ROBIN DE RAAFF (b.1968): Piano Concerto (Ralph van Raat [piano], Radio Chamber Orchestra; Peter Eötvös), Concerto for Orchestra (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; George Benjamin), Unisono (RCO; Ed Spanjaard).

Catalogue Number: 06I107

Label: Etcetera

Reference: KTC 1309

Format: CD

Price: $17.98

No Longer Available

Description: Broadly speaking, to characterise De Raaff's music, one might suggest Stravinskyan rhythmical structures superimposed upon sumptuous late-romantic reinterpretation of serial ideas typical of Berg. Architectural analogies also come to mind; the development of fluid, self-elevating structures from geometrically strict formulas. Often, as in the piano concerto or the opening of Unisono, scalic material is developed from an initially very limited compass of pitches which then expand organically, or geometrically, emphasizing ever widening intervals - here one thinks of cell division (which, musically speaking, is very much what is going on). There is also a strong sense of dialogue - between soloist and ensemble in the piano concerto; between groupings within the orchestra (which audibly pay tribute to Bartók's analogous work) in the concerto for orchestra. This organizational clarity and the avoidance of extended playing techniques lends these works a sense of dialectical integrity and development and thus one is more aware of musical argument and less of the modernity of the idiom than in many recent contemporary works utilizing large orchestral forces.

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