| ABOUT THIS RELEASE
The reputation of Joseph Joachim Raff was once so high that during the 1860s and 1870s he was regarded by many as the foremost symphonist of his day. Liszt was an early idol and lasting influence; Liszt was so impressed with the young man that in 1849 invited him to join him in Weimar, where Raff acted as his amanuensis until 1856.
Although primarily known as a symphonist, Raff was prolific in most genres, but by far his largest output was for the piano: there are over 130 works for the instrument, many of them with multiple movements or numbers.
The three piano works recorded here date from Raff's early years in Weimar, a time when he was revelling in the heady musical atmosphere of Liszt's circle. They illustrate how quickly he moved from writing which was heavily indebted to Chopin and Liszt (illustrated by the Fantaisie) to the maturity of the Drei Klavier-soli, in which these influences were absorbed and added to the earlier ones of Mendelssohn and Schumann to support Raff's eclectic, but wholly individual style.
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