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Melodies Unheard
Robin de Raaff

Radio Kamer Filharmonie / Orchestre de Picardie / Het Gelders Orkest / Robin de Raaff

Melodies Unheard

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917276220
Catnr: CC 72762
Release date: 04 May 2018
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Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917276220
Catalogue number
CC 72762
Release date
04 May 2018

"The result is ultimately a very personal kind of expressionism that is never less than impressive and sometimes beautiful, sometimes overwhelmingly violent. The enormous orchestra is handled with extreme virtuosity."

Records International, 28-11-2018
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
Press
EN
NL
DE

About the album

The Dutch composer Robin de Raaff has four symphonies to his name. Will De Raaff follow in the footsteps of tradition, or will he give the name, the form, a new meaning, a new direction?

His symphonies have little to do with the classical concept. Of course, his love for composing was partly derived from the symphonies of composers such as Brahms, Mahler, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and even Bernstein, but De Raaff is too much of a constructivist to write a symphony in the classical sense of the word. De Raaff became more and more convinced there was something to be gained in the concertante form, the orchestra and the soloist, the individual and the crowd. He shies away from prescribed forms and developments, a recapitulated theme followed by various movements with different characters. The symphony, the orchestral apparatus sounding together, telling its story for a period of at least 20 minutes, is what he took as his starting point. Working from there, this led to a reinterpretation of the symphonic form. De Raaff’s Second and Fourth Symphonies are the result of a reinterpretation of works for a soloist or soloist group with accompaniment. They are a revision of the material, reminiscent of the way in which Pierre Boulez let Incises for piano grow into Sur incises for ensemble and how Luciano Berio recomposed a number of his Sequenzas into Chemins.
Dit album bevat drie symfonische werken van een van de belangrijkste huidige Europese vertegenwoordigers van deze muzikale vorm: de Nederlandse componist Robin de Raaff, wiens orkestwerken en opera’s gestaag de aandacht trekken van de muziekwereld. Twee van deze werken zijn eigenlijk concertante werken, waarin een saxofoonkwartet en een sopraan een dialoog aangaan met het orkest.

De Nederlandse componist Robin de Raaff heeft vier symfonieën op zijn naam staan. Zal De Raaff in de voetsporen van de traditie treden, of zal hij de naam, de vorm, een nieuwe betekenis en een nieuwe richting geven?

Zijn symfonieën hebben weinig te maken met het klassieke concept. Zijn liefde voor het componeren is deels voortgekomen uit de symfonieën van componisten als Brahms, Mahler, Sjostakovitsj, Prokofjev en zelfs Bernstein, maar De Raaff is veel te constructivistisch om een symfonie in de klassieke zin van het woord te schrijven. De Raaff werd er meer en meer van overtuigd dat er iets te behalen viel in de concertante vorm, het orkest en de solist, het individu en de menigte. Hij schuwt voorgeschreven vormen en ontwikkelingen, een herhaald thema gevolgd door verschillende delen met verschillende karakters. De symfonie, de samenklank van het orkest, dat gedurende een periode van minstens twintig minuten zijn verhaal vertelt, is wat hij als zijn uitgangspunt nam. Dit leidde tot een herinterpretatie van de symfonische vorm. De Tweede en Vierde Symfonie van De Raaff zijn het resultaat van een herinterpretatie van werken voor een solist of een groep solisten met begeleiding. Zij zijn een herziening van het materiaal, herinnerend aan de manier waarop Pierre Boulez zijn Incises voor piano liet uitgroeien tot Sur incises voor ensemble en de manier waarop Luciano Berio enkele van zijn Sequenzas omschreef tot Chemins.
Der niederländische Komponist Robin de Raaff hat vier Symphonien verfasst. Wird De Raaff den Pfaden der Tradition folgen, oder wird er dem Namen und der Form neue Bedeutung und eine neue Richtung geben?

