Joseph Joachim Raff was born on 27 May 1822 in the
small town of Lachen, on the shores of lake Zürich in
Switzerland. He was a good violinist, but only a
competent pianist and by no means a virtuoso, although
he had given a couple of recitals whilst in his early
20s in Switzerland. He didn't compose at the piano
either, preferring to use it only to check a passage
once he had composed it. Nonetheless, his first 59
compositions were for the piano and he continued to
write many pieces for the ins...(+)
Joseph Joachim Raff was born on 27 May 1822 in the
small town of Lachen, on the shores of lake Zürich in
Switzerland. He was a good violinist, but only a
competent pianist and by no means a virtuoso, although
he had given a couple of recitals whilst in his early
20s in Switzerland. He didn't compose at the piano
either, preferring to use it only to check a passage
once he had composed it. Nonetheless, his first 59
compositions were for the piano and he continued to
write many pieces for the instrument even once he had
established his reputation in much larger forms. By a
large margin, Raff wrote more music for solo piano than
for any other medium.
The lack of evidence to the contrary seems to indicate
that Raff himself coined the word Sinfonietta for his
op.188 in F. It has since been commonly used for works
such as this - "little" or "light" symphonies and
Raff's piece pre-dates the next work (by
Rimsky-Korsakov) by seven years. The Sinfonietta was
popular in its day and that no doubt helped the use of
the term amongst composers.
He wrote the piece in Wiesbaden in Spring 1873 during
the period which was, as his daughter Helene wrote,
"the cultural high point of his life". The Lenore
Symphony had recently capped even the success of his
"Forest" Symphony and everywhere he was fêted and
honoured. However, the next work he completed after the
Sinfonietta - his 6th. Symphony - got a rather cooler
reception and marked the start of what became a period
of artistic crisis for the composer.
Isolated works are rare in Raff's canon. In contrast
with his eleven Symphonies, six Operas, eight String
Quartets, four Piano Trios and five Violin Sonatas
there is only one Sinfonietta and only one other
(earlier) piece for wind band. This is unlikely to
signal any feeling by Raff that the work was a failure,
however. It was virtually unique in its time and was
popular from the first. Raff understood the financial
imperative of getting his works performed. From a
commercial point of view there may have been little
point in writing another whilst the original one was
doing so well in an uncontested field. From an artistic
standpoint, it is difficult to see how he could have
bettered his first attempt.
Written for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons
and French horns, it was clearly intended by Raff to be
regarded as something greater than the wind serenades
which had been popular since Mozart's time. Neither his
motivation for writing the work, nor the occasion of
its premiere is recorded, but it was published in
November 1874 by Siegel of Liepzig and Raff himself
also arranged all four movements for piano four
hands.
The Sinfonietta's popularity endured and it was one of
the works which continued to keep its composer's name
before audiences, long after most of his music was
forgotten. This is no doubt partly due to the
comparative dearth of quality repertoire written for
small wind bands, but it must also be because of the
unfailing wit, vivacity and good humour of the music
itself. It retains the traditional symphonic movement
structure and is truly a "small symphony". Throughout,
Raff employs his trademarks of counterpoint and classic
musical forms but these never interfere with the work's
pervading atmosphere of joi de vivre.
Although originally scored for wind ensemble (and later
for Piano 4-Hands), I created this Interpretation of
the Sinfonietta (Opus 188) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, Bb
Clarinet, English Horn, French Horn & Bassoon) &
Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
PARTITION