Bach, Johann Sebastian / orch Raff, Joachim

Johann Sebastian Bach / orch. J. Raff – »Chaconne« from the 2nd Partita for Violin solo BWV 1004

(b. Eisenach, 31 March 1685 – d. Leipzig, 28 July 1750)

(1720)

Orchestration (1873) by Joachim Raff
(b. Lachen, Kanton Schwyz, 27 May 1822 — d. Frankfurt am Main, 24 June 1882)

Preface
Among the lesser-known Romantic masters in the German-speaking world, Joachim Raff is perhaps the best known, along with Franz Lachner, Robert Volkmann, Peter Cornelius, Felix Draeseke, Friedrich Gernsheim and Hermann Goetz. Important conductors, such as Bernard Herrmann and, most recently, Neeme Järvi, have repeatedly made a lasting commitment to his orchestral work. Whether or not he can be described as an original genius is a matter of taste, but there can be little doubt about the vividness and memorability of his musical language and the captivating structure of his symphonic works, and his mastery of his craft is impeccable. In particular, he was a master of the large orchestra of his time, and Franz Liszt also understood how to use him as such an expert.

Raff was not only the first to orchestrate Johann Sebastian Bach’s Chaconne for solo violin, but also (with only two horns and a trumpet, and without trombones) his Third English Suite in G minor BWV 808 for solo piano (the score of the orchestration of the English Suite was published and revised in manuscript form after Raff’s death by Max von Erdmannsdörfer [1848-1905]). Raff created his orchestration of the Chaconne in 1873 in Wiesbaden, where he had moved from Weimar twenty years earlier with his wife Doris Genast (1827-1912). Raff writes in the preface to the score: “J. S. Bach’s compositions for violin have, as anyone who has gotten to know them better will agree, such a sig-nificant polyphonic content that it is reasonable to assume that they were not originally written for violin – at least for the most part; an assumption which in some cases has already been confirmed by the facts. …

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