Joachim Raff was a promising composer in Germany in the mid-1800's, but chose his own path. Criticized by both the schools of Wagner and Brahms, Raff's music fell into obscurity in the 1900's, even though it shows great promise and much of the fine technique of the romantic era. Today we look at his Metamorphosen, the third of his 3 Klavier-Soli, Op.74.

While this collection of short piano pieces has an opus number that reflects publication a few years later, this work is from a period in Raff's life where he more closely identified with the Wagner school of German composition. Listening to the music, one hears influences of Liszt. The works were dedicated to Raff's great champion, Hans von Bülow, and the Metamorphosen was first performed with Bülow at the piano in 1859.

This work (the third of the three pieces), opens with a simple seven note melodic idea, which becomes the basis of almost 15 minutes of variation - the most complex and showy of the three pieces, by far. The theme is introduced with the first five notes in unison between the hands, leading to very open-voiced chords for the last two notes.

Raff quickly beings to experiment with these ideas - each iteration of the theme becomes more complex. The variations quickly evolve to a flashy selection of arpeggiated chords and runs, before Raff puts on the brakes with an Adagio section that moves us (by way of a section marked quasi fantasia) from A♭ Major to B Major.

Suddenly, we turn to a Vivace section, which leads to a low rumbling, at the bottom of the keyboard range, that introduces a cadenza-like section, moving back to a more recognizable version of our theme with arpegiatted triplet chords throughout. We hear a grand statement of the original theme again, with flourishes and grand chord gestures that bring us to a wonderful close.

We've only found once commercial recording of this work, by Tra Nguyen, as part of a collection of Raff's complete piano works