Seine Symphonien haben mit dem klassischen Gattungskonzept nur wenig zu tun. Seine Liebe für das Komponieren erwuchs zum Teil aus den Symphonien von Komponisten wie Brahms, Mahler, Schostakowitsch, Prokofjew und sogar Bernstein, aber De Raaff ist viel zu sehr Konstruktivist, um eine Symphonie im klassischen Sinne zu schreiben. De Raaff war zunehmend überzeugt vom Gewinn der konzertanten Form, dem Gegenüber von Orchester und Solist, dem Einzelnen und der Menge. Er weicht von vorgeschriebenen Formen und Entwicklungen zurück, einem wiederaufgenommenen Thema gefolgt von verschiedenen Sätzen verschiedenen Charakters. Die Symphonie, der Zusammenklang des Orchesterapparates, der für mindestens 20 Minuten seine Geschichte erzählt, ist sein Ausgangspunkt. Dies führte zu einer Neuinterpretation der symphonischen Form. De Raaffs Zweite und Vierte Symphonien sind das Resultat einer Neuinterpretation von Werken für Solist oder Solistengruppe mit Begleitung. Sie zeigen eine Überarbeitung von Material, die daran erinnert, wie Pierre Boulez Incises für Klavier zu Sur incises für Ensemble wachsen ließ, oder wie Luciano Berio einige seiner Sequenzas zu Chemins umschrieb.

Artist(s)

Robin de Raaff

Robin de Raaff (Breda, 1968) discovered his own diverse musical world through playing classical piano as well as bass guitar from a very early age. After being introduced to the legend and legacy of Jaco Pastorius, De Raaff’s musical world expanded explosively as an instrumentalist. Parallel with this early development he created his own music and lyrics for his Band where instrumental sections grew in significance, ultimately in to completely scored instrumental works. These instrumental compositions led him to enrol as a student of composition. De Raaff is of the generation of Dutch composers emerging in the nineties. He first studied composition with Geert van Keulen at the Amsterdam Conservatory and later with Theo Loevendie, graduating cum laude in 1997. Still...
more

Robin de Raaff (Breda, 1968) discovered his own diverse musical world through playing classical piano as well as bass guitar from a very early age. After being introduced to the legend and legacy of Jaco Pastorius, De Raaff’s musical world expanded explosively as an instrumentalist. Parallel with this early development he created his own music and lyrics for his Band where instrumental sections grew in significance, ultimately in to completely scored instrumental works. These instrumental compositions led him to enrol as a student of composition.
De Raaff is of the generation of Dutch composers emerging in the nineties. He first studied composition with Geert van Keulen at the Amsterdam Conservatory and later with Theo Loevendie, graduating cum laude in 1997. Still being a student in 1995 he encountered Pierre Boulez in a Masterclass who praised his String Quartet No. 1 “Athomus” creating a whole new momentum to his development and career. In 1999 De Raaff had the privilege of being invited to work as George Benjamin’s only composition student at the Royal College of Music in London where he also studied with Julian Anderson.
In 2000 De Raaff was invited to the renowned Tanglewood Music Center as the ‘Senior Composition Fellow’ which was the beginning of an ongoing relationship resulting in a series of commissions and performances (Piano Concerto No. 1 for the Festival of Contemporary Music and Entangled Tales for the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and performances of his septet Ennea’s Domein and Un Visage d’Emprunt. For 2015 De Raaff was commissioned to compose a Fanfare dedicated to the 75th Anniversary of the Tanglewood Music Center. His residency at Tanglewood in 2000 was the beginning of a bigger exposure with performances and residencies in North America through festivals and theaters such as: The Aspen Music Festival, Cabrillo Festival (Santa Cruz), State of the Union Festival (London), ISCM World Music Days, The Banff Center, CBC Parry Sound Festival (Ontario), Takefu International Chamber Music Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Ultima Contemporary Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (New York), Betty Oliphant Theatre and Glenn Gould Studio (Toronto).
After a creative period of nearly 10 years, De Raaff finished his first opera RAAFF in 2004, which was commissioned by the Dutch National Opera in a co-production with the Holland Festival. The birth of this opera started with De Raaff’s success at a master class for young composers with Pierre Boulez organised by DNO in 1995.His second opera, also commissioned by DNO, resulted in Waiting for Miss Monroe (2012), which was received with much acclaim by the international press including The New York Times, Der Tagesspiegel and Der Süddeutsche Zeitung.
De Raaff’s Violin Concerto No. 1 “Angelic echoes” (2008, written for Tasmin Little and Jaap van Zweden) was selected as the Best Orchestral Work of the year 2008 in the Dutch composition competition Toonzetters. His special interest in this genre led him to compose many Concertos of which his Percussion Concerto (2014 commissioned by The New Juilliard Ensemble and premiered in Lincoln Center), is the most recent one.
In September 2016, his Oratorio “Atlantis”, an In Memoriam Pierre Boulez, was successfully premiered in Vredenburg, Utrecht (the Netherlands), to date De Raaff’s largest work for the concert stage. Early in 2017, his Symphony No. 4 “Melodies unheard” was premiered during a concert tour with the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra as part of his term as Composer in Residence.
The 2nd Sonata for Violin and Piano “North Atlantic Light” was given its world premiere in the Kurt Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall on the 4th of June 2018. It is based on the famous painting by Willem de Kooning, a fellow countryman of De Raaff. The larger vision on this painting, Violin Concerto No. 2 “North Atlantic Light”, was premiered in the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, both versions were written for Tosca Opdam.
With the recent world premiere of Sfera for large orchestra in the esteemed ZaterdagMatinee, De Raaff finished his Symphony No 5 “Allegory of Time, of which Sfera is movement I and Unisono for large orchestra movement II.
Commissioned by the Holland Festival for their 75th Anniversary De Raaff composed his Piano Concerto No. 2 “Circulus”, premiered by Ralph van Raat, Matthias Pintscher conducting the Radio Filharmonic Oerchestra.
For 22 successive years, De Raaff has been Professor of Composition and Instrumentation at the Composition Department of the University for the Arts in Rotterdam, Codarts.


