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It's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
One of the most persistent superstitions among musicians over the years has been the Curse of the Ninth: from Beethoven onward, it is said, a ninth symphony is destined to be a composer's last. No less of a luminary than Arnold Schoenberg wrote, "It seems that the Ninth is a limit. He who wants to go beyond it must pass away. It seems as if something might be imparted to us in the Tenth which we ought not yet to know, for which we are not ready. Those who have written a Ninth stood too close to the hereafter." It is often claimed that, until Shostakovich broke the curse by writing 15 symphonies, no significant composer went beyond nine.
But the Swiss composer Joachim Raff (1822-1882) is one of the handful of counterexamples: he composed eleven symphonies, and during his lifetime was considered one of the foremost composers in Europe, though he was forgotten in the 20th century. Raff was largely self-taught as a composer until his 1845, when he walked the 80 kilometers from Zurich to Basel to hear Franz Liszt play a concert. Impressed by Raff's dedication, Liszt took him on as an assistant from 1850 to 1853, and Raff is believed to have orchestrated Liszt's works during that time. It was then that Raff developed a reputation as a composer in his own right, beginning with the success of his first opera König Alfred in 1851. It would still be some years before Raff began to compose symphonies; his first did not appear until 1859.
While most of his own music was forgotten, Raff had a lasting impact through his influence on others. Nine of Raff's eleven symphonies are programmatic, and Richard Strauss, who admired him greatly, echoed Raff with his own turn toward program music. He had a similar influence on a young Jean Sibelius. Outside of his own compositions, he actively promoted the work of women composers at a time when women were generally not taken seriously as composers.
Raff's 9th symphony, "Im Sommer," was composed in 1878 and is part of a loose grouping of symphonies: his last four symphonies, while all composed as stand-alone pieces, are each inspired by one of the four seasons. The four movements of "Im Sommer" follow a fairly traditional symphonic progression (sonata allegro, scherzo, slow movement, and rondo), each movement has a descriptive subtitle. Notably, the scherzo movement, "The Hunt of the Elves," was originally titled "Oberon and Titania's Song of Love" and draws its inspiration expressly from Shakespeare; the movement features a solo cello representing Oberon and a solo violin representing Titania.
Movements:
I. Allegro - Ein Heißer Tag (A Hot Day)
II. Allegro - Die Jagd der Elfen (The Hunt of the Elves) (12:20)
III. Larghetto - Eklogue (Idyll) (22:47)
IV. Allegro - Zum Erntenkranze (To the Harvest Wreath) (29:27)
One of the most persistent superstitions among musicians over the years has been the Curse of the Ninth: from Beethoven onward, it is said, a ninth symphony is destined to be a composer's last. No less of a luminary than Arnold Schoenberg wrote, "It seems that the Ninth is a limit. He who wants to go beyond it must pass away. It seems as if something might be imparted to us in the Tenth which we ought not yet to know, for which we are not ready. Those who have written a Ninth stood too close to the hereafter." It is often claimed that, until Shostakovich broke the curse by writing 15 symphonies, no significant composer went beyond nine.
But the Swiss composer Joachim Raff (1822-1882) is one of the handful of counterexamples: he composed eleven symphonies, and during his lifetime was considered one of the foremost composers in Europe, though he was forgotten in the 20th century. Raff was largely self-taught as a composer until his 1845, when he walked the 80 kilometers from Zurich to Basel to hear Franz Liszt play a concert. Impressed by Raff's dedication, Liszt took him on as an assistant from 1850 to 1853, and Raff is believed to have orchestrated Liszt's works during that time. It was then that Raff developed a reputation as a composer in his own right, beginning with the success of his first opera König Alfred in 1851. It would still be some years before Raff began to compose symphonies; his first did not appear until 1859.
While most of his own music was forgotten, Raff had a lasting impact through his influence on others. Nine of Raff's eleven symphonies are programmatic, and Richard Strauss, who admired him greatly, echoed Raff with his own turn toward program music. He had a similar influence on a young Jean Sibelius. Outside of his own compositions, he actively promoted the work of women composers at a time when women were generally not taken seriously as composers.
Raff's 9th symphony, "Im Sommer," was composed in 1878 and is part of a loose grouping of symphonies: his last four symphonies, while all composed as stand-alone pieces, are each inspired by one of the four seasons. The four movements of "Im Sommer" follow a fairly traditional symphonic progression (sonata allegro, scherzo, slow movement, and rondo), each movement has a descriptive subtitle. Notably, the scherzo movement, "The Hunt of the Elves," was originally titled "Oberon and Titania's Song of Love" and draws its inspiration expressly from Shakespeare; the movement features a solo cello representing Oberon and a solo violin representing Titania.
Movements:
I. Allegro - Ein Heißer Tag (A Hot Day)
II. Allegro - Die Jagd der Elfen (The Hunt of the Elves) (12:20)
III. Larghetto - Eklogue (Idyll) (22:47)
IV. Allegro - Zum Erntenkranze (To the Harvest Wreath) (29:27)