Raff, Joseph Joachim

composer

born: 27.05.1822 in Lachen on Lake Zurich

died: 24.06.1882 in Frankfurt am Main

Raff attended grammar schools in Rottenburg and Schwyz from 1834-40. As he lacked the financial means to study, he became a teacher and began to learn to play the organ, violin and piano and to compose on his own. His first compositions were printed on the recommendation of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. He then gave up his job in 1844 and moved to Zurich, where he eked out a living by giving lessons. At a concert in Basel in 1845, he met Franz Liszt, who took him on and brought him to Weimar as an assistant in 1850, where Raff's opera "König Alfred" was performed.

In 1856 he moved to Wiesbaden. His fiancée Doris Genast (1827-1912), daughter of the Weimar theater director Eduard Genast, had been an actress there since 1853. They married in 1859. Raff developed an extremely lively creative output in Wiesbaden. In 1871-76, over 45 works were published, making him one of the most frequently performed composers in the 1870s. His eleven symphonies were mostly program music in the spirit of the new German school around Liszt ("Im Walde", "Zur Herbstzeit"). Raff later moved away from Liszt's model and oriented himself more towards Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

His piano concerto was premiered in Wiesbaden in 1873 with Hans von Bülow as the soloist. Raff worked as a teacher of piano, singing and harmony, and his pupils included August and Maria Wilhelmj. Raff was in correspondence with Richard Wagner. When Wagner lived in Biebrich in 1862, they met frequently, which Wagner reported on critically in "Mein Leben". On Raff's recommendation, Louis Lüstner was appointed director of the Kurkapelle in 1874. In 1877 Raff became director of the newly founded Dr. Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main, which gained an international reputation thanks to its organization and the appointment of excellent musicians.

In February 1884, the Wiesbadener Cäcilienverein performed Raff's last work, the oratorio "Welt-Ende - Gericht - Neue Welt". Raff's works were considered epigonal after 1900 and fell into oblivion, but have recently been rediscovered for CD recordings.