), an atmosphere piece which is flooded with gentle melodiousness and is in sharp contrast with the following "Amongst a parade of the Honvéd" - a crowd-pleasing fast march depicting a Hungarian cavalry display. The inventive Folksong with Variations is followed by the finale "At the czárda" - a Hungarian dance movement in which Raff pulls out all the stops in local colour.