Biography
Raff, largely self-taught, earned acclaim in his native country for his command of modern compositional methods. A tireless creator, he produced works across nearly every genre of his era, among them symphonies, operas, orchestrated choral pieces, concertos, suites, overtures, quintets, quartets, solo piano music, and revisions of earlier composers’ scores. His first encounter with Liszt occurred in 1845, after which he served as the elder musician’s assistant in Weimar from 1850 to 1855. Membership in the New German School brought him into contact with Bülow, forging a friendship that lasted the rest of his life. In his own pieces he sought to fuse earlier musical traditions with the idioms of his own time, a goal that frequently produced ambiguous formal directions and an eclectic manner that drew sharp criticism. Even so, his skill at orchestration yielded striking results and pointed toward future developments. His final post was as director of the Hoch Conservatory, a position he held from 1877 until his death.
Albums
