Joseph Joachim Raff: La fée d'amour (The Love Fairy), A minor, op. 67 (1854)
Joseph Joachim Raff
born 27 May 1822 in Lachen (Switzerland)
died 24 June 1882) in Weimar
Full title:
La fée d'amour (The Love Fairy) , morceau caractéristique de concert pour un Violon principal et Orchestre ou Piano, dédié à son ami Edmond Singer, op. 67
(1854).
First performance:
20 April 1855 by Edmond Singer in Weimar.
CD recording:
Tobias Ringborg 2007
Tianwa Yang 2010 (version with piano accompaniment)
The concert piece that the violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate played and loved most during his lifetime was La fée d'amour by Joseph Joachim Raff. He played it with piano accompaniment
as well as with orchestra. As unknown as this then successful concert piece has become in the meantime, its composer has also become unknown to many concertgoers. According to a contemporary
English music critic, however, he was one of the three most famous German composers of his time: Joachim Raff was - astonishingly for us - the third most famous, along with Wagner and
Brahms! Today, his music is hardly ever played, although he left behind an enormous body of work. In addition to Brahms' four symphonies, Raff impresses with the large number of 11 Romantic
symphonies. He also wrote two more violin concertos. In Liszt biographies Raff, born and raised in Lachen in Switzerland, still appears as his temporary secretary in Weimar. The concert
piece recommended here, La fée d'amour, received much praise from Liszt. Liszt thought Raff could rest on his laurels for a long time after such a work. The work was then performed again and
again by its dedicatee Edmond Singer, the concertmaster of Liszt's Weimar orchestra. And - as mentioned - Pablo de Sarasate also loved to play it. Clearly, the theme is immortal, it is about
love, which outlives all lovers and concert pieces. Raff wrote the piece for his engagement to Doris Genast. This composition was about "the inner experience of his engagement", his daughter
later said.
I can only recommend this enchanting, formally original violin concerto by this musician, who was 32 years old at the beginning of his career. I would love to experience it live in
concert.
Listen here!
Listening companion:
First Section (Allegro e delicatamente)
Bouncing, loose woodwind motifs emerge over a dark bass note, repeat themselves and prepare for the entry of the violin and its A minor melody, but do not let up with the insistent wind motif, so that the violin must assert its wooing melody. An orchestral interlude interrupts the fairy-like mood and brings a rhythmically contrasting theme, which the violin answers in a large bowed melody. The violin asserts its melodic lead and takes over the contrasting rhythm until the insistent fairy-like wind motifs of the opening slowly reintroduce themselves, forcing the violin to reprise its A minor melody, which leads into a virtuoso final run by the violin. This leads into a new subsection marked by 16th-note passages from the violin, while the orchestra is initially present with a strangely underlaid downward grinding motif, but then slowly recalls the wind motif. A brief final cadenza by the violin bids farewell to this fine world of love and fairies.
Middle section (Largamente, ma dolce cantando)
A rapturous middle section follows attacca; the flirtatious love charm of the first movement now turns serious. The violin intones a far-reaching romantic love song, accompanied calmly by the orchestra, which the orchestra then takes over. The violin sings uninterruptedly and increasingly rapturously until a strangely throbbing motif (reminiscent of the first movement!) is heard again in the winds, but the violin is able to push it back with its melody, now sung in full octaves. The romantic mood ends gently.
Final section (Vivace)
Suddenly the motifs from the first part take over again, the fairy-like mood is immediately present again. The violin stops for the time being, but the orchestra takes over, one is reminded of Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the violin enters again, but somewhat more delayed than in the first part, with its wooing A minor melody. Enchantingly and increasingly also somewhat spookily, the familiar motifs of the first part swirl about. Finally, this section ends in a final run of the violin. A brief pause, but then the violin and orchestra swirl their themes imaginatively, with verve and at times somewhat eerily once more. Only a long cadenza by the violin leads out of this enchanted forest. This means virtuoso work for the violin playing, which has to summon up all its skills and finally leads melodiously into a swinging final spell, until the love fairy delicately disappears in the bright light.