Ferdinand Ries: Piano Sonatas

Ferdinand Ries was one of the few real protégés of the loner Beethoven. Beethoven's influence certainly shows in the piano music here, written during the first decade of the nineteenth century. The early to middle transitional Beethoven provided the models for Ries; anyone expecting an undiscovered "Waldstein" Sonata will naturally enough be disappointed, but the "Moonlight" certainly exerted its pull on Beethoven's Bonn-born student in its free treatment of the piano sonata's movement order. Two sonatas, both hopefully ... Read More

Ferdinand Ries was one of the few real protégés of the loner Beethoven. Beethoven's influence certainly shows in the piano music here, written during the first decade of the nineteenth century. The early to middle transitional Beethoven provided the models for Ries; anyone expecting an undiscovered "Waldstein" Sonata will naturally enough be disappointed, but the "Moonlight" certainly exerted its pull on Beethoven's Bonn-born student in its free treatment of the piano sonata's movement order. Two sonatas, both hopefully designated "grande," appear here, and each has an unusual movement. The finale of the Grande Sonate Fantaisie "L'infortune" in F sharp minor, Op. 26 (note the terminological similarity to the "Moonlight") rambles and does not support its more-than-13-minute length. With the odd Tempo di Minuetto second movement of the Grande Sonate in D major, Op. 9, however, Ries hits on something original. It is far from a conventional minuet, and even from the barkingly funny minuets Beethoven wrote... Read Less