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Doelen Ensemble

Het Rotterdam-based DoelenEnsemble performs music from the 20th and 21st centuries since 1990. A wide and surprising repertoire is performed in different arrangements; from chamber music to large-scale works and with regular attention to theatre. The concerts are of the highest international level and challenge the audience with their special choice of repertoire. Young composers are brought together with master pieces from the recent musical literature. It is classical music like it is rarely heard. Composers such as Steve Reich, Tan Dun and Steve Coleman paly along with us and these concerts are a happening!
more
Het Rotterdam-based DoelenEnsemble performs music from the 20th and 21st centuries since 1990. A wide and surprising repertoire is performed in different arrangements; from chamber music to large-scale works and with regular attention to theatre. The concerts are of the highest international level and challenge the audience with their special choice of repertoire. Young composers are brought together with master pieces from the recent musical literature. It is classical music like it is rarely heard. Composers such as Steve Reich, Tan Dun and Steve Coleman paly along with us and these concerts are a happening!
less

Het Gelders Orkest

Firmly rooted in Gelderland and Dutch society Het Gelders Orkest (HGO) gives a large number of concerts per season on the important stages in the Netherlands. In addition, the orchestra likes to showcase touring and concerts abroad. The Gelders Orkest is one of the most active Dutch orchestras and fulfills an ambassador role at home and abroad. This makes Het Gelders Orkest one of the top orchestras in the Netherlands. Passion is a key concept for Het Gelders Orkest. It invests in the development of creativity and dynamism and knows how to bind young and talented musicians. Conductors who regularly visited HGO from the nineties are, among others, Bernard Klee, Hans Vonk, Jaap van Zweden, Roy Goodman and Reinbert de...
more
Firmly rooted in Gelderland and Dutch society Het Gelders Orkest (HGO) gives a large number of concerts per season on the important stages in the Netherlands. In addition, the orchestra likes to showcase touring and concerts abroad. The Gelders Orkest is one of the most active Dutch orchestras and fulfills an ambassador role at home and abroad. This makes Het Gelders Orkest one of the top orchestras in the Netherlands. Passion is a key concept for Het Gelders Orkest. It invests in the development of creativity and dynamism and knows how to bind young and talented musicians. Conductors who regularly visited HGO from the nineties are, among others, Bernard Klee, Hans Vonk, Jaap van Zweden, Roy Goodman and Reinbert de Leeuw. The Gelders Orkest works frequently with young conductors such as Antonello Manacorda, Sascha Goetzel, Jakub Hrusa and Damian Iorio. Also soloists like Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Leif Ove Andsnes, Zoltán Kocsis, Nikolaj Znaider, Akiko Suwanai, Maxim Vengerov, Natalia Gutman, Quirine Viersen, Christian Lindberg and Radovan Vlatkovic like to perform with Het Gelders Orkest. The symphonic concerts make the versatile classical repertoire accessible, while the intimate chamber concerts bring musicians and audiences closer together. The orchestra also wants to pass on the passion for live classical music to a young audience. That is why it organizes a large number of family concerts, educational concerts and special participation projects for amateurs every season. In addition, it records several (live) CDs annually. The orchestra feels supported in its mission by a loyal audience and an ever-growing group of Friends, Partners and Patrons.

