Michael Whelan

Joachim Raff - Symphony No. 8 "Sounds of Spring" (1876)

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• published: 22 Jul 2013
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Painting Info - the artist is Michael Whelan I. Allegro - Spring's Return - 00:00 II. Allegro - During Walpurgis night - 12:51 III. Larghetto - With the first bunch of flowers - 19:48 IV. Vivace - Wanderlust - 27:29 Works about Spring appear throughout Raff's creative output and two of his greatest creations, the Symphony No.8 in A op 205 Frühlingsklänge ( Sounds of Spring) and the song collection Sanges Frühling, celebrate the season. Throughout his life, as a true romantic, Raff delighted in nature and the countryside and he certainly shared an almost primeval release of energy at the onset of Spring. In her biography of her father, Helene Raff sheds no more light on why he decided to write a symphony celebrating Spring, and whether it was always his intention for it to be the first in a cycle of four celebrating all the seasons. The fact that the next one he wrote was about Winter and was not published or performed in his lifetime perhaps hints that the A major symphony was written as a stand-alone work, rather than consciously as the first of a series. Raff composed the work in Wiesbaden during the Summer and Autumn of 1876 at around the time that he was appointed to head the new Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt and at the end of what appears to have been a period of creative uncertainty and self doubt. It was premiered the following year in Wiesbaden's Kurhaus and was well received - no doubt a relief after the mixed reception of the previous Symphony, In the Alps. The first two movements were particularly well received. The work soon crossed the Atlantic and the conductor of a performance there later in 1877 reported to Raff, "I want only to share with you that I have had the pleasure of introducing your Spring Symphony here (in New York) and with great success". In this work, Raff produced three successive movements of surging vitality, demonic excitement and pastoral delicacy which go a long way towards explaining his huge success in his lifetime. The finale is rather more diffuse - although as colourfully orchestrated and structurally sound as its predecessors it is not so melodically memorable; Helene Raff records in her biography that audiences "did not understand" this movement. It is somehow not on quite such a high level of inspiration as the others and, as such, it underscores the reasons for the posthumous decline in Raff's reputation. The first movement, Allegro, is entitled "Spring's return" and is fittingly exuberant after an atmospherically dark beginning. The succeeding movement is a demonic Allegro "During Allergies night" - Raff had a penchant for writing circumspectly devilish music in a number of his symphonies. The slow movement Larghetto "With the first bunch of flowers" is a beautifully lyrical piece of writing which is followed by the Vivace finale "Wanderlust", which begins quietly but gathers pace to a rousing conclusion. In common with most of his "programme" symphonies, none of the movements has an explicit programme.