Ralph Van Raat
Pianist and musicologist Ralph van Raat, like his near-contemporary Steffen Schleiermacher, is in the unusual position of having established a thriving, major international performing career focusing entirely on music of the 20th and 21st centuries. He has been a passionate advocate of new works and has performed the premieres of numerous pieces by living composers, some of which were written especially for him. With few exceptions, he has gravitated toward the music of postmodernist and eclectic composers rather than the more cerebral modernists of the mid-20th century.
Van Raat was born in the Netherlands in 1978 and studied piano and musicology at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. He went on to study with Ursula Oppens and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, both renowned specialists in the modern and contemporary repertoire that has dominated his career. He has received numerous international honors, including winning the Stipend-Prize Darmstadt, the Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition, and a Borletti-Buitoni Fellowship.
Van Raat tends to be a completist, learning a composer's complete set of works for piano, so what his catalog may lack in breadth and diversity is offset by its depth. His repertoire includes the complete solo piano works of Adams, Andriessen, Harvey, Lindberg, Takemitsu, and Tavener, and well as lesser-known composers like Theo Loevendie, Joep Franssens, and Guus Janssen. Van Raat's concerto repertoire is also focused almost exclusively on modern and contemporary works, an exception being Debussy's Fantaisie pour piano et orchestre, and it is heavily weighted toward works of the late 20th and early 21st century. Giel Vleggaar, Tan Dun, and Gavin Bryars have written concertos for him, both of which he has recorded, and he played the premiere of Frederic Rzewski's concerto Hard Cuts, also written for him. Orchestras with which he has performed include the BBC Symphony, the London Sinfonietta, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Van Raat has been an exclusive recording artist for Naxos since 2006, though he has recorded for other labels, including Attacca and EtCetera. He has recorded the complete piano works of Adams, Andriessen, Lindberg, and Tavener. In 2009, Naxos released a boxed set of all of the albums he had recorded for the label. In 2020, van Raat issued French Piano Rarities, featuring works by Boulez, Debussy, Messiaen, and Ravel.
Van Raat teaches piano at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and regularly gives master classes around Europe.
© Stephen Eddins /TiVo
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Tan Dun: Piano Music
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jun. 10, 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
French Piano Rarities
Classical - Released by Naxos on May 22, 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Franssens: Journey Under Brilliant Skies, Three Etudes, Old Songs, New Songs
Classical - Released by Etcetera on Jun. 1, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Franssens: Piano Works - The Gift of Song / Winter Child
Classical - Released by Etcetera on Feb. 9, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Musique pour piano
Classical - Released by Naxos on Sep. 6, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Musique pour piano (Intégrale)
Ralph Van Raat, Maarten van Veen
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jan. 29, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Les heures persanes
Classical - Released by Naxos on Apr. 5, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Halo
Ilonka Kolthof, Ralph Van Raat
Classical - Released by TRPTK on Nov. 22, 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Artist Profile Series - Van Raat, Ralph
Classical - Released by Naxos on May 26, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concerto pour piano
Ralph Van Raat, Cappella Amsterdam, Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, Otto Tausk
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jan. 31, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Daan Manneke: Grote archipel, Polychroon & Blues for Marcel (Live)
Ralph Van Raat, Geoffrey Douglas Madge, Kelvin Grout, Hannes Minnaar, Jelena Bazova, Daniel Krämer
Classical - Released by Zefir Records on Nov. 15, 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Das Buch der Klänge (1979-82)
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jun. 15, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Incises (2001 Revised Version)
Classical - Released by Naxos on May 22, 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Frederic Rzewski: 4 Pieces, Hard Cuts & The Housewife's Lament
Ralph Van Raat, Lunapark, Arnold Marinissen
Classical - Released by Naxos on Aug. 5, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Arr. V. Leyetchkiss for Piano) - Debussy: La mer, L. 109 (Arr. L. Garban for Piano)
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jan. 12, 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
RZEWSKI: The People United will never be Defeated
Classical - Released by Naxos on Mar. 25, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Spaan: Ellips
The Barton Workshop, Bart Spaan, Ralph Van Raat
Classical - Released by Etcetera on Sep. 1, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Musique pour piano (Intégrale)
Ralph Van Raat, Maarten van Veen
Classical - Released by Naxos on Sep. 19, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Musique pour piano
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jun. 2, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Erik Lotichius: Chamber Music
Ralph Van Raat, Zephyr Quartet, Lilian Lotichius, Inez Lotichius, Pauline Lotichius
Classical - Released by Donemus Composers' Voice on Jul. 1, 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fingerprints
Classical - Released by Donemus Musicians' Voice on Sep. 29, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo