Violinist Laura Zarina performs Canzona by Joachim Raff

Watch more videos here

Laura Zarina and pianist Lea Lee perform Canzona by Joachim Raff. Recorded in late 2022, the performance honours the composer Raff, who was born 200 years ago in 1822.

’What I enjoy about Raff’s music, is his personally spiced harmonies in the broad corsage of Romanticism,’ Zarina told The Strad. ’This piece is only the beginning of discovering his oeuvre and as I find - a beautiful encore.’

Canzona is the fifth movement from Raff’s Six Marceaux pour Violon et Piano op.85. Zarina has chosen to focus on Raff, who was the first director of Dr Hoch’s Conservatory in Frankfurt, where Zarina teaches violin. Founded in 1878 by Dr. Joseph Hoch, the conservatory was open to all, with artists such as Clara Schumann, Julius Stockhausen and Engelbert Humperdinck serving on the teaching faculty.

In addition to her teaching position at Dr Hoch’s Conservatory, Zarina also teaches at University of Arts in Berlin.