Raff - I'm glad I bothered...
Joseph E. Jalbert | Dover, NH USA | 07/31/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Joseph Joachim Raff worked and composed in the penumbra of Franz Lizst. Even though he was once popular enough to have composed one of the works played by RMS Titanic's Orchestra at it's final performance, he is known to but a few today. His music is in the Romantic mainstream. The third symphony contains sections which to my untutored ear sound as if they could have been written by Beethoven himself. At other points, there is a dash of Dvorak, a lick or two of Lizst and - in the eleventh symphony - a spot where it sounds like the main theme of Tchaikovsky's sixth is going to break out. The orchestration is straightforward: strings, winds, horns, timpani. The metaphors are ordinary - hunting horn motifs suggest the forest, raging strings represent strife. It's been done by many - but not many did it as charmingly as Raff. I have thoroughly enjoyed this disk, and will acquire other Raff recordings in the future."