Joseph Joachim Raff: Suite for Piano and Orchestra in E-flat Major, Op. 200

It is my sincere and express wish that any and all remuneration, actual or potential, that may be my due, be instead directed to all holders of copyright. Joseph Joachim Raff (1822-1882) Suite for Piano and Orchestra in E-flat Major, Op. 200 I. Introduction und Fugue: Allegro 0:00 II. Menuett: Allegro 10:08 III. Gavotte und Musette: Allegro 18:50 IV. Cavatine: Larghetto 24:22 V. Finale: Allegro 29:57 Tra Nguyen, piano Symphony Orchestra of Norrlands Opera Roland Kluttig, conductor Joseph Joachim Raff (1822 - 1882) was a German-Swiss composer, teacher and pianist. Raff was born in Lachen in Switzerland. His father, a teacher, had fled there from Württemberg in 1810 to escape forced recruitment into the military of that southwestern German state that had to fight for Napoleon in Russia. Joachim was largely self-taught in music, studying the subject while working as a schoolmaster in Schmerikon, Schwyz and Rapperswil. He sent some of his piano compositions to Felix Mendelssohn who recommended them to Breitkopf & Härtel for publication. They were published in 1844 and received a favourable review in Robert Schumann's journal, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, which prompted Raff to go to Zürich and take up composition full-time. In 1845, Raff walked to Basel to hear Franz Liszt play the piano. After a period in Stuttgart where he became friends with the conductor Hans von Bülow, he worked as Liszt's assistant at Weimar from 1850 to 1853. During this time he helped Liszt in the orchestration of several of his works, claiming to have had a major part in orchestrating the symphonic poem Tasso. In 1851, Raff's opera König Alfred was staged in Weimar, and five years later he moved to Wiesbaden where he largely devoted himself to composition. From 1878 he was the first Director of, and a teacher at, the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. There he employed Clara Schumann and a number of other eminent musicians as teachers, and established a class specifically for female composers. (This was at a time when women composers were not taken very seriously.) His pupils there included Edward MacDowell and Alexander Ritter. He died in Frankfurt on the night of June 24/25, 1882.