Radio Kamer Filharmonie, Orchestre de Picardie, Het GelderS Orkest, Doelen Ensemble, Rascher Saxophone Quartet, Emilio Pomarico, Arie van Beek, Antonello Manacorda & Sophia Burgos - Raaff: Melodies Unheard

A Live recording of Robin de Raaff's Symphonies Nos. 1,2 and 4 performed by soprano Sophia Burgos, Radio Kamer Filharmonie, Orchestre de Picardie, Het Gelders Orkest, Doelen Ensemble and the Rascher Saxophone Quartet.

This is the third release by Challenge Classics devoted to the Dutch composer Robin de Raaff, whose orchestral and operatic output has been progressively drawing the attention of the musical world. De Raaff's 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. He shies away from prescribed forms and developments, a recapitulated theme followed by various movements with different characters. 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.

De Raaff is currently the Coordinator of the Composition Department at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music (Codarts) where he has been a Professor of Composition and Orchestration since 2001.