Leopold Friedrich Raab


Leopold Friedrich Raab was a German composer and violinist of the baroque to early classical era.
Raab was born in Glogau. He studied for several years at the leopoldinum In this particular quartet, Raab must have played either viola or violetta.
In 1753 he was employed as Konzertmeister at the Hofkapelle of Karl Friedrich Albrecht, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt in Berlin. After the death of the Margrave in 1762, he acquired the position of chamber musician and director of music at the court of Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia. In 1784, he was recorded as living in Mauerstraße.
His date of death is unknown.
His son, Ernst Heinrich Otto, having learnt the violin from his father, also became a distinguished violinist and was appointed as a chamber musician to the emperor of Russia.

Works

Raab was said to have composed numerous concertos, sonatas and sinfonias during his time in Berlin, as well as many good "things" for the violin, however it seems that most of his music has not survived, or remains undiscovered. His only known works to have survived are two violin concertos for which the manuscripts can be found in the archive of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin which was rediscovered in 2000.