Joachim Raff: Choral Works (A Cappella)

Raff, Joachim (1822-82)

10 Gesänge für gemischten Chor, Op. 198

4 Marian Antiphones, WoO. 27

Ave Maria, WoO. 33

Kyrie und Gloria, WoO. 31

Pater noster, WoO. 32

It was typical of Joachim Raff, sometime assistant and orchestrator for Franz Liszt, that he completed eleven symphonies but failed to get any of them performed. If those symphonies didn’t quite establish themselves, then maybe his a capella choral music will. These works present Raff at his most diverse and imaginative best, proving him equally at home with sacred works and secular songs of awakening. The resultant musical style finds him drawing on the romantic vernacular of the time, whilst combining it with his very own take on the Cecilian Movement’s revival of Renaissance polyphony in a way rivaled only decades later by Hans Pfitzner.