Joachim Raff - String Quartet No. 2 (1857)

 

Joachim Raff

• 요아힘 라프(독일어: Joseph Joachim Raff), 1822년 ~ 1882년)는 스위스의 라헨에서 태어났으며, 주로 독일과 스위스에서 활동한 작곡가, 피아니스트, 바이올리니스트, 지휘자였다. 작곡이론, 화성법, 관현악법은 물론, 피아노, 바이올린, 지휘법 등도 대부분 독학으로 달성하였고, 이후 프란츠 리스트의 조수로 있으며 그의 관현악법을 보완해주었다. 작풍은 대체로 목가적이고 평화로우며, 자연을 노래한 표제음악적인 작품이 많다. 요하네스 브람스에 앞서 고전주의의 형식미와 낭만주의의 아성을 결합하였다. 대표적인 제자로 리하르트 슈트라우스가 있다. 베토벤 이후 모든 낭만 음악가들 중 가장 많은 개수의 교향곡을 남겼다.(11곡, 미완성곡 포함 12곡) 멘델스존과 리스트에게서 영향을 받은 악풍을 띠고 있다. 대체로 표제음악과 절대음악을 오가는 절충주의적인 성향을 가지며, 음악사조 측면에서도 초기낭만의 경향과 후기낭만의 경향 사이에 있다. 그의 악풍은 이후 차이코프스키, 브루흐 등에게 영향을 미쳤다. 관현악곡에서는 특히 목관과 호른 파트의 서정성이 두드러지며 현악기 역시 중요한 역할을
• 담당하나 금관악기와 타악기의 사용은 적은 편이다.[위키백과]

 

 

 

 String Quartet No. 2 (1857)

 

Painting Info - "Island of Peach Blossom"

I. Rasch, jedoch ruhig - 00:00
II. Rasch - 14:35
III. Langsam, doch nicht schleppend - 21:55
IV. Rasch - 30:15

Raff composed his String Quartet No.2 in A op.90 in a hurry. His daughter Helene, in her biography of him, describes Raff working "feverishly" on it whilst staying with his fiancée's family in Weimar in May 1857. Such was his concentration that he neglected to visit his mentor Liszt, at the time beset by family worries, who consequently left the city for Aachen before Raff could see him. The quartet isn't mentioned again in Helene Raff's book and, although several early performances are recorded in Müller-Reuter's Lexikon and Schäfer's catalogue, it clearly did not make the impact with audiences which its predecessor had.

After moving to Wiesbaden in the previous year, 1856, Raff had struck up a useful friendship with the violinist Karl Müller (1829-1907, later Müller-Berghaus), who was to become the first conductor of the Kurhaus Orchestra in the spa city. That very year Karl had formed the Müller Brothers String Quartet with his siblings Hugo (violin, 1832-1886), violist Bernhard (1832-1895) and cellist Wilhelm (1834-1897). This was in response to the dissolution of the earlier highly regarded Müller Quartet in which their father had played with their uncles. The new quartet quickly gained a first class reputation and was almost immediately appointed Court Quartet to the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Raff dedicated his op.90 to the Müller brothers, although there is now no record of them having played it. He remained on good terms with Müller-Berghaus for the rest of his life; he dedicated his two orchestral songs to Berghaus' wife Elvira and Berghaus orchestrated a number of Raff's popular piano works.

The Second String Quartet was premiered at a chamber music soirée at the hall of the prestigious Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten (Four Seasons) in Wiesbaden on Monday 29 March 1858 by a quartet led by the famous violinist Alois Baldenecker (1833-1869) and was played for a second time a year later on Thursday 9 May 1859 in Weimer by a quartet which included Raff's friends the violinist Edmund Singer and cellist Bernhard Cossmann. After five years in manuscript, it was published by his old employer Julius Schuberth in December 1862 and shortly afterwards received what was probably its most important performance. After the triumphant premiere of his Symphony No.1 An das Vaterland in Vienna, Raff was fêted at a series of chamber concerts and recitals in the Austrian capital. At one of these, on Sunday 1 March 1863, op.90 was played by the renowned Hellmesberger Quartet, to whom Raff would dedicated his next string quartet three years later.

The String Quartet No.2 is an expansive work in four movements, lasting almost 40 minutes. In contrast to the youthful Sturm und Drang of the First Quartet, Raff's op.90 has a more rhapsodic feel; the movements are less contrasted, the emotion more elusive and the distribution of the parts more subtle and complex.

The long rhapsodic first movement (Rasch, jedoch ruhig) leads on to a highly rhythmic, but delicately scored fast movement (Rasch) into which is interleaved attractive lyrical episodes. The F major slow movement (Langsam) is a deeply felt utterance, full of unresolved anxiety which Raff maintains up to its bleak close. The return to A major in a well constructed and joyful finale (Rasch) dissipates the tension and brings this odd but satisfying work to a close. It was premiered in Wiesbaden in 1858 and published in 1862.