Is there any information regarding if Tchaikovsky has ever met fellow
composer Joachim Raff? Or even been familiar with his music? Thanks!
Tchaikovsky was indeed familiar with Joachim Raff's music, as is
evidenced by his review of Nikolai Rubinstein's performance of the Im Walde
Symphony at the Russian Musical Society's fifth symphony concert in Moscow
on 13 December 1872:
"The most important work on this concert's programme was Raff's Im
Walde Symphony. I have already had occasion to point out the significance
of this composer with regard to a string quartet of his which was
performed at one of the Russian Musical Society's chamber music concerts,
and now, with regard to his new symphony, which has attracted the
attention of the whole musical world and is performed successfully in all
the major music centres, I would like to discuss his career in more
detail.
"Ever since death, with such untimely haste, struck down Mendelssohn
and Schumann ... no creative talent has appeared yet in the field of
symphonic music of whom one could say that he had begun a new artistic era
... among the now living composers there is not a single one who .. is not
an imitator of one or the other—and often of both at the same time—of
these two great symphonists of the modern age. ... There are only two
symphonic composers in our times whom I could point to as standing out
quite vividly against the greyish backcloth of modern music-making: they
are Anton Rubinstein and Raff.
"The latter is considerably inferior to Rubinstein in terms of the
strength and originality of his talent, but he does surpass him in
technical craftsmanship, in the ability to achieve a wholeness of form and
the working out of the constituent details. Raff has attained his high
position amongst contemporary composers and secured success for his music
through assiduous hard work and by vigorously fighting against his natural
shortcomings, in particular the poverty of his inventive faculty. But what
is there that cannot be achieved by earnest hard work?! Raff, by gradually
perfecting his naturally limited gifts, has obtained brilliant results,
and I am hardly mistaken in calling his latest symphony the finest of all
the symphonies that have been written in the past decade. It is
considerably better than another symphony by the same composer, entitled
An das Vaterland, which is remarkable in some of its episodes but is
altogether too long and uneven in form.
"In the first movement of his new symphony, which is meant to give a
musical illustration of the various impressions one may have when walking
through woodland, Raff attempts to convey the feelings that the quiet of a
forest at midday can awaken in the wanderer. Both of the main themes of
this Allegro are indeed pervaded by a sense of quiet, serene enjoyment of
a peaceful forest landscape. The quietness is but fleetingly interrupted
by the rustling of leaves as a gentle breeze sweeps through; from afar we
vaguely hear the call of a shepherd's horn which is answered by some other
distant calls from elsewhere, and then we are back again in the
imperturbable quiet of the forest thicket… For the benefit of the
specialists, I should like to point out the charming detail of how an
orchestral pedal note effect is repeated several times in the treble clef,
in both the tonic and the dominant, whereby the strings, gradually
becoming quieter, modulate across various keys and finally fade away in
the tonic triad.
"The second movement (Andante) is the best one in the whole symphony.
It is based on a delightful cantilena which is splendidly harmonized and
adorned with an incredibly felicitous instrumentation. A particularly
enchanting effect is produced when the main melody appears for the last
time in the violas and cellos, accompanied by the violins con sordino.
This movement fully manages to convey the vague, sweet emotions which one
feels at dusk amidst the darkness of a forest. The Scherzo is meant to
illustrate a fantastic Dance of the Dryads. This movement went down
especially well with the audience thanks to the spicy instrumentation that
successfully camouflaged the rather wishy-washy themes, which were not at
all original and even lacked the fantastic aura required of the composer
for a scene of this kind.
"In the loud and striking Finale we are shown a wild hunt galloping
through the forest with brilliant fanfares and cries of frenetic high
spirits. The themes are not particularly novel, but characteristic all the
same. Their development is most interesting, and the orchestration is
colourful and accomplished. Then the hunting party vanishes in the
distance, quietness descends again on the forest, and the rays of the
rising sun drive away the darkness of night. The symphony closes with a
triumphantly radiant theme, which is quite appropriately played by the
four French horns and leaves the listeners with an impression of the
mighty beauty of the bright daylight that is shining on eternally
beautiful Nature."
This is high praise indeed, considering Tchaikovsky's rather jaundiced
view of his German contemporaries. I haven't been able to find this review
on the Tchaikovsky Research site, so I've quoted it here in case you haven't
seen it. It doesn't answer your enquiry as to whether the two composers
actually met, of course.