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Antonello Manacorda (conductor)

Antonello Manacorda is currently Artistic Director of Kammerakademie Potsdam, a position he has held since 2010. He has been Principal Conductor of the Het Gelders Orkest in the Netherlands since 2011 – a position he bids farewell to in the 2018-19 season. He was Principal Conductor of I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan from 2006-10. In addition to his two current positions, Manacorda also has guest conducting relationships which include the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and the Tapiola Sinfonietta. He has also worked with a number of other orchestras including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Sydney Symphony. In January 2015 Antonello Manacorda made his debut at the Salzburg Mozartwoche with the Mozarteumorchester...
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Antonello Manacorda is currently Artistic Director of Kammerakademie Potsdam, a position he has held since 2010. He has been Principal Conductor of the Het Gelders Orkest in the Netherlands since 2011 – a position he bids farewell to in the 2018-19 season. He was Principal Conductor of I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan from 2006-10.

In addition to his two current positions, Manacorda also has guest conducting relationships which include the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and the Tapiola Sinfonietta. He has also worked with a number of other orchestras including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Sydney Symphony.

In January 2015 Antonello Manacorda made his debut at the Salzburg Mozartwoche with the Mozarteumorchester in a performance of Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella followed by an appearance at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in a programme of Strauss and Stravinsky. In February 2014 he conducted a Beethoven Cycle over four consecutive days in Potsdam with Kammerakademie Potsdam, while in April he conducted a performance of Mendelssohn’s complete Midsummer Night’s Dream which was broadcast live from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Manacorda is currently engaged in recording a Schubert Symphony cycle for Sony Classical with the Kammerakademie Potsdam. The recordings have been met with high praise, including one being listed in Die Welt’s top ten CDs of 2013. He has also recently recorded a CD of Mahler’s 4th Symphony with Het Gelders Orkest and soprano Lisa Larsson, which was released in November 2014 by Challenge Records.

With a strong experience in opera as well as symphonic repertoire, in December 2014 Manacorda conducted Kammerakademie Potsdam’s Winter Opera production of Mozart’s La Betulia Liberata to great critical acclaim. He also has a long-standing relationship with Teatro La Fenice, and the director Damiano Michieletto, and will be returning to La Fenice in November 2015 to conduct The Magic Flute. Future opera collaborations include La Monnaie, Theater an der Wien, Komische Oper Berlin and Frankfurt Opera.

A founder-member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra Antonello Manacorda was its vice-president and concertmaster for eight years. A scholarship from De Sono in his home town of Turin allowed him to pursue his goal of becoming a conductor by enabling him to study with Jorma Panula for two years in Helsinki. From 2003-06 he was Artistic Director for chamber music at the Académie Européenne de Musique du Festival d’Aix en Provence.


