Raff: Symphonies Nos 1 – 11; Suites

The Swiss-born Joseph Joachim Raff (1822-1882) was hugely prolific and often claimed as an influence on composers as diverse as Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Richard Strauss and Sibelius, yet his music is hardly known at all today. Self-taught, but encouraged and helped by Liszt, he did not fit easily into either the Wagnerian stream of Romanticism or the more conservative Brahmsian one. However, his orchestral music in particular was hugely popular in his lifetime. For the last 10 years the Tudor label (also Swiss, unsurprisingly) has been doing sterling service on Raff's behalf, recording all his 11 symphonies as well as other orchestral works, including four suites and a number of overtures. It makes quite an indigestible collection, it must be said, not because Raff's music is demanding, but because it has a kind of bland anonymity, which provides very little to take away except the sense of tremendous if unfocused musical facility. The symphonies are substantial pieces – the First from 1861, lasts almost 70 minutes – in a style that seems closest to Mendelssohn and Schumann with just hints of Brahms and Wagner in the later works. The performances under Hans Stadlmair are decent enough, if a little undernourished at times.