Joachim Raff - Piano Works Vol. 5 (Tra Nguyen)

Information

Composer: Joachim Raff

• Grande Sonate, Op. 14
• Blätter und Blüten, Op. 135a

Tra Nguyen, piano

Date: 2015

Label: Grand Piano

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Review

During his lifetime, many commentators—that were held in high regard—gave preference to the music of Joachim Raff over the firebrand called Beethoven. They obviously preferred the comfort zone offered by Raff’s style, his prolific output in every genre including over 130 works for solo piano. Swiss by birth, his desire to become a composer originally led him into acute poverty, and he was turned forty before he made a breakthrough with his First Symphony. From then his standing rose to the point that it bordered on adulation, though looking back he stylistically never progressed, his works staying in the same period that followed immediately on from Schubert. With the Grande Sonate he had almost came to the end of his life, and, as if he wanted to make this a monumental outpouring, it is a score replete with grand gestures, particularly in the third movement. The result is a work that demands tremendous strength from the performer. In the finale Raff cannot resist a massive fugue that seems to have been written for three hands. Fifteen years earlier Blatter und Bluten, Zwolf Klavierstucke, represents the notion, that was popular at the time, that flowers are the emblems of human moods. He chose twelve leaves and blossoms of very differing characters and shapes them into four volumes. Though in no way directly derivative, we are here in the world of Schumann, with just a modicum of Liszt in the demands made on the performer. Maybe you will not leave the disc remembering a particular melody, but the work will surely have brought you much pleasure in the hearing. This is the fifth volume in Tra Nguyen’s traversal of Raff’s solo piano works, and she makes a very strong and passionate champion.

— David Denton

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Joachim Raff (27 May 1822 —  24 or 25 June 1882) was a German composer and teacher who was greatly celebrated in his lifetime but nearly forgotten by the late 20th century. Initially a self-taught musician, he was influenced by Mendelssohn and Schumann before aligning with Liszt and Wagner's "New German School". He served as Liszt's assistant in Weimar and later taught piano in Wiesbaden. From 1877, he directed the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. A prolific composer, Raff wrote 11 symphonies, concertos, operas, choral, chamber and piano music. Many of these works are now commercially recorded.

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Tra Nguyen (born 1973 in Hanoi) is a distinguished Vietnamese pianist. Trained at the Moscow Conservatory with Lev Naumov and later at the Royal Academy of Music with Christopher Elton, she has since performed at major venues worldwide, including Wigmore Hall and Tokyo Opera City. Nguyen explores both core and lesser-known repertoire, recently tackling Schubert's complete sonatas and Liszt's Grandes études. Her acclaimed recordings, including world premieres and a Joachim Raff series, have earned international praise. She is also an accomplished chamber musician, collaborating with top artists.

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