Admirers of the German-Swiss composer Joachim Raff (1822–82) rejoiced in the early 2000s when three discs of his string quartets – signalling complete cycles by both the Quartetto di Milano (Tudor) and Mannheimer Streichquartett (CPO) – appeared in quick succession. And though the Mannheim Quartet (Andreas Krecher and Shinkyung Kim, violin; Niklas Schwarz, viola; Armin Fromm, cello) recorded additional selections a few years after the release of their first disc in 2004 (which coupled Nos. 6 and 7), it has taken more than a decade for their second instalment to arrive.Footnote ¹ It has been well worth the wait, as the performances positively sizzle, demonstrating that Raff’s quartets deserve much wider dissemination than they have seen so far.

A prolific and eclectic composer, Raff wavered between the ‘traditional’ German school, earning the praise of Mendelssohn, and the New German School, earning the support of Liszt. Raff seemed poised to take up the mantle of the New Germans, following Liszt to Weimar, but he became critical of Wagner and increasingly attracted to traditional formal models as well as popular salon music. In 1856 he left Weimar for Wiesbaden, going on to considerable success as a composer. The first of Raff’s eight published string quartets date from his Weimar period (1855), with the second (1857) composed in Wiesbaden. Raff’s next burst of quartet writing occurred during the winter of 1866–67, when he composed three quartets (opp. 136–138) in a matter of weeks during an illness.Footnote ² Three final quartets were composed during the winter of 1873–74 and published as op. 192. Raff’s quartets fall then into three distinct periods, each represented on this recording. The first five quartets all have the standard four-movement format (with the slow movement as the third), with each of the final three cumulatively increasing in size by the addition of one movement.

The Second Quartet op. 90 shows Raff still heavily influenced by the New German School, with its extended chromaticism and oversized form. The Mannheim Quartet takes a broad and expansive view of this work, with their performance clocking in at 40:44 – almost two-and-a-half minutes longer than the Quartetto di Milano’s recording (Tudor 7116). Much of that extra time is consumed by the third movement (marked Langsam, doch nicht schleppend), in which the Mannheim Quartet’s tempo is quite listless – one of their few missteps that leaves this attractive movement lacking direction. Substantially better is the Mannheim Quartet’s swift and nimble reading of the second movement (Rasch), a shimmering confection with its ‘colourful jumble of trills and harmonics in the second violin’.Footnote ³ The outer movements are more stolid: the quartet opens with a ‘dignified’Footnote ⁴ sonata-allegro that suffers from an excess of themes, while the final movement stretches its melodic material too thinly.

Stylistically, Raff’s quartets regress over time, and the ‘middle quartets’ (opp. 136–138) are less harmonically complex and more classical in their style and proportions than his earlier efforts. While these quartets have been criticized as fairly lightweight (Wilhelm Altmann called them ‘decidedly inferior’ to the first two quartetsFootnote ⁵ ), they are tightly constructed and display a skilful clarity of form. They also show the influence of Mendelssohn – particularly the Third Quartet op. 136, with spritely figures scattered throughout the fast movements, played here with elfin delicacy. The third movement (Andante con moto) starts with a rustic theme, played in unison octaves at the low end of each instrument’s range, followed by a set of variations that enables Raff to smartly diversify the instrumentation. The movement’s hymn-like ending lasts only 30 bars, but the Mannheim Quartet spins this out to two minutes of serene bliss.

The gem here is Raff’s Fourth Quartet op. 137, which opens full force with offbeat rhythms in the middle voices propelling the music forward while the first violin’s sweeping melody soars above. Raff frequently doubles the melody in octaves via different pairs of instruments in this movement: a most effective instance occurs in the development, when the second violin joins the viola after the first iteration of the melody, played with stunning ethereality. The second movement – the shortest of the scherzos here – is deftly handled, setting up the sublime third movement (Andante), the only instance in Raff’s four-movement quartets cast in a minor key (D minor). The Mannheim Quartet is true to the marking of dolce, malinconico, suffusing the entire movement with serene pathos. This movement also allows the inner voices to shine, with Kim and Schwarz producing rich and expressive textures throughout. Raff adds a bit of formal variety along with a touch of humour in the final movement: it begins quasi Recitativo followed by a return to material from the first movement. The Presto seems to start in earnest only to break off again with a return of material from the third movement before finally settling in to the Presto proper.

Stylistically regressing even further, Raff’s final set of quartets harks back to the Baroque with ‘the character of the nostalgically retrospective, revitalizing ancient forms and conjuring older compositional styles’.Footnote ⁶ Though cast in Baroque forms, the seven-movement Eighth Quartet (‘Suite in Kanon-Form’, op. 192, no. 3) is filtered through a nineteenth-century lens, and the Mannheim Quartet tinges its interpretation with a Romantic flavour. The high point is the fourth movement, Arie, a double canon in A-flat major, which is treated here with substantial gravitas.

Throughout the recording, the Mannheim Quartet plays with a warm, balanced sound (the Quartetto di Milano, by comparison, sounds overly dry, with the first violin frequently overpowering the rest of the strings). Accompanimental figures and brief snippets of melodic material pass among the instruments seamlessly, so that everything sounds organic and cohesive. The recordings are not only a joy to listen to but also make a convincing case that Raff’s quartets deserve to be performed with more regularity. Many ensembles study and perform only a limited number of quartets (particularly from the nineteenth century), and it would be worthwhile for them to diversify their repertoire, adding at least one of Raff’s well-crafted quartets to their arsenal. Matthias Wiegandt’s engaging liner notes round out a thoroughly satisfying recording.