Joachim Raff - Symphony No. 5 'Lenore'; Overtures; Abends (Neeme Järvi)

Information

Composer: Joachim Raff

• Overture to "Dame Kobold", Op. 154
• Abends, Op. 163b
• Overture to "König Alfred", WoO 14
• Prelude to "Dornröschen", WoO 19
• Overture to "Die Eifersüchtigen", WoO 55
• Symphony No. 5 in E major, Op. 177 "Lenore"

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Neeme Järvi, conductor

Date: 2013

Label: Chandos

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Review

Volume 2 in Neeme Järvi’s Raff series for Chandos brings the Fifth (and best-known) of the prolific Swiss-German composer’s 11 symphonies. Finished in 1872, it was a hugely popular concert item in the years prior to the Great War and derives its programme from the poetic ballad ‘Lenore’, written a century earlier by Gottfried August Bürger (1747 94). It’s the finale, entitled ‘Reunion in Death’, that draws most heavily on the grisly narrative (a soldier returns to his lover after his death and whisks her off on horseback to the grave that will be their wedding bed) and leaves the listener in no doubt that Raff certainly knew how to handle the orchestra: the apotheosis even brings spooky premonitions of the close of Also sprach Zarathustra. Audiences of the period lapped up the third movement’s rousing march to war, which starts and finishes in the distance, but by far the most rewarding music is to be found in the thrusting opening Allegro – a really fine achievement, this, boasting some genuinely indelible melodies. The slow movement, too, is very touching (gorgeous woodwind-writing towards the close).

Happily, Järvi’s performance is an absolutely splendid one – both markedly more propulsive and, to my ears, more excitingly cogent than any other I have encountered, yet with no loss in terms of technical sophistication or affectionate glow. Playing of beguiling sheen also illuminates all five items with which the symphony has been most generously coupled. In addition to three operatic overtures, we are treated to the delectable Prelude from Raff’s epic oratorio based on the Grimms’ Dornröschen, and there’s also the pretty 1874 rhapsody Abends (a reworking of the fifth movement from the Piano Suite No 6 completed three years previously). Chandos’s non-interventionist SACD production (which hails from Geneva’s acoustically superb Victoria Hall) wraps you in a warm cocoon of sound. Collectors with a sweet tooth will find this irresistible.

— Andrew Achenbach

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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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Neeme Järvi (born 7 June 1937 in Tallinn) is an Estonian conductor. He studied at the Leningrad Conservatory under Evgeny Mravinsky and Nikolai Rabinovich, among others. Järvi was Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Gothenburg Symphony (1982–2004), Royal Scottish National Orchestra (1984–1988), Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1990–2005) and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (2012–2015), among others. He made over 400 recordings for labels such as BIS, Chandos and Deutsche Grammophon and best known for his interpretations of Romantic and 20th century classical music.

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