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Arie van Beek (conductor)

Arie van Beek studied percussion and worked as a percussionist with the radio orchestras of the NOS. He studied orchestral conducting with EDO DE WAART and DAVID PORCELIJN. From 1994 to 2010 he was chief conductor of the French ORCHESTRE D'AUVERGNE. From 2010 he is chief conductor and artistic director of the ORCHESTRE DE PICARDIE, also in France. In addition, since September 2013, he has the same position at the ORCHESTRE DE CHAMBRE DE GENÈVE. He is the permanent conductor of the DOELENENSEMBLE.
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Arie van Beek studied percussion and worked as a percussionist with the radio orchestras of the NOS. He studied orchestral conducting with EDO DE WAART and DAVID PORCELIJN. From 1994 to 2010 he was chief conductor of the French ORCHESTRE D'AUVERGNE. From 2010 he is chief conductor and artistic director of the ORCHESTRE DE PICARDIE, also in France. In addition, since September 2013, he has the same position at the ORCHESTRE DE CHAMBRE DE GENÈVE. He is the permanent conductor of the DOELENENSEMBLE.

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Emilio Pomàrico (conductor)

Emilio Pomàrico was born in Buenos Aires in 1953 to Italian parents. He began his music studies in Milan, and later was a master student of Franco Ferrara and Sergui Celibidache. Regularly engaged by theaters and Italian concert associations, he quickly became a sought-after conductor for prestigious orchestras and concert halls throughout Europe. Beyond the classical repertoire, from Bach to Webern, Emilio Pomàrico is one of the leading promoters of today’s music. He has conducted contemporary composers such as Xenakis, Carter, Boulez, Nunes, Maderna, Nono, Ligeti, Kurtag, Berio, Donatoni, with the ensemble Moderne (Frankfort), the Ensemble Contrechamps (Geneva), the Nieuw Ensemble (Amsterdam), the Ensemble Recherche (Fribourg), and the Klangforum Wien. Pomàrico conducted the premieres of Quodlibet (1991), Nihil mutantur omnia interit (1996),...
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Emilio Pomàrico was born in Buenos Aires in 1953 to Italian parents. He began his music studies in Milan, and later was a master student of Franco Ferrara and Sergui Celibidache. Regularly engaged by theaters and Italian concert associations, he quickly became a sought-after conductor for prestigious orchestras and concert halls throughout Europe. Beyond the classical repertoire, from Bach to Webern, Emilio Pomàrico is one of the leading promoters of today’s music. He has conducted contemporary composers such as Xenakis, Carter, Boulez, Nunes, Maderna, Nono, Ligeti, Kurtag, Berio, Donatoni, with the ensemble Moderne (Frankfort), the Ensemble Contrechamps (Geneva), the Nieuw Ensemble (Amsterdam), the Ensemble Recherche (Fribourg), and the Klangforum Wien.
Pomàrico conducted the premieres of Quodlibet (1991), Nihil mutantur omnia interit (1996), Musivus (1998) by Emmanuel Nunes and the entire Carceri d’Invenzione by Brian Ferneyhough (1996). In 1997 Pomàrico conducted Coro by Luciano Berio, conducted in Geneva in the composer’s presence, a highly acclaimed performance.
Despite his heavy schedule as a conductor, Emilio Pomàrico continues to compose and teach orchestral conducting at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan.

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Composer(s)

Robin de Raaff

Robin de Raaff (Breda, 1968) discovered his own diverse musical world through playing classical piano as well as bass guitar from a very early age. After being introduced to the legend and legacy of Jaco Pastorius, De Raaff’s musical world expanded explosively as an instrumentalist. Parallel with this early development he created his own music and lyrics for his Band where instrumental sections grew in significance, ultimately in to completely scored instrumental works. These instrumental compositions led him to enrol as a student of composition. De Raaff is of the generation of Dutch composers emerging in the nineties. He first studied composition with Geert van Keulen at the Amsterdam Conservatory and later with Theo Loevendie, graduating cum laude in 1997. Still...
more

