Fanfare, Raymond Tuttle, Jan-Feb 2010Here’s another helping of Ries’s pieces from cpo. I suppose that Ries’s ghost is hovering benignly over cpo’s corporate offices in acknowledgement of what the label has done for the composer’s music over the past various years. As I’ve said before in these pages, Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838) is most famous for being Beethoven’s pupil, factotum, and friend. Some of Ries’s music sounds a lot like Beethoven’s, and a lithograph of Ries, printed in cpo’s booklet, proposes that they even looked similar. The two concertos on this CD were composed around 1811, after his professional kinship (but not his friendship) with Beethoven had come to an end. The two overtures are much later works. His initial opera, Die Räuberbraut, was composed in 1827, and was premiered the following year in Frankfurt am Main. As often times happens, the Overture achieved some success as an independent work. His second opera, Liska, oder Die Hexe von Gyllensteen, was commissioned by the Royal Adelphi Theatre in London, where it was premiered in 1831. Ries’s mind, at least as far as composition was concerned, was not a brilliantly firstborn one, but he was a fine craftsman whose music offers some delights even today. The Double Horn Concerto is conventionally outdoorsy, but Ries allows the two soloists not just to coexist in brotherly harmony, but likewise to strike sparks off one another. In fact, this Concerto was composed for two horn-playing brothers: Johann Gottfried and Johann Michael Schuncke, who played in the Kassel court orchestra. The use of natural horns on this recording is authentic, and allows for the production of a good deal of delightfully buzzy timbres. As for the Violin Concerto, it is basi motion is perchance too conventional–no echoes of Beethoven here!–but the second motion sings sweetly and strikingly, and the third is a bouncy Rondeau. Chronologically, this Concerto is closer to Beethoven’s, but now and then it sounds more like Mendelssohn’s E-Minor Concerto, which wasn’t premiered until 1845!
Ferdinand Ries Double Horn Concerto Photo
Ferdinand Ries Double Horn Concerto Picture
Ferdinand Ries Double Horn Concerto Photo
Ferdinand Ries Double Horn Concerto Photo
Ferdinand Ries Double Horn Concerto Picture
Ferdinand Ries Double Horn Concerto Pic
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
 This is outstanding music with regretable soloists
By S. M. Struhl
Ries is sorely under-rated as a composer, and reasons for this are not clear. Yes, he was not Beethoven, but then who was? However, Ries was an amazingly gifted composer who wrote music that is compelling and memorable. His music does not always have the intense concentration of material that we find in Beethoven, but it still gives great enjoyment and grows on repeated hearings. The orchestra in this recording is a little “scrappy” at times, but the problems lie mainly with the soloists. The horns play in time and are someplace around the right notes, but not always on them, and that is unfortunate. The violinist sounds better in the lower registers, but in higher passages can sound thin. Maybe it is the recording, but the sound of the soloists is not always pleasing, which is the final test. Some reviewers unfairly knocked Ries as a composer because they did not like the performances, and that is not fair. There are remarkable passages in all these works–and even times when you will listen and say, “Beethoven could have written that.” But Ries was more than a mere imitator, much as he easily worked in Beethoven’s style, as much of his music looks forward to the “Romantic” style and can at times put you in mind of Chopin or Schumann. All in all, his work is a fascinating amalgam, and his inspiration and skill are definitely make his music well worth knowing. Although we are in the midst of a minor rediscovery of Ries (thanks mostly to Naxos), it is not certain when these pieces will receive a better treatment, if ever. So if you want to hear these pieces, this may be your best chance.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
 DON’T CONFUSE THE COMPOSER WITH THE PERFORMANCE
By Thomas Andrewws
While it’s true that this recording is less than stellar, I think the criticism of Ries’ music itself, apart from this particular performance, is unjustified. Except for Franz Schubert, comparisons of composers of this era with the Olympic Beethoven are impossible. In fairness to Ries, can you name another composer who could successfully write in the style Beethoven? The first time I heard a Ries piano concerto I remarked to a friend, “My God, it sounds as if Beethoven had a little brother!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
 Great Music at mediocre performance
By D.K.
This is my 5th purchase of Ries music I discoveed recently. The others are four CD’s of his piano concertos which I love. The Double Horns and Violin concerti sound like being played by high-school amatures and not by professional players. The music is very nice but I would be looking for a better recording.
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