Mannheimer Streichquartett - Joachim Raff: String Quartets 1 & 5 (2023)

With the present recording of Quartets Nos. 1 and 5, all eight of Joachim Raff's string quartets are available in recordings for the first time, and it is to be hoped that they will give further impetus to the ongoing rediscovery of this important composer. A good ten years elapsed between the affecting and passionate 1st String Quartet and the Quartet No. 5 in G major, Op. 138, presented here as a premiere recording. In the meantime Raff had turned his back on Weimar and moved to Wiesbaden and was at the height of his productivity and popularity. In the meantime, he had made some changes that also represented a different attitude. The German performance instructions used until the early 1960s in the multi-movement chamber music scores gave way to the internationally established Italian indications. The exposition repetitions in the first movements of the quartets Nos. 3 to 5 also signal an attitude committed to tradition, which is continued in the contours of the melody formation. Raff was unmoved by occasional accusations that he did not sufficiently distinguish himself from Mendelssohn's cantilena type, knowing only too well what was really important to him: the subtleties of the compositional treatment of his material.