Ries Piano Concerti

[Droell]

I heard that Howard Griffiths & the Zurich Orchestra were going to do the piano concerti of Ferdinand Ries, but it looks as if Uwe Grodd, Christopher Hinterhuber & the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra have beat them to it. In November, or so they tell me, Naxos will release Ries's 8th piano concerto, Le Salut au Rhin. Here is a link to the http://www.uwe-grodd.com/ries_en.html first movement</a>. (This seems to work best on Internet Explorer.)

This doesn't sound very much like Beethoven to me. Which, as I've heard stuff in this general style before, brings up the question, did Ries invent this style, or did he find it ready-made when he got to London? It seems to have been at least as much an influence on Mendelssohn & Chopin as Beethoven himself.

[This message has been edited by Droell (edited 08-09-2005).]

[Droell]

(Hit the wrong button to edit my original post, apologies.)

[This message has been edited by Droell (edited 08-09-2005).]

[Droell]

[This message has been edited by Droell (edited 08-09-2005).]

[gprengel]

Thank you, Droell, for the link. Eventhough the concerto indeed does nor sound like Beethoven, it has some wonderful lyrical passages which I enjoyed very much! This makes me curious for the other concertos by Ries. By the way, I once heard a piano concerto by a son of Mozart which was in pretty similiar style which also was very enjoyable - I love this early romantic period...

Regards
Gerd

[Hofrat]

Originally posted by Droell:
I heard that Howard Griffiths & the Zurich Orchestra were going to do the piano concerti of Ferdinand Ries, but it looks as if Uwe Grodd, Christopher Hinterhuber & the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra have beat them to it. In November, or so they tell me, Naxos will release Ries's 8th piano concerto, Le Salut au Rhin. Here is a link to the http://www.uwe-grodd.com/ries_en.html first movement</a>. (This seems to work best on Internet Explorer.)

This doesn't sound very much like Beethoven to me. Which, as I've heard stuff in this general style before, brings up the question, did Ries invent this style, or did he find it ready-made when he got to London? It seems to have been at least as much an influence on Mendelssohn & Chopin as Beethoven himself.

[This message has been edited by Droell (edited 08-09-2005).]

Are we talking about the piano concerto in C# minor opus 55? If so, I have it on CD (VoxBox CDX 5111) with Maria Littauer on the piano and Alois Springer conducting the Hamburg Symphony.

Ries' 8 symphonies sound far more Beethovian (all avalable on CD), one of which even has a funeral march in it. One does not have to guess where that idea came from!

BTW, Ferdinand Ries conducted the first non-Austrian performance of Beethoven's 9th. Also on the program was one of Ries' symphonies.

Hofrat

[Droell]

Originally posted by Hofrat:

Are we talking about the piano concerto in C# minor opus 55? If so, I have it on CD (VoxBox CDX 5111) with Maria Littauer on the piano and Alois Springer conducting the Hamburg Symphony.

Ries' 8 symphonies sound far more Beethovian (all avalable on CD), one of which even has a funeral march in it. One does not have to guess where that idea came from!

BTW, Ferdinand Ries conducted the first non-Austrian performance of Beethoven's 9th. Also on the program was one of Ries' symphonies.

Hofrat

Hello Hofrat,

I have the op. 55 concerto, released years ago on black vinyl. Grove says concerto no. 8 is op. 151. In an interview, the artists say no. 8 will be released with no. 1.

The Ries symphony with a funeral march is his first, and the march was taken from Beethoven's op. 26. Cheating, of course.

I distinguish three periods in Ries's music: Early student days where everything sounds like Beethoven on the cheap.

The London days, which sound like proto-Mendelssohn or proto-Chopin. Someone said the style was similar to Hummel. As he's only 6 years older than Ries, it's interesting to speculate whose style it really was, or if it was developed in tandem.

A third style, very late in life, sunk in a depression where he no longer thought anyone cared. If the last two movements of his last symphony are anything to go by, he was writing his best music.

Ries got Beethoven the commission for the 9th, not surprising he would conduct it. According to Grove, Ries gave the second performance outside Austria (23 May 1825), the first having been only two months before. Ries omitted the Scherzo & part of the Adagio.

The surprising thing about Ries is that after he got to London, he stopped parroting Ludwig, and, more surprisingly, became part of a stylistic movement that appears to have been less dramatic, but more flashy, than Beethoven. It's as if Beethoven was an anomaly.