XIII While we are sending you the desired 2nd proof as printed matter, we send our greetings, | [valediction] | Breitkopf & Härtel.”25 The new work appeared in August 1882 under the title Grande Sonate pour le piano. Nouvelle Édition, entièrement transformée par l’Auteur. The structure of the new sonata is clearly distinct in several respects from the early work. The first movement, headed Prélude in the early version, now has more weight; it is considerably more extensive and more amply realized. In particular, the recapitulation (mm. 162ff.) with the return of the main theme in the massive piano movement and the great increase in Lisztian-style virtuosity (mm. 308ff.) after the coda’s entrance (m. 283) show Raff’s quest for monumentality in the new work. In contrast to the tightly-kept furioso close of the early version’s first-movement, he lets the new first movement finish elegiacally and with restraint: After a rem iniscence of the main theme (mm. 318ff.) and a recollection of fragments of the secondary theme (mm. 328ff.), enchanting by the glitter of a high-positioned trill, the movement loses itself in a quietly gliding triplet figure in the bass register. In place of the cocky scherzo in E flat major in the early sona ta, in the late version there is a very fast movement in E flat minor, 6/8-time – repeatedly overlaid by 3/4-time, creating a delightful hov ering – with ghostly whirling corner elements alternating rugged ness and grace. The middle section in major contrasts with flowing sonorous song. The coda leads the movement into E flat minor at the end. In measures 136 to 143 there is a certain resemblance to Gustav Mahler’s mortal-fear-filled Wunderhorn Lied, Das irdische Leben, likewise in E flat minor. Again, Raff executed the B major Larghetto of the late version considerably more expansively than the A-flat major Romanza of the early version. Whereas there, he had furnished the song with operatic pathos, here he combines vocal melody with the meas ured and grave movement of a sarabande. An uplifting low-register middle section (mm. 86–142) in b minor – the “black key,” accord ing to Beethoven – gradually grows into grandiosity and uses motifs of the framing sections. In the end, the B minor middle sec tion also turns to B major, and the light closing sounds open a bright perspective. The finale in E flat major gives broad space to this bright perspective. All themes of the extensive movement are in major. The powerful and energetic main theme (mm. 5ff.) and the carefree singing secondary theme (mm. 33ff.) establish a consistently se rene, relaxed conclusion. The fugal middle section (mm. 149–231), in which Raff unfolds his love of contrapuntal style with another highly tempered subject, contributes to the movement’s momen tum. An enthusiastic coda bringing up another theme (mm. 376ff.) concludes the work in stark contrast to the tragically gloomy end of the early sonata op. 14. The present edition follows the first editions of the three sonatas. The Editorial Notes give information about the guidelines of the edition and individual editorial decisions. My warm thanks go to Severin Kolb, Director of the Archive of the Joachim-Raff-Gesell schaft in Lachen, for invaluable information and for the provision of materials for the sonatas. Furthermore, I thank Dr. Roland SchmidtHensel, Deputy Director of the Mendelssohn-Archiv of the Staats bibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, for information on letters by Raff. Berlin, July 2018
Ulrich Mahlert
1 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Sämtliche Briefe, volume 9: September 1842 to December 1843, ed. and annotated by Stefan Münnich, Lucian Schiwietz and Uta Wald with the collaboration of Ingrid Jach, Kassel etc., 2015, p. 419. 2 Albert Schäfer: Chronologisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der Werke Joachim Raff’s mit Einschluß der verloren gegangenen, unveröffentlichten und nachgelassenen Kompositionen des Meisters. Unter genauer Angabe der Beschaffenheit, der Umarbeitungen und Übertragungen bearbeitet, sowie mit historischen Anmerkungen versehen, Wiesbaden, 1888. 3 Quoted from: Helene Raff: Joachim Raff. Ein Lebensbild, Regensburg, 1925, p. 198. 4 Ibid., pp. 225f. 5 Ibid., p. 255. 6 Ibid., p. 227. 7 Otis B. Boise: An American Composer visits Liszt, in: The Musical Quarterly 43 (1957), no. 3, pp. 324f. 8 Die Wagnerfrage. Kritisch beleuchtet von Joachim Raff, Braunschweig, 1854. 9 Manuscript letter, Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt a. M., Raff Briefe A 013. The quotation can also be found, with a number of tran scription errors, in: Markus Römer, loc. cit., p. 59. 10 Franz Liszt und Joachim Raff im Spiegel ihrer Briefe. Mitgeteilt von Helene Raff, in: Die Musik, vol. 1 (1901), quarter 1, issue 2, p. 116. Likewise in: Helene Raff: Joachim Raff, loc. cit., p. 51. 11 Helene Raff, loc. cit., p. 206. 12 Letter to Joachim Raff, Vienna, 6 August 1846, in: Franz Liszt und Joachim Raff im Spiegel ihrer Briefe, loc. cit., p. 113. 13 Robert Schumann: Neue Sonaten für das Pianoforte (1841), in: id.: Gesammelte Schriften über Musik und Musiker, reprint, Leipzig, 1854, with an afterword by Gerd Nauhaus and an index by Ingeborg Singer, Wiesbaden, 1985, vol. 4, p. 17. 14 Hermann Kretzschmar: Die Klaviermusik seit R. Schumann (1882), in: id.: Gesammelte Aufsätze über Musik, vol. I, Leipzig, 1910, p. 93. 15 Unprinted manuscript letter, Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv, shelfmark GSA 59/106. 16 Ibid. 17 Unprinted manuscript letter, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, 55 Nachl. 100, letter no. 49487 (temporary shelfmark). 18 Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart: Ideen zu einer Ästhetik der Tonkunst, Vienna, 1806, reprint (with preliminary remarks and index by Fritz and Margit Kaiser) Hildesheim, 2013, p. 378. 19 Helene Raff, loc. cit., p. 194. 2 0 Ibid., p. 188. 2 1 Indicated should be the detailed study by Matthias Wiegandt: Mehr Fantasie oder mehr Sonate? Historische und analytische Überlegungen zu Joachim Raffs op. 168, in: Joachim Raff: Fantasie-Sonate für Klavier d-Moll, op. 168, ed. by Volker Tosta, Stuttgart, 1996, pp. III–VI. 2 2 Helene Raff, loc., cit., p. 250. 2 3 Original of the letter in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Raffiana VIII, Mappe “Breitkopf & Härtel.” 24 Ibid. 2 5 Ibid.