Robin de Raaff (Breda, 1968) discovered his own diverse musical world through playing classical piano as well as bass guitar from a very early age. After being introduced to the legend and legacy of Jaco Pastorius, De Raaff’s musical world expanded explosively as an instrumentalist. Parallel with this early development he created his own music and lyrics for his Band where instrumental sections grew in significance, ultimately in to completely scored instrumental works. These instrumental compositions led him to enrol as a student of composition.
De Raaff is of the generation of Dutch composers emerging in the nineties. He first studied composition with Geert van Keulen at the Amsterdam Conservatory and later with Theo Loevendie, graduating cum laude in 1997. Still being a student in 1995 he encountered Pierre Boulez in a Masterclass who praised his String Quartet No. 1 “Athomus” creating a whole new momentum to his development and career. In 1999 De Raaff had the privilege of being invited to work as George Benjamin’s only composition student at the Royal College of Music in London where he also studied with Julian Anderson.
In 2000 De Raaff was invited to the renowned Tanglewood Music Center as the ‘Senior Composition Fellow’ which was the beginning of an ongoing relationship resulting in a series of commissions and performances (Piano Concerto No. 1 for the Festival of Contemporary Music and Entangled Tales for the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and performances of his septet Ennea’s Domein and Un Visage d’Emprunt. For 2015 De Raaff was commissioned to compose a Fanfare dedicated to the 75th Anniversary of the Tanglewood Music Center. His residency at Tanglewood in 2000 was the beginning of a bigger exposure with performances and residencies in North America through festivals and theaters such as: The Aspen Music Festival, Cabrillo Festival (Santa Cruz), State of the Union Festival (London), ISCM World Music Days, The Banff Center, CBC Parry Sound Festival (Ontario), Takefu International Chamber Music Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Ultima Contemporary Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (New York), Betty Oliphant Theatre and Glenn Gould Studio (Toronto).
After a creative period of nearly 10 years, De Raaff finished his first opera RAAFF in 2004, which was commissioned by the Dutch National Opera in a co-production with the Holland Festival. The birth of this opera started with De Raaff’s success at a master class for young composers with Pierre Boulez organised by DNO in 1995.His second opera, also commissioned by DNO, resulted in Waiting for Miss Monroe (2012), which was received with much acclaim by the international press including The New York Times, Der Tagesspiegel and Der Süddeutsche Zeitung.
De Raaff’s Violin Concerto No. 1 “Angelic echoes” (2008, written for Tasmin Little and Jaap van Zweden) was selected as the Best Orchestral Work of the year 2008 in the Dutch composition competition Toonzetters. His special interest in this genre led him to compose many Concertos of which his Percussion Concerto (2014 commissioned by The New Juilliard Ensemble and premiered in Lincoln Center), is the most recent one.
In September 2016, his Oratorio “Atlantis”, an In Memoriam Pierre Boulez, was successfully premiered in Vredenburg, Utrecht (the Netherlands), to date De Raaff’s largest work for the concert stage. Early in 2017, his Symphony No. 4 “Melodies unheard” was premiered during a concert tour with the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra as part of his term as Composer in Residence.
The 2nd Sonata for Violin and Piano “North Atlantic Light” was given its world premiere in the Kurt Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall on the 4th of June 2018. It is based on the famous painting by Willem de Kooning, a fellow countryman of De Raaff. The larger vision on this painting, Violin Concerto No. 2 “North Atlantic Light”, was premiered in the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, both versions were written for Tosca Opdam.
With the recent world premiere of Sfera for large orchestra in the esteemed ZaterdagMatinee, De Raaff finished his Symphony No 5 “Allegory of Time, of which Sfera is movement I and Unisono for large orchestra movement II.
Commissioned by the Holland Festival for their 75th Anniversary De Raaff composed his Piano Concerto No. 2 “Circulus”, premiered by Ralph van Raat, Matthias Pintscher conducting the Radio Filharmonic Oerchestra.
For 22 successive years, De Raaff has been Professor of Composition and Instrumentation at the Composition Department of the University for the Arts in Rotterdam, Codarts.


less

Press

The result is ultimately a very personal kind of expressionism that is never less than impressive and sometimes beautiful, sometimes overwhelmingly violent. The enormous orchestra is handled with extreme virtuosity.
Records International, 28-11-2018

