Joachim Raff - Piano Concerto, Op. 185 (1873)

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

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Piano Concerto in C minor, Op. 185 (1873)

I. Allegro (0:00)
II. Andante, quasi Larghetto (10:53)
III. Allegro (18:50)

Michael Ponti, piano and the Hamburg SO conducted by Richard Kapp.

Raff's only Piano Concerto (in C minor op.185) was numbered amongst his most popular compositions during his heyday and was a favourite of both soloists and audiences everywhere. Dedicated in "friendly admiration" to his lifelong friend the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, it was written in Spring 1873 when Raff was at the high point of his creative life.

The premiere took place on Wednesday 30 July 1873 in the Kurhaus of Raff's home town of Wiesbaden under the composer's baton with von Bülow as soloist. It was taken up straight away by virtuosos everywhere and had its London premiere with Alfred Jaëll only two years later. The work was published in February 1874 by Siegel of Leipzig, Raff making his own arrangement for piano 4 hands, as was his usual practice for major works.

Though by no means an adventurous work even for its own time, it is a piece of consummate craftsmanship, wearing the expertise of Raff's writing lightly to produce as delightful and stirring a piano concerto as the literature can offer. Raff's skill as a contrapuntalist was second to none and yet, despite every subject in every movement being treated in double counterpoint, the work is suffused with bravura and lyricism, rather than dry academic endeavour. The American virtuoso William Sherwood wrote "the joyousness and heroic beauty of expression in the finale, no less than the martial themes and popular catchy rhythms are but a fitting climax to a work which is developed so seriously and grandly in the first movement, and with such delicacy and dreamlike ideality in the second".

Raff was born near Zurich and his family had hoped he would be come a school teacher, but music was his first love. Basically self-taught, Raff sent some of his early compositions to Mendelssohn who immediately recognized his talent and arranged for their publication. Unfortunately, Mendelssohn died before he could help Raff much more. The young composer then approached Liszt who also took an interest in him and took him on as his personal secretary and copyist. During the six years he spent with Liszt, Raff became a member of the so-called "New German School" led by Wagner and Liszt. Although he broke from them in 1856, he was still regarded as a Wagnerite by the supporters of Brahms and the other classicists. In short, Raff was in neither camp, but attacked by both. Isolated, he went his own way, paying little attention to the musical politics of late 19th century Germany.

But going his own way was hardly an easy proposition. Nearly starving, for many years Raff was forced to crank out compositions for the commercial market (works that would sell but were of little intrinsic or artistic merit), one after another as fast as he could. Sadly, this was later to tarnish his legacy. After his reputation had faded, he was regarded merely as a composer of parlor pieces, despite the magnificent symphonic and chamber works he left behind. Anyone who has had the time to hear these great works quickly realizes that Raff could be an impeccable craftsman when he had the luxury of time and was not forced to write for the home music-making marketplace.