Symphonie Nr. 5 in E major (“Lenore”), Op. 177 by Joachim Raff (review)

Reviewed by: Symphonie Nr. 5 in E major ("Lenore"), Op. 177 by Joachim Raff Marie Sumner Lott Joachim Raff. Symphonie Nr. 5 in E major ("Lenore"), Op. 177. Edited by Iris Eggenschwiler, in collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf several chamber works for string quartet (opuses 77, 90, and 192), piano with violin (Six Morceaux, op. 85), and piano with cello (Sonata, op. 183); two choral works, the cantata Die Tageszeiten (Times of Day, op. 209) and a biblical oratorio Welt-Ende—Gerich—Neue Welt (World's End—Judgement—New World, op. 212); and two works for orchestra, a cello concerto (opus 193) and Raff's Fifth Symphony, reviewed here. This selection, a tiny sampling from Raff's 214 published works, provides a welcome introduction to the composer and to the range of genres and styles prominent in the musical life of Europe and North America in the late nineteenth century. Raff composed his Fifth Symphony "Lenore" in E Major in 1872, so the End Page 731 work fits nicely with the anniversary theme of the set. According to the preface by editor Iris Eggenschwiler, it was one of the more popular and well received symphonic works Raff composed in his lifetime. Alongside his Symphony No. 3 "Im Wald," op. 153 (1869, published 1871), "Lenore" played an important role in establishing Raff's reputation in German cities and abroad (p. viii). For modern students of nineteenth-century musical life, the work also demonstrates Raff's precarious historical position between two opposing aesthetic schools and provides a good example of the "middle path" that some composers of symphonies and other classical genres sought to stake out for themselves after the mid-century. A student and colleague of Liszt who was, nonetheless, critical of the...