Magnificent how De Raaff, in his Second Symphony, lets the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet rise gently from a mist of high violins and harpses. Or how, in his Fourth Symphony, he translates Emily Dickinson's 'How Still the Bells' into weightless tinker textures.
NRC Handelsblad, 12-9-2018

First of all, there is the Cello Concerto in five movements. Cellist Marien van Staalen, who is also playing on this record, describes the work mainly as innovative and challenging. It is technically very challenging for the musician because different keys and dynamics are interwoven and alternated. This also makes it an exciting exercise for the ear of the listener.
CultuurPakt, 30-8-2018

Expert without being explicitly artful and expressive without becoming theatrical.
Opus Klassiek, 20-6-2018

This recording shows that De Raaf composes the best orchestral music you can imagine today. Extremely solid, convincing, imaginative and powerful neo-expressionist. Impressive! Bravo, Robin!
Stretto, 16-5-2018

Play album Play album
01.
Symphony No. 2 ?Two Worlds Colliding? for saxophone quartet and orchestra: Movement I
07:45
(Robin de Raaff) Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, Radio Kamer Filharmonie
02.
Symphony No. 2 ?Two Worlds Colliding? for saxophone quartet and orchestra: Movement II
08:15
(Robin de Raaff) Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, Radio Kamer Filharmonie
03.
Symphony No. 2 ?Two Worlds Colliding? for saxophone quartet and orchestra: Transition-Movement III
07:31
(Robin de Raaff) Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, Radio Kamer Filharmonie
04.
Symphony No. 1 ?Tanglewood Tales? for large orchestra: Movement I (Untangled Tales)
08:03
(Robin de Raaff) Doelen Ensemble, Orchestre de Picardie
05.
Symphony No. 1 ?Tanglewood Tales? for large orchestra: Movement II (Untangled Tales)
09:01
(Robin de Raaff) Doelen Ensemble, Orchestre de Picardie
06.
Symphony No. 1 ?Tanglewood Tales? for large orchestra: Coda
03:38
(Robin de Raaff) Doelen Ensemble, Orchestre de Picardie
07.
Symphony No. 4 ?Melodies Unheard? a symphony of songs for soprano (or mezzo) and orchestra on poems by Emily Dickinson: I. How Still the Bells
06:41
(Robin de Raaff) Sophia Burgos, Het Gelders Orkest
08.
Symphony No. 4 ?Melodies Unheard? a symphony of songs for soprano (or mezzo) and orchestra on poems by Emily Dickinson: II. Orchestral Interlude
04:47
(Robin de Raaff) Sophia Burgos, Het Gelders Orkest
09.
Symphony No. 4 ?Melodies Unheard? a symphony of songs for soprano (or mezzo) and orchestra on poems by Emily Dickinson: III. Softened By Time?s Consummate Plush
03:48
(Robin de Raaff) Sophia Burgos, Het Gelders Orkest
10.
Symphony No. 4 ?Melodies Unheard? a symphony of songs for soprano (or mezzo) and orchestra on poems by Emily Dickinson: IV. The Farthest Thunder
04:42
(Robin de Raaff) Sophia Burgos, Het Gelders Orkest
11.
Symphony No. 4 ?Melodies Unheard? a symphony of songs for soprano (or mezzo) and orchestra on poems by Emily Dickinson: V. The Nearest Dream Recedes, Unrealized
03:46
(Robin de Raaff) Sophia Burgos, Het Gelders Orkest
12.
Symphony No. 4 ?Melodies Unheard? a symphony of songs for soprano (or mezzo) and orchestra on poems by Emily Dickinson: VI. The Soul Selects Her Own Society
02:23
(Robin de Raaff) Sophia Burgos, Het Gelders Orkest
13.
Symphony No. 4 ?Melodies Unheard? a symphony of songs for soprano (or mezzo) and orchestra on poems by Emily Dickinson: VII. Musicians Wrestle Everywhere
06:52
(Robin de Raaff) Sophia Burgos, Het Gelders Orkest
show all tracks

Often bought together with..

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Dutch National Opera / Netherlands Chamber Orchestra / Marc Albrecht
Various composers
Vriend en Strijd
Combattimento Consort Amsterdam

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