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Scan 30
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1904
10 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. Printed page 13. See the scan on archive.org.
1Beethoven to subscribe to the publication of that work, and indeed was one of the seven who sent in their names in answer to that appeal. To him Beethoven dedicated the Overture in C, op. 115 (known as 'Namensfeier'), which was published as 'Grosses Ouverture in C dur gedichtet,' etc., by Steiner of Vienna in 1825.
3Radziwill was not only a player, a singer, and a passionate lover of music, he was also a composer of no mean order. Whistling's Handbuch (1828) names three Romances for voice and PF. (Peters), and songs with guitar and violoncello (B. & H.), and Mendel mentions duets with PF. accompaniment, a Complaint of Maria Stuart, with PF. and violoncello, and many part-songs (still in MS.) composed for Zelter's Liedertafel, of which he was an enthusiastic supporter.1 But these were only preparations for his great work, entitled 'Compositions to Goethe's dramatic poem of Faust.' This, which was published in score and arrangement by Trautwein of Berlin in Nov. 1835, contains twenty-five numbers, occupying 589 pages. A portion was sung by the Singakademie as early as May 1, 1810; the choruses were performed in May 1816, three new scenes as late as Nov. 21, 1830, and the whole work was brought out by that institution after the death of the composer, which took place April 8, 1833. The work was repeatedly performed during several years in Berlin, Danzig, Hanover, Leipzig, Prague, and many other places, as may be seen from the index to the A. M. Zeitung. It made its appearance in a performance at Hyde Park College, London, on May 21, 1880, under the direction of L. Martin-Eiffe. A full analysis of it will be found in the A. M. Zeitung for 1836, pp. 601, 617; and there is a copy in the British Museum.
5RAFF, JOSEPH JOACHIM, born May 27, 1822, at Lachen on the Lake of Zurich. He received his early education at Wiesenstetten in Wurtemberg, in the home of his parents, and then at the Jesuit Lyceum of Schwyz, where he carried off the first prizes in German, Latin, and mathematics. Want of means compelled him to give up his classical studies, and become a schoolmaster, but he stuck to music, and though unable to afford a teacher, made such progress not only with the piano and the violin, but also in composition, that Mendelssohn, to whom he sent some MSS., gave him in 1843 a recommendation to Breitkopf & Härtel. This introduction seems to have led to his appearing before the public, and to the first drops of that flood of compositions of all sorts and dimensions which from 1844 he poured forth in an almost unceasing stream. Of op. 1 we have found no critical record; but op. 2 is kindly noticed by the N. Zeitschrift for August 5, 1844, the reviewer finding in it 'something which points to a future for the composer.' Encouraging notices of opp. 2 to 6 inclusive are also given in the A. M. Zeitung for the 21st of the same month. Amidst privations which would have daunted any one of less determination he worked steadily on, and at length having fallen in with Liszt, was treated by him with the kindness which always marked his intercourse with rising or struggling talent, and was taken by him on a concert-tour. Meeting Mendelssohn for the first time at Cologne in 1846, and being afterwards invited by him to become his pupil at Leipzig, he left Liszt for that purpose. Before he could carry this project into effect, however, Mendelssohn died, and Raff remained at Cologne, occupying himself inter alia in writing critiques for Dehn's Cäcilia. Later, in 1854, he published Die Wagnerfrage, a pamphlet which excited considerable attention. Liszt's endeavours to secure him a patron in Vienna in the person of Mecchetti the publisher, were frustrated by Mecchetti's death while Raff was actually on the way to see him. Undismayed by these repeated obstacles he devoted himself to a severe course of study, partly at home and partly at Stuttgart, with the view to remedy the deficiencies of his early training. At Stuttgart he made the acquaintance of Bülow, who became deeply interested in him, and did him a great service by taking up his new Concertstück, for PF. and orchestra, and playing it (Jan. 1, 1848).
7By degrees Raff attached himself more and more closely to the new German school, and in 1850 went to Weimar to be near Liszt, who had at that time abandoned his career as a virtuoso and was settled there. Here he remodelled an opera, 'König Alfred,' which he had composed in Stuttgart three years before, and it was produced at the Court Theatre, where it was often performed. It has also been given elsewhere. Other works followed—a collection of PF. pieces called 'Frühlingsboten' in 1852, the first string quartet in 1855, and the first grand sonata for PF. and violin (E minor) in 1857. In the meantime he had engaged himself to Doris Genast, daughter of the well-known actor and manager, and herself on the stage; and in 1856 he followed her to Wiesbaden, where he was soon in great request as a pianoforte teacher. In 1858 he composed his second violin sonata, and the incidental music for 'Bernhard von Weimar,' a drama by Wilhelm Genast, the overture to which speedily became a favourite, and was much played throughout Germany. In 1859 he married. In 1863 his first symphony, 'An das Vaterland,' obtained the prize offered by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna (out of thirty-two competitors), and was followed by the 2nd (in C) and the 3rd (in F, 'Im Walde') in 1869, the 4th (in G minor) in 1871, the 5th ('Lenore') in 1872, the 6th ('Gelebt, gestrebt,
91 Zelter's Correspondence with Goethe teems with notices of the Prince.
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