Raff: Complete Works for Cello & Piano (2022)

For a prolific composer whose works were performed quite often during his life and who arguably influenced several generations of composers that followed, Joachim Raff is hardly known today. The music presented here by cellist Christoph Croisé and pianist Oxana Shevchenko has very rarely been recorded. The opening Duo for piano and cello, Op. 59, has two fairly distinct parts that share an equally lyrical melody, but the tone shifts from sentimental serenade to more animated and serious, which is handled well by the ... Read More

For a prolific composer whose works were performed quite often during his life and who arguably influenced several generations of composers that followed, Joachim Raff is hardly known today. The music presented here by cellist Christoph Croisé and pianist Oxana Shevchenko has very rarely been recorded. The opening Duo for piano and cello, Op. 59, has two fairly distinct parts that share an equally lyrical melody, but the tone shifts from sentimental serenade to more animated and serious, which is handled well by the musicians. The following Fantasie-Stücke for piano and cello, Op. 86, was written in the same time frame as the Duo, and both were premiered by Bernhard Cossmann, one of the preeminent cellists of the day. The two Fantasie-Stücke have programmatic movement titles -- "Begegnung" ("Encounter" or "Meeting") and "Erinnerung" ("Reminder" of "Remembrance") -- and have similar tempos, typical of much of the music being produced in 1850s Weimar. After finding success with a series of works,... Read Less