Joachim Raff’s Fifth Symphony “Lenore” op. 177, composed in 1872, reveals the composer as a representative of the middle ground between Neo-German aesthetics and the symphonic tradition. It owes its name to G. A. Bürger’s ballade, which is the programmatic basis of the final movement.

Using this literary model, Raff oriented himself to the Berlioz “program symphonies” and the Liszt symphonic-poem concept, on the one hand, but on the other, he let the three preceding movements follow tradition...