Raff: Complete Piano Suites, Vol. 1

Joachim Raff was a largely self-taught composer whose style stands somewhere between the German traditionalism of Schumann and the newer school of Wagner. Raff composed seven Suites for Piano, a form he preferred to the sonata, and this provided him with greater freedom as a composer, resulting in his most substantial contribution to the piano literature. This is reflected in the Mendelssohn-like lyricism of the First Suite; contrasts between Baroque and Romantic styles in the Third Suite, a piece admired by Liszt; and more nationalist inclinations in the memorably melodic Fifth Suite.