Celebrated for a prodigious output as much as for the dramatic range of his works , Raff was for many years the protege of Liszt and the influence on Raffs technique is unmistakable. The Reminiscenzen is one of many salon works that Raff produced during his unhappy years in Cologne from 1844-48, and destined for the domestic market : a nonetheless brilliant adaptation of themes from Don Giovanni. ---- Gefeiert für die grosse Zahl wie auch für den dramatische Vielfalt seiner Werke war Raff ...

A composer with a vastand varied catalogue of works Raff is celebrated as much for his prodigious originality as for his technical accomplishments. A former protégé of Liszt, Raff's Ungarische Rhapsodie Opus 113, pays homage to the Hungarian rhapsody cycle of his former master; equal in style and substance it remains a fitting tribute and a shining example by one of the 19c most gifted virtuosi. ---- Als Komponist mit einer enormen und vielfältigen Werkliste wird Raff für seine erstaunlich...

The Deux Elégies were composed in 1868 during a period of great stability in Raff's life. After years spent under apprenticeship to his mentor and friend, Franz Liszt, Raff had struck out on his own in his efforts to refine his personal style. The Deux Elégies are typical of the popular salon style Raff would enjoy success with and are musically satisfying works whether performed together or separately. --- Die Deux-Elégies wurden 1868 während einer Phase grosser Stabilität in Raffs Leben ...

The mazurka started life in the17C as a Polish dance of rustic regional origins and is said to have borrowed its distinctive accent on the weak beat of a measure from the Polish language itself. When Raff composed the Grande Mazurka, the form endured almost exclusively as a salon item and in this piece Raff perpetuated the practice laid down by composers such as Chopin for setting the mazurka in the high art music tradition, --- Die Mazurka entstand im 17. Jahrhundert als polnischer Tanz b...

Raff wrote this picturesque study in reminiscence of the Giessbach falls in Switzerland. A prodigious talent who for many years worked for Franz Liszt as a musical assistant and secretary this piece was written later when Raff was fully in command of his compositional voice but the influence of Liszt is unmistakable in the technical facility and uncompromising originality of this musical tour de force. --- Raff schrieb diese malerische Studie in Erinnerung an die Gießbachfälle in der Schwe...

Modelled with a clear deference to the Song without Words form of Mendelssohn, Loreley is based loosely on the 1801 poem by Clemens Brentano, 'Zu Bacharach am Rheine' in which the tragic heroine Lore Lay climbs a rock on the Rhine to look for the lover who had abandoned her but who slips to her death on the riverbed below. A richly Romantic piece with astonishing emotional power, this piece is a gem in the crown of any concert recital. ---------- Mit einer eindeutigen Verbeugung in Richtun...